Our research in this area focuses on investigating the motion control of electromechanical and hydraulic systems. We carry out research in adaptive and robust control of hydraulically actuated systems in many application areas.

We have applied an adaptive control strategy to the Centre’s multi-axis shaker table (MAST). This allows for improved tracking despite cross-axis interaction. We also research the control of magnetic bearing systems, which have many advantages over passive bearings, including:

  • higher operating speeds
  • no wear under normal operation
  • the ability to control rotor position and transmitted force
  • the elimination of lubrication supply systems

You can find an overview of the Centre's activity on the University Research Portal.

Research projects

Many of our current and recently completed control and actuation projects are for aerospace and automotive applications.

PhD theses

Name Year of award Thesis title
Zengkang Gan 2015 Adaptive control of an active seat for occupant vibration reduction
Peichao Li 2015 Active touchdown bearing control in magnetic bearing systems
Jean-Paul Henderson 2012 Vibration isolation for rotorcraft using electrical actuation
Dhinesh Sangiah 2011 Fluid metering using active materials
Robert Rayner 2010 The optimisation of a high-speed servomechanism
Ali Ghorashi 2010 Linear decentralised modelling for H-infinity control of a multi-axis simulation table
Dimitris Fronimidis 2007 The application of self-learning to injection moulding machines
Iain Cade 2007 A wavelet based approach to the transient control of rotor/active magnetic bearing systems
Yanzhi Li 2007 Dynamic simulation and high-speed precision control of spatial manipulators
Michael Schlotter 2007 Robust control and contact recovery of rotor/magnetic bearing systems
Abdul-Hadi Abulrub 2006 Modelling and control of contact in magnetic bearing/flexible rotor systems
David Branson III 2006 Modelling and control of multi-body structures actuated through large displacements