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Library > Fact Sheets > AFOSR: Dynamics and Control
AFOSR: DYNAMICS AND CONTROL
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Mathematics, Information and Life Sciences Directorate
Dynamics and Control
Lt Col Scott Wells, Program Manager
This program emphasizes the interplay of dynamical systems and control theories with the aim of developing innovative synergistic strategies for the design and analysis of controlled systems that enable radically enhanced capabilities for future Air Force applications. Proposals should focus on the fundamental science and mathematics, but should include connectivity to appropriate Air Force applications. These applications currently include information systems, as well as autonomous/semi-autonomous aerial vehicles, munitions, and space vehicles.
Some current research interests include adaptive control and decision making in coordinating autonomous/semi-autonomous aerospace vehicles in uncertain, information rich, dynamically changing, networked environments; understanding how to optimally include humans in the design space; novel schemes that enable challenging multi-agent aerospace tracking in complex, cluttered scenarios; robust and adaptive non-equilibrium control of nonlinear processes where the primary objective is enhanced operability rather than just local stability; new methods for understanding and mitigating the effects of uncertainties in dynamical processes; novel hybrid control systems that can intelligently manage actuator, sensor, and processor communications in a complex, spatially distributed and evolving system of systems; sensor rich, data driven adaptive control; and the control of unsteady fluid-structure interactions. In general, support for research in linear systems theory is declining, while interest in the control of complex, multi-scale, hybrid, highly uncertain nonlinear systems is increasing.
The dramatic increase in complexity of Air Force systems provides unique challenges for the Dynamics and Control program. Meeting these challenges will require interdisciplinary approaches to provide significant advances in methods and tools for modeling, simulation, analysis, and real-time control of complex multi-scale, hybrid dynamical systems. Emerging new mathematics for characterizing biological phenomena and capturing fundamental engineering design principles will both accelerate development of these new tools and methods and increase our insight into biological systems. In this regard, feedback control concepts motivated from studies of biological organisms and processes are of interest.
The Dynamics and Control program places special emphasis on techniques addressing realistic treatment of physical applications, to include attention to constraints, scalability, and complexity management, handling of system variations and environmental uncertainty, and real-time operation in extreme and adversarial environments.
Contact:
Lt Col Scott Wells
AFOSR/NL
Tele: (703) 696-7796
DSN: 426-7796
FAX: (703) 696-8449
Email: scott.wells@afosr.af.mil
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