Control
If it moves, we control it.
Our expertise in this area covers multivariable, nonlinear, optimal and model-predictive control theory, nonlinear estimation, nonlinear dynamical systems, and mechanical design. We conduct both fundamental and applied research targeting a wide range of applications including autonomous driving, factory automation and HVAC systems.
Quick Links
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Researchers
Stefano
Di Cairano
Yebin
Wang
Scott A.
Bortoff
Mouhacine
Benosman
Avishai
Weiss
Ankush
Chakrabarty
Christopher R.
Laughman
Daniel N.
Nikovski
Abraham P.
Vinod
Diego
Romeres
Devesh K.
Jha
Arvind
Raghunathan
Philip V.
Orlik
Abraham
Goldsmith
William S.
Yerazunis
Jianlin
Guo
Hongtao
Qiao
Vedang M.
Deshpande
Chungwei
Lin
Toshiaki
Koike-Akino
Matthew
Brand
Purnanand
Elango
Yanting
Ma
Pedro
Miraldo
Dehong
Liu
Hassan
Mansour
Ye
Wang
Jinyun
Zhang
Petros T.
Boufounos
Siddarth
Jain
Kieran
Parsons
James
Queeney
Alexander
Schperberg
Hongbo
Sun
Bingnan
Wang
Gordon
Wichern
Na
Li
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Awards
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AWARD Arvind Raghunathan receives Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award at 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC) Date: December 8, 2022
Awarded to: Arvind Raghunathan
MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
Research Areas: Control, OptimizationBrief- Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Data Analytics group, received the IEEE Control Systems Society Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award. The award was presented at the 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC).
The award is given annually in honor of Roberto Tempo, the 44th President of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS). The Tempo Award Committee selects the best paper from the previous year's CDC based on originality, potential impact on any aspect of control theory, technology, or implementation, and for the clarity of writing. This year's award committee was headed by Prof. Patrizio Colaneri, Politecnico di Milano. Arvind's paper was nominated for the award by Prof. Lorenz Biegler, Carnegie Mellon University, with supporting letters from Prof. Andreas Waechter, Northwestern University, and Prof. Victor Zavala, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Data Analytics group, received the IEEE Control Systems Society Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award. The award was presented at the 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC).
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AWARD MERL Researcher Devesh Jha Wins the Rudolf Kalman Best Paper Award 2019 Date: October 10, 2019
Awarded to: Devesh Jha, Nurali Virani, Zhenyuan Yuan, Ishana Shekhawat and Asok Ray
MERL Contact: Devesh K. Jha
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Control, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, RoboticsBrief- MERL researcher Devesh Jha has won the Rudolf Kalman Best Paper Award 2019 for the paper entitled "Imitation of Demonstrations Using Bayesian Filtering With Nonparametric Data-Driven Models". This paper, published in a Special Commemorative Issue for Rudolf E. Kalman in the ASME JDSMC in March 2018, uses Bayesian filtering for imitation learning in Hidden Mode Hybrid Systems. This award is given annually by the Dynamic Systems and Control Division of ASME to the authors of the best paper published in the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control during the preceding year.
See All Awards for MERL -
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News & Events
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TALK [MERL Seminar Series 2024] Zhaojian Li presents talk titled A Multi-Arm Robotic System for Robotic Apple Harvesting Date & Time: Wednesday, October 2, 2024; 1:00 PM
Speaker: Zhaojian Li, Mivchigan State University
MERL Host: Yebin Wang
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Control, RoboticsAbstract- Harvesting labor is the single largest cost in apple production in the U.S. Surging cost and growing shortage of labor has forced the apple industry to seek automated harvesting solutions. Despite considerable progress in recent years, the existing robotic harvesting systems still fall short of performance expectations, lacking robustness and proving inefficient or overly complex for practical commercial deployment. In this talk, I will present the development and evaluation of a new dual-arm robotic apple harvesting system. This work is a result of a continuous collaboration between Michigan State University and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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NEWS MERL researchers present 9 papers at ACC 2024 Date: July 10, 2024 - July 12, 2024
Where: Toronto, Canada
MERL Contacts: Ankush Chakrabarty; Vedang M. Deshpande; Stefano Di Cairano; Christopher R. Laughman; Arvind Raghunathan; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang; Avishai Weiss
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, RoboticsBrief- MERL researchers presented 9 papers at the recently concluded American Control Conference (ACC) 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The papers covered a wide range of topics including data-driven spatial monitoring using heterogenous robots, aircraft approach management near airports, computation fluid dynamics-based motion planning for drones facing winds, trajectory planning for coordinated monitoring using a team of drones and a ground carrier vehicle, ensemble Kalman smoothing-based model predictive control for motion planning for autonomous vehicles, system identification for Lithium-ion batteries, physics-constrained deep Kalman filters for vapor compression systems, switched reference governors for constrained systems, and distributed road-map monitoring using onboard sensors.
