C.V. Hollot's research interests are in the systems and control area. In particular he is concerned with the performance evaluation and control of uncertain dynamical systems; i.e., robust control. His objective is to develop techniques which are non-conservative - techniques which ensure system robustness without sacrificing system performance. To illustrate, consider a robotic arm which handles payloads varying between one pound and a hundred pounds. The payload is uncertain and a control law based upon a nominal payload of one pound may perform poorly (perhaps become unstable) when lifting the one hundred pound payload. One way to cope with this payload variation is to make the robot arm massive - this helps minimize the relative impact of the payload. However, this "margin of safety" comes at the expense of performance - increased controller effort and reduced response time. Professor Hollot's research is aimed at reducing such conservatism. He is developing analysis and design techniques which exploit the complex manner in which uncertain parameters affect the behavior of differential equations.
