Dynamical Systems
Exploiting nonlinearity and shaping dynamics in creative and deeply mathematical ways.
We apply dynamical systems theory in applications ranging from space probe trajectory optimization to elevator suspensions. We also develop fundamental theory and computational methods in fluid dynamics.
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Researchers
Stefano
Di Cairano
Karl
Berntorp
Mouhacine
Benosman
Yebin
Wang
Avishai
Weiss
Rien
Quirynen
Scott A.
Bortoff
Marcus
Greiff
Christopher R.
Laughman
Hongtao
Qiao
Ankush
Chakrabarty
Abraham P.
Vinod
Daniel N.
Nikovski
Hassan
Mansour
Saviz
Mowlavi
Petros T.
Boufounos
Abraham
Goldsmith
Chungwei
Lin
Devesh K.
Jha
Philip V.
Orlik
Diego
Romeres
Jianlin
Guo
Yanting
Ma
Pedro
Miraldo
Kieran
Parsons
Hongbo
Sun
Bingnan
Wang
Pu
(Perry)
WangWilliam S.
Yerazunis
Jinyun
Zhang
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Awards
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AWARD MERL’s Paper on Wi-Fi Sensing Earns Top 3% Paper Recognition at ICASSP 2023, Selected as a Best Student Paper Award Finalist Date: June 9, 2023
Awarded to: Cristian J. Vaca-Rubio, Pu Wang, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Ye Wang, Petros Boufounos and Petar Popovski
MERL Contacts: Petros T. Boufounos; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Pu (Perry) Wang; Ye Wang
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Computational Sensing, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Signal ProcessingBrief- A MERL Paper on Wi-Fi sensing was recognized as a Top 3% Paper among all 2709 accepted papers at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2023). Co-authored by Cristian Vaca-Rubio and Petar Popovski from Aalborg University, Denmark, and MERL researchers Pu Wang, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Ye Wang, and Petros Boufounos, the paper "MmWave Wi-Fi Trajectory Estimation with Continous-Time Neural Dynamic Learning" was also a Best Student Paper Award finalist.
Performed during Cristian’s stay at MERL first as a visiting Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and then as a full-time intern in 2022, this work capitalizes on standards-compliant Wi-Fi signals to perform indoor localization and sensing. The paper uses a neural dynamic learning framework to address technical issues such as low sampling rate and irregular sampling intervals.
ICASSP, a flagship conference of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS), was hosted on the Greek island of Rhodes from June 04 to June 10, 2023. ICASSP 2023 marked the largest ICASSP in history, boasting over 4000 participants and 6128 submitted papers, out of which 2709 were accepted.
- A MERL Paper on Wi-Fi sensing was recognized as a Top 3% Paper among all 2709 accepted papers at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2023). Co-authored by Cristian Vaca-Rubio and Petar Popovski from Aalborg University, Denmark, and MERL researchers Pu Wang, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Ye Wang, and Petros Boufounos, the paper "MmWave Wi-Fi Trajectory Estimation with Continous-Time Neural Dynamic Learning" was also a Best Student Paper Award finalist.
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AWARD Marcus Greiff receives Outstanding Student Paper Award at CCTA 2022 Date: August 25, 2022
Awarded to: Marcus Greiff
MERL Contact: Marcus Greiff
Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, RoboticsBrief- Marcus Greiff, a Visiting Research Scientist at MERL, was awarded one of three outstanding student paper awards at the IEEE CCTA 2022 conference for his paper titled "Quadrotor Control on SU(2)xR3 with SLAM Integration". The award was given for originality, clarity, and potential impact on practical applications of control. The work presents a complete UAV control system design, facilitating autonomous supermarket inventorying without the need for external motion capture systems. A video of the experiments is on YouTube, including both simulations and real-time examples.
See All Awards for MERL -
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News & Events
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NEWS MERL presents 9 papers at 2023 IFAC World Congress Date: July 9, 2023 - July 14, 2023
MERL Contacts: Karl Berntorp; Scott A. Bortoff; Ankush Chakrabarty; Stefano Di Cairano; Christopher R. Laughman; Diego Romeres; Abraham P. Vinod
Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, RoboticsBrief- MERL researchers presented 9 papers and organized 2 invited/workshop sessions at the 2023 IFAC World Congress held in Yokohama, JP.