As a sponsor of the conference, MERL maintained a booth for open discussions with researchers and students, and hosted a special session to discuss highlights of MERL research and work philosophy.
In addition, Abraham Vinod served as a panelist at the Student Networking Event at the conference. The student networking event provides an opportunity for all interested students to network with professionals working in industry, academia, and national laboratories during a structured event, and encourages their continued participation as the future leaders in the field.
- MERL researchers presented 9 papers at the recently concluded American Control Conference (ACC) 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The papers covered a wide range of topics including data-driven spatial monitoring using heterogenous robots, aircraft approach management near airports, computation fluid dynamics-based motion planning for drones facing winds, trajectory planning for coordinated monitoring using a team of drones and a ground carrier vehicle, ensemble Kalman smoothing-based model predictive control for motion planning for autonomous vehicles, system identification for Lithium-ion batteries, physics-constrained deep Kalman filters for vapor compression systems, switched reference governors for constrained systems, and distributed road-map monitoring using onboard sensors.
See All News & Events for Control -
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Internships
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CA0055: Internship - Human-Collaborative Loco-Manipulation Robots
MERL seeks graduate students passionate about robotics to contribute to the development of a framework for legged robots with manipulator arms to collaborate with human in executing various tasks. The work will involve multi-domain research including planning and control, manipulation, and possibly vision/perception. The methods will be implemented and evaluated in high performance simulators and (time-permitting) in actual robotic platforms. The results of the interns are expected to be published in top-tier robotic conferences and/or journal. The internship should start in January 2025 (exact date is flexible) with an expected duration 3-6 months depending on agreed scope and intermediate progress.
Required Specific Experience- Current/Past enrollment in a PhD program in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical Engineering, with a concentration in Robotics
- 2+ years of research in at least some of: machine learning, optimization, control, path planning, computer vision
- Experience in design and simulation tools for robotics such as ROS, Mujoco, Gazebo, Isaac Lab
- Strong programming skills in Python and/or C/C++
- Development of planning and control methods in robotic hardware platforms
- Acquisition and processing of multimodal sensor data, including force/torque and proprioceptive sensors
- Prior experience in human-robot interaction, legged locomotion, mobile manipulation
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SA0044: Internship - Multimodal scene-understanding
We are looking for a graduate student interested in helping advance the field of multimodal scene understanding, focusing on scene understanding using natural language for robot dialog and/or indoor monitoring using a large language model. The intern will collaborate with MERL researchers to derive and implement new models and optimization methods, conduct experiments, and prepare results for publication. Internships regularly lead to one or more publications in top-tier venues, which can later become part of the intern''''s doctoral work. The ideal candidates are senior Ph.D. students with experience in deep learning for audio-visual, signal, and natural language processing. Good programming skills in Python and knowledge of deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch are essential. Multiple positions are available with flexible start date (not just Spring/Summer but throughout 2024) and duration (typically 3-6 months).
Required Specific Experience- Experience with ROS2, C/C++, Python, and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch are essential.
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CV0063: Internship - Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
MERL is looking for a self-motivated graduate student to work on Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (V-SLAM). Based on the candidate’s interests, the intern can work on a variety of topics such as (but not limited to): camera pose estimation, feature detection and matching, visual-LiDAR data fusion, pose-graph optimization, loop closure detection, and image-based camera relocalization. The ideal candidate would be a PhD student with a strong background in 3D computer vision and good programming skills in C/C++ and/or Python. The candidate must have published at least one paper in a top-tier computer vision, machine learning, or robotics venue, such as CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, NeurIPS, ICRA, or IROS. The intern will collaborate with MERL researchers to derive and implement new algorithms for V-SLAM, conduct experiments, and report findings. A submission to a top-tier conference is expected. The duration of the internship and start date are flexible.
Required Specific Experience- Experience with 3D Computer Vision and Simultaneous Localization & Mapping.
