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
Avishai
Weiss
Scott A.
Bortoff
Ankush
Chakrabarty
Christopher R.
Laughman
Daniel N.
Nikovski
Abraham P.
Vinod
Diego
Romeres
Devesh K.
Jha
Arvind
Raghunathan
Abraham
Goldsmith
Philip V.
Orlik
William S.
Yerazunis
Vedang M.
Deshpande
Jianlin
Guo
Chungwei
Lin
Hongtao
Qiao
Purnanand
Elango
Toshiaki
Koike-Akino
Matthew
Brand
Dehong
Liu
Yanting
Ma
Pedro
Miraldo
Bingnan
Wang
Petros T.
Boufounos
Hassan
Mansour
Ye
Wang
Gordon
Wichern
Jinyun
Zhang
Siddarth
Jain
Kieran
Parsons
Alexander
Schperberg
Hongbo
Sun
Na
Li
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Awards
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AWARD MERL work receives IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best New Application Paper Award from IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Date: May 19, 2025
Awarded to: Yehan Ma, Yebin Wang, Stefano Di Cairano, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Jianlin Guo, Philip Orlik, Xinping Guan and Chenyang Lu
MERL Contacts: Stefano Di Cairano; Jianlin Guo; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Philip V. Orlik; Yebin Wang
Research Areas: Communications, Control, Machine LearningBrief- The paper “Smart Actuation for End-Edge Industrial Control Systems”, co-authored by MERL intern Yehan Ma, MERL researchers Yebin Wang, Stefano Di Cairano, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Jianlin Guo, and Philip Orlik, and academic collaborators Xinping Guan and Chenyang Lu, was recognized as the Best New Application Paper of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), for "a new industrial automation solution that ensures safety operation through coordinated co-design of edge model predictive control and local actuation".
The award recognizes the best application paper published in T-ASE over the previous calendar year, for the significance of new applications, technical merit, originality, potential impact on the field, and clarity of presentation.
- The paper “Smart Actuation for End-Edge Industrial Control Systems”, co-authored by MERL intern Yehan Ma, MERL researchers Yebin Wang, Stefano Di Cairano, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Jianlin Guo, and Philip Orlik, and academic collaborators Xinping Guan and Chenyang Lu, was recognized as the Best New Application Paper of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), for "a new industrial automation solution that ensures safety operation through coordinated co-design of edge model predictive control and local actuation".
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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.
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News & Events
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NEWS MERL contributes to ICRA 2025 Date: May 19, 2025 - May 23, 2025
Where: IEEE ICRA
MERL Contacts: Stefano Di Cairano; Jianlin Guo; Chiori Hori; Siddarth Jain; Devesh K. Jha; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Philip V. Orlik; Arvind Raghunathan; Diego Romeres; Yuki Shirai; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Optimization, Robotics, Human-Computer InteractionBrief- MERL made significant contributions to both the organization and the technical program of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from May 19th to May 23rd.
MERL was a Bronze sponsor of the conference, and MERL researchers chaired four sessions in the areas of Manipulation Planning, Human-Robot Collaboration, Diffusion Policy, and Learning for Robot Control.
MERL researchers presented four papers in the main conference on the topics of contact-implicit trajectory optimization, proactive robotic assistance in human-robot collaboration, diffusion policy with human preferences, and dynamic and model learning of robotic manipulators. In addition, five more papers were presented in the workshops: “Structured Learning for Efficient, Reliable, and Transparent Robots,” “Safely Leveraging Vision-Language Foundation Models in Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities,” “Long-term Human Motion Prediction,” and “The Future of Intelligent Manufacturing: From Innovation to Implementation.”
MERL researcher Diego Romeres delivered an invited talk titled “Dexterous Robotics: From Multimodal Sensing to Real-World Physical Interactions.”
MERL also collaborated with the University of Padua on one of the conference’s challenges: the “3rd AI Olympics with RealAIGym” (https://ai-olympics.dfki-bremen.de).
During the conference, MERL researchers received the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best New Application Paper Award for their paper titled “Smart Actuation for End-Edge Industrial Control Systems.”
About ICRA
The IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) is the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the world’s largest and most comprehensive technical conference focused on research advances and the latest technological developments in robotics. The event attracts over 7,000 participants, 143 partners and exhibitors, and receives more than 4,000 paper submissions.