MERL's contributions covered topics including decision-making for autonomous vehicles, statistical and learning-based estimation for GNSS and energy systems, impedance control for delta robots, learning for system identification of rigid body dynamics and time-varying systems, and meta-learning for deep state-space modeling using data from similar systems. The invited session (MERL co-organizer: Ankush Chakrabarty) was on the topic of “Estimation and observer design: theory and applications” and the workshop (MERL co-organizer: Karl Berntorp) was on “Gaussian Process Learning for Systems and Control”.
- MERL researchers presented 9 papers and organized 2 invited/workshop sessions at the 2023 IFAC World Congress held in Yokohama, JP.
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NEWS Keynote address given by Philip Orlik at 9th annual IEEE Smartcomp conference Date: June 26, 2023
Where: International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP), Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
MERL Contact: Philip V. Orlik
Research Areas: Communications, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Signal ProcessingBrief- VP & Research Director, Philip Orlik, gave a keynote titled, "Smart Technologies for Smarter Buildings" at the 9th edition of the IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP) focusing on some of the research challenges and opportunities that arise as we seek to achieve net-zero emissions in Smart building environments.
SMARTCOMP is the premier conference on smart computing. Smart computing is a multidisciplinary domain based on the synergistic influence of advances in sensor-based technologies, Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems, edge computing, big data analytics, machine learning, cognitive computing, and artificial intelligence.
- VP & Research Director, Philip Orlik, gave a keynote titled, "Smart Technologies for Smarter Buildings" at the 9th edition of the IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing (SMARTCOMP) focusing on some of the research challenges and opportunities that arise as we seek to achieve net-zero emissions in Smart building environments.
See All News & Events for Dynamical Systems -
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Internships
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ST2025: Background Oriented Schlieren Tomography
The Computational Sensing team at MERL is seeking motivated and qualified individuals to develop algorithms that can perform background oriented Schlieren (BOS) tomography. The project goal is to utilize both analytical and learning-based architectures to enable the reconstruction of 3D air flows in an indoor setting from BOS measurements. Ideal candidates should be Ph.D. students and have solid background and publication record in any of the following, or related areas: imaging inverse problems, large-scale optimization, learning-based modeling for imaging, Schlieren tomography, physics informed neural networks. Publication of the results produced during our internships is expected. The duration of the internships is anticipated to be 3-6 months. Start date is flexible.
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CA1940: Autonomous vehicle planning and contro in uncertain environments
MERL is seeking a highly motivated and qualified intern to collaborate with the Control for Autonomy team in research on planning and control for autonomous vehicles in uncertain surrounding environments. The research domain includes algorithms for path planning and control in environments that are uncertain and perceived by sensing and predicted according to models and data. The ideal candidate is expected to be working towards a PhD with strong emphasis in vehicle guidance and control, and to have interest and background in as many as possible of: vehicle dynamics modeling and control, sensor uncertainty modeling, data-driven prediction, predictive control for uncertain systems, motion planning. Good programming skills in MATLAB, Python are required, knowledge of C/C++, rapid prototyping systems, automatic code generation, vehicle simulation packages (CarSim, CarMaker) or ROS are a plus. The expected start of of the internship is in the late Spring/Early Summer 2022, for a duration of 3-6 months.
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EA2045: Speed-sensorless Control of Electrical Machines
MERL is seeking a highly motivated and qualified individual to conduct research/development in speed-sensorless control of electrical machines.
The ideal candidate should have solid backgrounds in electrical machines, sensorless drives control, dynamical system analysis, signal processing, state estimation, and parameter identification. Demonstrated knowledge of the state-of-the-art sensorless drives control and experience on using dSPACE for real-time HIL experimentation is necessary. Proven record of publishing results in leading conferences/journals is a plus.
Senior Ph.D. students in electrical engineering, control, and related areas are encouraged to apply. Start date for this internship is as soon as possible and the duration is about 3-6 months.