See All Internships for Control -
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Openings
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Recent Publications
- "Decentralized, Safe, Multi-agent Motion Planning for Drones Under Uncertainty via Filtered Reinforcement Learning", IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, DOI: 10.1109/TCST.2024.3433229, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 2492-2499, January 2025.BibTeX TR2024-136 PDF
- @article{Vinod2025jan,
- author = {Vinod, Abraham P. and Safaoui, Sleiman and Summers, Tyler and Yoshikawa, Nobuyuki and Di Cairano, Stefano}},
- title = {Decentralized, Safe, Multi-agent Motion Planning for Drones Under Uncertainty via Filtered Reinforcement Learning},
- journal = {IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology},
- year = 2025,
- volume = 32,
- number = 6,
- pages = {2492--2499},
- month = jan,
- doi = {10.1109/TCST.2024.3433229},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-136}
- }
, - "Autonomous Horizon-Based Optical Navigation on Near-Planar Cislunar Libration Point Orbits", 4th Space Imaging Workshop, October 2024.BibTeX TR2024-139 PDF
- @inproceedings{Shimane2024oct,
- author = {Shimane, Yuri and Ho, Koki and Weiss, Avishai}},
- title = {Autonomous Horizon-Based Optical Navigation on Near-Planar Cislunar Libration Point Orbits},
- booktitle = {4th Space Imaging Workshop},
- year = 2024,
- month = oct,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-139}
- }
, - "From Convexity to Strong Convexity and Beyond: Bridging The Gap In Convergence Rates", IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), September 2024.BibTeX TR2024-131 PDF
- @inproceedings{Romero2024sep,
- author = {Romero, Orlando and Benosman, Mouhacine and Pappas, George}},
- title = {From Convexity to Strong Convexity and Beyond: Bridging The Gap In Convergence Rates},
- booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)},
- year = 2024,
- month = sep,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-131}
- }
, - "Real-time Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming for Vehicle Decision Making and Motion Planning", IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, September 2024.BibTeX TR2024-123 PDF
- @article{Quirynen2024sep,
- author = {Quirynen, Rien and Safaoui, Sleiman and Di Cairano, Stefano}},
- title = {Real-time Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming for Vehicle Decision Making and Motion Planning},
- journal = {IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology},
- year = 2024,
- month = sep,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-123}
- }
, - "Multi-Agent Formation Control using Epipolar Constraints", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2024.3444690, Vol. 9, No. 12, pp. 11002-11009, September 2024.BibTeX TR2024-147 PDF
- @article{Roque2024sep,
- author = {Roque, Pedro and Miraldo, Pedro and Dimarogonas, Dimos}},
- title = {Multi-Agent Formation Control using Epipolar Constraints},
- journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
- year = 2024,
- volume = 9,
- number = 12,
- pages = {11002--11009},
- month = sep,
- doi = {10.1109/LRA.2024.3444690},
- issn = {2377-3766},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-147}
- }
, - "MPC of Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Neural Predictive Models", International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), August 2024.BibTeX TR2024-115 PDF
- @inproceedings{Yan2024aug,
- author = {Yan, Jiaqi and Chakrabarty, Ankush and Rupenyan, Alisa and Lygeros, John}},
- title = {MPC of Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Neural Predictive Models},
- booktitle = {International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)},
- year = 2024,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-115}
- }
, - "Assessing Building Control Performance Using Physics-Based Simulation Models and Deep Generative Networks", IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA) 2024, DOI: 10.1109/CCTA60707.2024.10666585, August 2024.BibTeX TR2024-113 PDF
- @inproceedings{Chakrabarty2024aug,
- author = {Chakrabarty, Ankush and Vanfretti, Luigi and Bortoff, Scott A. and Deshpande, Vedang M. and Wang, Ye and Paulson, Joel A. and Zhan, Sicheng and Laughman, Christopher R.}},
- title = {Assessing Building Control Performance Using Physics-Based Simulation Models and Deep Generative Networks},
- booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA) 2024},
- year = 2024,
- month = aug,
- doi = {10.1109/CCTA60707.2024.10666585},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-113}
- }
, - "Control Co-Design for Electric Vehicles with Driving Cycle Synthesis Encoding Road Traffic and Driver Characteristics", IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA) 2024, DOI: 10.1109/CCTA60707.2024.10666575, August 2024.BibTeX TR2024-114 PDF
- @inproceedings{Park2024aug,
- author = {Park, Seho and Wang, Yebin and Qiao, Hongtao and Sakamoto, Yusuke and Wang, Bingnan and Liu, Dehong}},
- title = {Control Co-Design for Electric Vehicles with Driving Cycle Synthesis Encoding Road Traffic and Driver Characteristics},
- booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA) 2024},
- year = 2024,
- month = aug,
- doi = {10.1109/CCTA60707.2024.10666575},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-114}
- }
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- "Decentralized, Safe, Multi-agent Motion Planning for Drones Under Uncertainty via Filtered Reinforcement Learning", IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, DOI: 10.1109/TCST.2024.3433229, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 2492-2499, January 2025.
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