- MERL made significant contributions to both the organization and the technical program of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, from May 19th to May 23rd.
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NEWS MERL researchers present 7 papers at CDC 2024 Date: December 16, 2024 - December 19, 2024
Where: Milan, Italy
MERL Contacts: Ankush Chakrabarty; Vedang M. Deshpande; Stefano Di Cairano; Abraham P. Vinod; Avishai Weiss; Gordon Wichern
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, RoboticsBrief- MERL researchers presented 7 papers at the recently concluded Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) 2024 in Milan, Italy. The papers covered a wide range of topics including safety shielding for stochastic model predictive control, reinforcement learning using expert observations, physics-constrained meta learning for positioning, variational-Bayes Kalman filtering, Bayesian measurement masks for GNSS positioning, divert-feasible lunar landing, and centering and stochastic control using constrained zonotopes.
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, Ankush Chakrabarty (Principal Research Scientist, Multiphysical Systems Team) was an invited speaker in the pre-conference Workshop on "Learning Dynamics From Data" where he gave a talk on few-shot meta-learning for black-box identification using data from similar systems.
- MERL researchers presented 7 papers at the recently concluded Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) 2024 in Milan, Italy. The papers covered a wide range of topics including safety shielding for stochastic model predictive control, reinforcement learning using expert observations, physics-constrained meta learning for positioning, variational-Bayes Kalman filtering, Bayesian measurement masks for GNSS positioning, divert-feasible lunar landing, and centering and stochastic control using constrained zonotopes.
See All News & Events for Control -
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Internships
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CA0148: Internship - Motion Planning and Control for Autonomous Articulated Vehicles
MERL is seeking an outstanding intern to collaborate in the development of motion planning and control for autonomous articulated vehicles. The ideal candidate is expected to be working towards a PhD in electrical, mechanical, aerospace engineering, robotics, control or related areas, with a strong emphasis on motion planning and control, possibly with applications to ground vehicles, to have experience in at least some of path/motion planning algorithms (A*, D*, graph-search) and optimization-based control (e.g., model predictive control), to have excellent coding skills in MATLAB/Simulink and a strong publication record. The expected start date is the Spring/Early Summer 2025 and the expected duration is 6-9 months, depending on candidate availability and interests.
Required Specific Experience
- Path/motion planning algorithms (A*, D*, graph-search)
- Nonlinear model predictive control
- Programming in Matlab/Simulink
- Applications to mobile robots or vehicles
Additional Useful Experience
- Nonlinear MPC Design in CasADi
- Code generation tools and dSPACE
- Applications to autonomous vehicles and articulated vehicles
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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.
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CA0153: Internship - High-Fidelity Visualization and Simulation for Space Applications
MERL is seeking a highly motivated graduate student to develop high-fidelity full-stack GNC simulators for space applications. The ideal candidate has strong experience with rendering engines, synthetic image generation, and computer vision, as well as familiarity with spacecraft dynamics, motion planning, and state estimation. The developed software should allow for closed-loop execution with the synthetic imagery, and ideally allow for real-time visualization. Publication of results produced during the internship is desired. The expected duration of the internship is 3-6 months with a flexible start date.
