This CAREER project develops a systematic and unified methodology for control of mechanical and structural systems such that an integrated design of plant parameters and control parameters is achieved to provide optimized total systems; low-order controllers are obtained to satisfy hardware and control implementation constraints; special mathematical form of structural system models is exploited to provide simplified design schemes and simpler control laws; saturation constraints and control-loop time-delays are taken into account explicitly in the design process; and innovative computational algorithms using a unified Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) based formulation are developed. The education component seeks to address some important challenges in the effective teaching and training of students and practicing engineers in the systems and controls field today. In particular, the education goals of this career plan are the following: (i) to promote an interdisciplinary systems and controls education at the university of Houston (UH) by fostering cross-departmental teaching activities, (ii) to contribute to the continuing education of practicing control engineers that are disconnected from the rapid changes and advances in the field, (iii) to provide industry's perspectives in systems and control education and to address real-world problems in the systems and controls curriculum, and (iv) to attract freshmen students into control engineering and to motivate high-school students towards science and engineering. A project on control of plasma process is used as a demonstration paradigm for the interdisciplinary teaching of systems and controls at UH. This education project will be pursued in collaboration with the Chemical Engineering faculty at the Plasma Processing Laboratory. Close collaboration with Cummins Engine Company, Hughes Aerospace, the Payload Integration Company and other companies is pursued to strengthen the industrial relevance of research and education components of this project.