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Openings
See All Openings at MERL -
Recent Publications
- "Tailored Presolve Techniques in Branch-and-Bound Method for Fast Mixed-Integer Optimal Control Applications", Optimal Control Applications and Methods, August 2023.BibTeX TR2023-110 PDF
- @article{Quirynen2023aug2,
- author = {Quirynen, Rien and Di Cairano, Stefano},
- title = {Tailored Presolve Techniques in Branch-and-Bound Method for Fast Mixed-Integer Optimal Control Applications},
- journal = {Optimal Control Applications and Methods},
- year = 2023,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-110}
- }
, - "Motion Planning of Articulated Vehicles with Active Trailer Steering by Particle Filtering", Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), August 2023.BibTeX TR2023-101 PDF
- @inproceedings{Iqbal2023aug,
- author = {Iqbal, Hassan and Di Cairano, Stefano and Berntorp, Karl},
- title = {Motion Planning of Articulated Vehicles with Active Trailer Steering by Particle Filtering},
- booktitle = {Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA)},
- year = 2023,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-101}
- }
, - "Gaussian Processes with State-Dependent Noise for Stochastic Control", IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), August 2023.BibTeX TR2023-100 PDF
- @inproceedings{Menner2023aug2,
- author = {Menner, Marcel and Berntorp, Karl},
- title = {Gaussian Processes with State-Dependent Noise for Stochastic Control},
- booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA)},
- year = 2023,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-100}
- }
, - "MPC-based Pedestrian Routing for Congestion Balancing", IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), August 2023.BibTeX TR2023-099 PDF
- @inproceedings{Menner2023aug,
- author = {Menner, Marcel and Di Cairano, Stefano and Hamada, Masaki and Gushima, Kota},
- title = {MPC-based Pedestrian Routing for Congestion Balancing},
- booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA)},
- year = 2023,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-099}
- }
, - "DEEP REINFORCEMENT LEARNING FOR STATION KEEPING ON NEAR RECTILINEAR HALO ORBITS", AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, August 2023.BibTeX TR2023-098 PDF
- @inproceedings{Suda2023aug,
- author = {Suda, Takumi and Shimane, Yuri and Elango, Purnanand and Weiss, Avishai},
- title = {DEEP REINFORCEMENT LEARNING FOR STATION KEEPING ON NEAR RECTILINEAR HALO ORBITS},
- booktitle = {AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference},
- year = 2023,
- month = aug,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-098}
- }
, - "A Generalized GraphEM for Sparse Time-Varying Dynamical Systems", World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), July 2023.BibTeX TR2023-086 PDF
- @inproceedings{Greiff2023jul2,
- author = {Greiff, Marcus and Di Cairano, Stefano and Mansour, Hassan and Berntorp, Karl},
- title = {A Generalized GraphEM for Sparse Time-Varying Dynamical Systems},
- booktitle = {World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC)},
- year = 2023,
- month = jul,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-086}
- }
, - "Bandit-based multi-agent search under noisy observations", World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), July 2023.BibTeX TR2023-085 PDF
- @inproceedings{Thaker2023jul,
- author = {Thaker, Parth and Di Cairano, Stefano and Vinod, Abraham P.},
- title = {Bandit-based multi-agent search under noisy observations},
- booktitle = {World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC)},
- year = 2023,
- month = jul,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-085}
- }
, - "Decision Making for Automated Driving by Reachability of Parameterized Maneuvers", World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC), July 2023.BibTeX TR2023-084 PDF
- @inproceedings{DiCairano2023jul,
- author = {Di Cairano, Stefano and Skibik, Terrence and Vinod, Abraham P. and Weiss, Avishai and Berntorp, Karl},
- title = {Decision Making for Automated Driving by Reachability of Parameterized Maneuvers},
- booktitle = {World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC)},
- year = 2023,
- month = jul,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2023-084}
- }
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- "Tailored Presolve Techniques in Branch-and-Bound Method for Fast Mixed-Integer Optimal Control Applications", Optimal Control Applications and Methods, August 2023.
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Videos
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Safe multi-agent motion planning under uncertainty using filtered reinforcement learning
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[MERL Seminar Series Spring 2023] Learning and Dynamical Systems
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Robot Locomotion by Automated Controller Tuning
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Real-time Mixed-integer Programming for Vehicle Decision Making and Motion Planning
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Optimization-based Coordination and Control of Traffic Lights and Mixed Traffic in Multi-Intersection Networks
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Electric Satellite Station Keeping, Attitude Control, and Momentum Management by MPC
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MPC control and particle filter-based planning demonstration using mini-cars
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Particle filter-based planning demonstration using mini-cars
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Airflow Sensing
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Advanced HVAC Technologies
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