Welcome to the Energy Systems Control Laboratory

The Energy Systems Control Lab aims to advance the capability and efficiency of complex energy systems through dynamic modeling and control. Through a combination of control theory, simulation, and experimental application, our group develops and demonstrates advanced modeling and control techniques required to overcome the power limitations and improve the efficiency of today’s high-performance energy systems. Our group conducts research at the intersection of three areas:

• • Dynamic Modeling
    We focus on developing control-oriented dynamic models of complex energy systems. These models need to capture how energy is stored, distributed, and converted between a variety of energy domains over a wide range of timescales. We use a combination of physics-based and data-driven methods to develop experimentally-validated models to be used in simulation and model-based control design.

• • Control Theory
    We develop, analyze, and evaluate advanced control strategies designed to improve the performance, safety, and efficiency of complex energy systems. Due to the complexity of these systems, hierarchical and distributed control strategies are often required to provide scalability and computational efficiency. We focus on designing and demonstrating control approaches that provide theoretical performance guarantees while remaining practical and easily implementable.

• • Energy Systems
    Electrification of power systems is a societal megatrend, especially for vehicle systems such as aircraft, on- and off-road vehicles, and ships. With this electrification, effectively and efficiently managing the heat generated by these systems has already become a major barrier. The modeling and control approaches developed by our group will not only increase the total power and power density of these systems, but will also make these systems easier, safer, and cheaper to operate.