9624837 Alleyne This CAREER award will investigate the research issues associated with control of fluid power actuator systems to take advantage of their favorable load to power ratios, while improving their linear-like behavior. The educational plan has two goals: developing a fluid power laboratory that integrates the research and learning experiences for undergraduate and graduate students, and a plan to increase underrepresented minorities in engineering. The project will develop a standard set of advanced control algorithms for generic fluid power systems, they will be implemented using open architecture approaches on hydraulic machine tool drives. The target manufacturing applications are high performance drilling and new parallel-link manipulator drives. The fluid power laboratory development is strongly supported by industry, and will enhance the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's control and manufacturing offerings. In addition, the laboratory plays an important role in the plan to attract and provide opportunities for underrepresented minorities, both through existing organizations like the local Boys and Girls Club and establishing an association for African-American graduate students in science and engineering. The impact of this innovative project will be technical developments that can be used to design faster, safer and higher performance manufacturing machines and systems. The educational plan will produce engineers experienced in the advances and limitations of high performance fluid drive systems, and provide a more diverse and technically competitive workforce.
