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Professor Rick MiddletonSystems & Control
Research Professor: I also have a part time position as a Senior Research
Associate with: |
Systems & Control ResearchI am interested in a broad range of feedback and dynamic
systems theory and applications. Some of my recent interests and
results are below Trade-offs & Performance limitations in Feedback Control SystemsI have a long standing interest in trying to analyse and
understand the factors inherent in a system that limit the achievable
feedback control performance, and hance give rise to inevitable trade-offs in control system
design.
Early work on this examined the roles of
open loop instability, non-minimum phase behaviour (that is, lack of a
stable inverse), and time delays. More recently I have looked at
communication constraints, and also problems in formation control of
autonomous vehicles. In particular, I have worked on conditions in
rigid formation following that give rise to a problem known as 'String
Instability'.
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RoboCup SoccerFor several years now, I have been part of the University of
Newcastle's RoboCup soccer team, the NUbots. We have
competed in the 4 Legged
League Soccer, and have been placed in the top three since we
joined the competition in 2002. In this application, I am particularly
interested in the problem of robot localisation using the Extended
Kalman Filter, feedback control for legged motion, and distributed
systems. At NUIM, we have been accepted to compete in the standard
platform league of the RoboCup soccer competition. |
Applications of Systems, Control and Optimisation:I have a wide range of experience in applications of systems, control and optimisation. A selection of recent work includes:
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Systems BiologyI am interested in applications of systems, control and dynamics in biology, working with the Systems Biology group at the Hamilton Institute. Previous work has focussed on phase analysis of coupled oscillators. More recently I have been working with colleagues in the Systems Biology group at the Hamilton, in particular relating to understanding the dynamics of networks of biochemical reactions. I am also interested in modelling and control of HIV infection dynamics and Parkinson's disease. |
Control over Communication Networks
I have examined a number of aspects of feedback control loops over
finite capacity communication channels. These works include examining
information theoretic analyses of limits on the achievable loop
properties dictated by finite capacity. In addition, I have worked on
achievable performance for particular classes of power constrained AWGN
and ACGN channels. |
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Selected Research Grants
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Adminstration
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PersonalRuth and I regularly attend and
are actively involved in Maynooth
Community Church
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