Required Specific Experience
- Current enrollment in a graduate program in Aerospace, Computer Science, Robotics, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
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Experience with one or more of Blender, Unreal, Unity, along with their APIs
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Strong programming skills in one or more of Matlab, Python, and/or C/C++
See All Internships for Control -
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Openings
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EA0042: Research Scientist - Control & Learning
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CA0093: Research Scientist - Control for Autonomous Systems
See All Openings at MERL -
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Recent Publications
- "Visually Robust Adversarial Imitation Learning from Videos with Contrastive Learning", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2025.BibTeX TR2025-065 PDF
- @inproceedings{Giammarino2025may,
- author = {Giammarino, Vittorio and Queeney, James and Paschalidis, Ioannis Ch.},
- title = {{Visually Robust Adversarial Imitation Learning from Videos with Contrastive Learning}},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
- year = 2025,
- month = may,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-065}
- }
, - "Simultaneous Collision Detection and Force Estimation for Dynamic Quadrupedal Locomotion", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2025.BibTeX TR2025-063 PDF
- @inproceedings{Zhou2025may,
- author = {Zhou, Ziyi and {Di Cairano}, Stefano and Wang, Yebin and Berntorp, Karl},
- title = {{Simultaneous Collision Detection and Force Estimation for Dynamic Quadrupedal Locomotion}},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
- year = 2025,
- month = may,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-063}
- }
, - "A Unified Observer for Smooth Speed-Sensorless Drive Control of Induction Machines at Full Speed Range", IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), May 2025.BibTeX TR2025-060 PDF
- @inproceedings{Wu2025may,
- author = {Wu, Jingjie and Goldsmith, Abraham and Liu, Dehong and Wang, Bingnan and Zhou, Lei and Wang, Yebin},
- title = {{A Unified Observer for Smooth Speed-Sensorless Drive Control of Induction Machines at Full Speed Range}},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC)},
- year = 2025,
- month = may,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-060}
- }
, - "A Novel High-Frequency Injection Method Towards Speed-Sensorless Drive Control of Induction Machines over Full Speed Range", IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC), May 2025.BibTeX TR2025-061 PDF
- @inproceedings{Wu2025may2,
- author = {Wu, Jingjie and Goldsmith, Abraham and Zhou, Lei and Liu, Dehong and Wang, Bingnan and Wang, Yebin},
- title = {{A Novel High-Frequency Injection Method Towards Speed-Sensorless Drive Control of Induction Machines over Full Speed Range}},
- booktitle = {IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference (IEMDC)},
- year = 2025,
- month = may,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-061}
- }
, - "Time-optimal single-scalar control on a qubit of unitary dynamics", Physical Review, April 2025.BibTeX TR2025-048 PDF
- @article{Lin2025apr2,
- author = {Lin, Chungwei and Boufounos, Petros T. and Ma, Yanting and Wang, Yebin and Ding, Qi and Sels, Dries and Chien, Chih-Chun},
- title = {{Time-optimal single-scalar control on a qubit of unitary dynamics}},
- journal = {Physical Review},
- year = 2025,
- month = apr,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-048}
- }
, - "Learning Visual Servoing for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots with Uncalibrated Cameras", The 40th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing, March 2025.BibTeX TR2025-042 PDF
- @inproceedings{Wang2025mar2,
- author = {Wang, Jen-Wei and Nikovski, Daniel N.},
- title = {{Learning Visual Servoing for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots with Uncalibrated Cameras}},
- booktitle = {The 40th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing},
- year = 2025,
- month = mar,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-042}
- }
, - "Projection-free computation of robust controllable sets with constrained zonotopes", Automatica, DOI: 10.1016/j.automatica.2025.112211, Vol. 175, pp. 112211, March 2025.BibTeX TR2025-023 PDF Video
- @article{Vinod2025mar,
- author = {Vinod, Abraham P. and Weiss, Avishai and Di Cairano, Stefano},
- title = {{Projection-free computation of robust controllable sets with constrained zonotopes}},
- journal = {Automatica},
- year = 2025,
- volume = 175,
- pages = 112211,
- month = mar,
- doi = {10.1016/j.automatica.2025.112211},
- issn = {0005-1098},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-023}
- }
, - "PIETRA: Physics-Informed Evidential Learning for Traversing Out-of-Distribution Terrain", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2025.3527285, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 2359-2366, February 2025.BibTeX TR2025-022 PDF
- @article{Cai2025feb,
- author = {Cai, Xiaoyi and Queeney, James and Xu, Tong and Datar, Aniket and Pan, Chenhui and Miller, Max and Flather, Ashton and Osteen, Philip R. and Roy, Nicholas and Xiao, Xuesu and How, Jonathan P.},
- title = {{PIETRA: Physics-Informed Evidential Learning for Traversing Out-of-Distribution Terrain}},
- journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)},
- year = 2025,
- volume = 10,
- number = 3,
- pages = {2359--2366},
- month = feb,
- doi = {10.1109/LRA.2025.3527285},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-022}
- }
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- "Visually Robust Adversarial Imitation Learning from Videos with Contrastive Learning", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2025.
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Videos
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Software & Data Downloads