Coffee and Control

By: Lucy Hodgins
  • Summary

  • Podcast in which I interview fascinating people from within the world of control theory/ control engineering. Primarily aimed at PhD/masters students but can hopefully be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in control. New episodes released monthly
    Lucy Hodgins
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Episodes
  • Paolo Rapisarda (Behavioural systems and Willems' fundamental lemma)
    Apr 1 2025

    In this episode I talk to Professor Paolo Rapisarda about a bunch of interesting theoretical (but very useful) aspects of control, including his work on behavioural systems theory, model reduction, Willems’ fundamental lemma, and data-driven control.


    You can engage with the podcast on

    X: https://x.com/coffee_ctrl_pod

    BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/coffee-and-control.bsky.social

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coffee_and_control_podcast/

    Or email me at lhodginscontrol@gmail.com

    Paolo Rapisarda: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5x2hb9/professor-paolo-rapisarda

    Introduction

    State maps for linear systems: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/264646/1/State_maps.pdf

    Harry Trentelman: https://research.rug.nl/en/persons/harry-trentelman

    Jan Willems: https://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~sistawww/smc/jwillems/

    PhD thesis: https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/linear-differential-systems-2

    Behavioural systems

    Epic Jan Willems behavioural systems paper: https://skoge.folk.ntnu.no/prost/proceedings/cpc6-jan2002/willems.pdf

    State maps

    LTV paper:https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/457114/1/State_for_linear_discrete_time_varying_systems.pdf

    Leibnitz rule: https://www.cuemath.com/calculus/leibniz-rule/

    Dissipativity

    Jan Willem’s paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/bf00276493

    Jan Willem’s optimal control paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1099831

    Quadratic differential forms: https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/S0363012996303062

    Balancing

    Siep Weiland: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37301202100

    Keith Glover: https://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/profiles/kg103

    H-infinity model order reduction: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/701085

    1980 Moore balancing paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1102568

    Kalman decomposition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalman_decomposition

    Arjan van der Schaft: https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=BIPifjAAAAAJ&hl=en

    Hamiltonian systems: https://www.unige.ch/~hairer/poly_geoint/week1.pdf

    Port Hamiltonianity:https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-control-081219-092250

    Jacqueline Scherpen: https://research.rug.nl/en/persons/jacqueline-scherpen

    Balancing of Port-Hamiltonian systems: https://research.rug.nl/files/2999949/2003ProcIFACWorkshopLHMNCLopezlena.pdf

    Balancing for non-linear systems: https://research.rug.nl/files/3318296/1993ProcECCScherpen.pdf

    Fundamental lemma

    Ivan Markovski: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qSl_3FQAAAAJ&hl=en

    Continuous-time work: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016769112400238X

    Chebychev polynomials: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/ChebyshevPolynomialoftheFirstKind.html

    Kanat Camblibel: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aeWjKPcAAAAJ&hl=en

    Sufficient condition modification of Willems’s lemma: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.18962

    Experimental implementation: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12509

    Data-driven control

    Data-driven ILC:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10384133

    DeePC: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.05890

    Jonathan Mayo-Maldonado: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=W-vnMBwAAAAJ&hl=en

    Extra questions

    Aizerman’s conjecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizerman%27s_conjecture


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    1 hr
  • Sabine Hauert (Swarm robotics and artificial evolution)
    Mar 1 2025

    In this episode I interview Professor Sabine Hauert about the super interesting work she does on the control of swarm robots, how considering nanoparticles as swarms can be used to treat cancer, and how morphogenesis can generate structure from random interactions.

    You can follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/coffee_and_control_podcast/),BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/coffee-and-control.bsky.social) and X(https://x.com/coffee_ctrl_pod)for updates on episodes!

    You can also connect with or follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

    References

    Sabine: https://hauertlab.com/

    Podcasts/ TEDx talks

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn1gmcs-HXU

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBbYuzhxpE0

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=vvknnV6325Q

    Robot Talk: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JWPnKQmwTQdM1K7247jkq

    Complexity: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6nfcUpB3wesHqXP5XzSPAl

    Engenius: https://open.spotify.com/episode/34jert4EQGBVrQBfS4OfxW

    Research

    Invertebrate inspiration review paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/acc223/meta

    Centipede control inspiration: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0171421

    David Garzon-Ramos: https://dgarzonramos.com/

    Puzzle/ Problem/mess paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.22478

    Dario Floriano: https://people.epfl.ch/dario.floreano?lang=en

    Manuela Veloso: https://engineering.cmu.edu/directory/bios/veloso-manuela.html

    PhD

    PhD thesis: https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/dbb9fe40-930c-4e54-a5c0-10b62ebb6d1c
    Robot swarm video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_qRuHkD5lc

    Onboard evolution of swarm behaviours: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/aisy.201900031

    Supervisory control papers: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/229980063/Paper_SWARM2019.pdf

    MAP-elites algorithm: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-77538-8_49

    Morphogenesis

    James Sharpe: https://www.embl.org/people/person/james-sharpe/

    Original paper: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/scirobotics.aau9178

    Controllability of morphogenesis: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/toward-controllable-morphogenesis-in-large-robot-swarms

    Controllability in control theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controllability

    Steve Brunton controllability Gramian video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNHx62HbKNA

    Alan Turing reaction diffusion paper: https://www.dna.caltech.edu/courses/cs191/paperscs191/turing.pdf

    Nanoswarms

    Sangita Bhatia: https://ki.mit.edu/people/faculty/sangeeta-bhatia

    Nanoswarm papers: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4295824/

    John Ives: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Jonathan-Ives-fa38de81-8d34-4978-a99d-1f55efe2e0f4/

    Matimba Swana: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/matimba-c-swana

    Outreach

    AIhub.org: https://aihub.org/

    Robohub.org: https://robohub.org/

    Drones for 3D printing buildings: https://robohub.org/five-ways-drones-will-change-the-way-buildings-are-designed/

    AI environmental impact: https://aihub.org/2025/02/06/explained-generative-ais-environmental-impact/

    AI for drug development: https://aihub.org/2025/01/09/will-ai-revolutionize-drug-development-researchers-explain-why-it-depends-on-how-its-used/

    Extra questions

    Radhika Nagpal: https://www.radhikanagpal.org/

    Dot robots: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.13809

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    55 mins
  • William Holderbaum (Geometric control and electroactive matter)
    Feb 2 2025
    In this episode, I talk to Professor William Holderbaum about some of the many fascinating areas of research he’s involved in, including Boolean control, geometric control, and control of electroactive polymer gels—plus a lot more! Follow us for updates on new episodes: Instagram BlueSky X (Twitter) PhD research PhD Thesis (in French)Boolean Control Using State-Space ApproachNeural Networks for Boolean ControlPID Control of Boolean SystemsPredictive ControlSliding Mode Control FES work Coffee and Control Episode with Chris FreemanProfessor Ken HuntFES for Paraplegic StandingAdaptive PIDSliding Mode Control FES muscle fatigue papers Chapter 5 of this ThesisPubMed Paper 1PubMed Paper 2IEEE Explore PaperFatigue reduction with soft robotics Geometric control Resources for Understanding Geometric ControlLecture SlidesYouTube Video6D Lie GroupsApplication to SpacecraftTime-Parameterized Motion Planning Control of RTG cranes Optimal Control and MPCFuzzy Logic Control Electroactive polymer gels Paper 1Paper 2Springer Chapter Model-Based Control of Soft RobotsArm with Self-Control Feedback Loop
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    55 mins

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