Seminars

Abstract: Successful applications of feedback control---such as autonomous vehicles and bipedal robots--- give the impression that the field is mature. In the motivational part of the talk, I will show that these applications possess features that make them “easy” to control, and then I will discuss why others---such as flexible aircraft and scramjet engines---are much more challenging. In the technical part of the talk, I will show how feedback control can use data to rapidly learn and adapt to sudden, unanticipated changes. Finally, in the speculative part of the talk, I will propose that feedback control is extrascientific (as in extraterrestrial) since its objective is to manipulate physical reality without fully understanding it.

 
Bio: Dennis Bernstein is the James E. Knott Professor of Engineering in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, he was employed by Lincoln Laboratory and Harris Corporation. His interests are in all aspects of systems and control for aerospace engineering.