Applications of Control Systems Engineering

Feedback control systems are widely used in engineering applications, including aerospace, manufacturing, mining, automobile and military hardware applications. They are an enabling technology in emerging areas of engineering, such as quantum and opto-electronics engineering and highfrequency engineering. The Control Theory and Control Engineering Applications research group conducts fundamental research into the theory of automatic control systems and its engineering applications to control of unmanned vehicles, opto-electronic systems and emerging quantum control and quantum information technologies. Particular interests of the members of the group include theory of optimal, robust and distributed control systems, quantum control theory, as well as applications of control theory to control of flexible structures, atomic force microscopy, power systems, fixed and rotor wing unmanned aircraft, potentially high-payoff opto-electronics systems and quantum computing technology. In 2012, our members received financial support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) in the form of the Australian Laureate Fellowship (Prof Ian Petersen), 5 ARC Discovery Projects, and 1 ARC Linkage Project, as well as from the USA Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). The group hosts one of the nodes of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology.