Control Systems Research Engineer(July 2014 – Present), Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies (CTCT), Christchurch, New Zealand.
Project lead on projects investigating the potential for autonomous (and semi-autonomous) off-highway and construction machines. Feasibility, concept development and concept validation through modelling, simulation, and system testing for next generation autonomous machines.
Staff Researcher (March 2003 – July 2014), Electrical and Controls Integration Lab, Research and Development, General Motors Corporation, Warren, Michigan, USA.
Project lead on vehicle health management for chassis, electrical and fuel systems. Development and validate through simulation, hardware-in-the-loop and vehicle testing of both in-vehicle and off-board algorithms for vehicle component and systems to add prognosis and improve the diagnosis, fault detection and isolation.
Research Engineer (March 2003 – November 2006), Electrical and Controls Integration Lab, Research and Development, General Motors Corporation, Warren, Michigan, USA.
The research and development of future vehicle chassis control systems including design and development of fail-safe, fault-tolerant and safely critical system control solutions for future by-wire vehicles. I’ve worked on projects that enhance vehicle stability, specifically integrating steering; braking and semi-active suspension control systems. This involved control systems design, systems modeling, simulation, product development, verification and vehicle testing. I have also developed the diagnostic algorithms and system architecture for these systems. This included developing state and parameter estimation to enable graceful degradation through reconfigurable controller design upon component failure.
Research Fellow (April 1999 – March 2003), Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK.
This role primarily involved research and its dissemination through publication, together with writing applications for research grants. The research was conducted on both an individual level and in collaboration with companies on their specific research issues. My job also included the supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate student projects and PhD students. I also had teaching and lecturing duties and these include lecturing Matlab on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and lecturing MSc students on systems modeling and optimization.
The specific interest of my research is focused on applying intelligent systems, soft computing and computational intelligence approaches to provide mechatronic solutions to automotive engineering problems. This ranges from multi-objective optimization for passive component designs to reinforcement learning techniques that provide real-time, on-line optimal solutions to dynamic systems. New methods of vehicle chassis systems integration and control architectures were also investigated. This work involves developing models, validation these and testing novel control design solutions.
Research Associate (August 1994 – April 1999), Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering and Transport Studies, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK.
‘Development of a Learning Automata Methodology in the Context of Vehicle Suspension Control.’
This was a research project supported by the EPSRC and in collaboration with the Ford Motor Company. My research has investigated non-associative reinforcement learning techniques and resulted in the development of new learning control algorithms for real-time control. I have been responsible for the development, testing and validation of these algorithms in extensive computer simulations, together with experimental work involving a test vehicle fitted with a controllable semi-active suspension. The project was rated by EPSRC as Alpha 4 for scientific and technological merit and was given an excellent rating for the management and use of resources.
Extensive experience of Matlab, Simulink and rapid control prototyping.
Programming experience with the Java, C, Pascal and 'Modula 2’ languages in DOS, WINDOWS and UNIX.
Good interpersonal and communication skills.
Enthusiastic, hardworking, friendly and approachable.
A flexible and versatile approach to problem solving.
I work well in a team situation and individually as appropriate.
An effective communicator in both written and spoken English.
Senior Member of the IEEE
Member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
Guest Editor of the International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems for two special issues on Integrated Vehicle Control ( Vol. 5, Nos. 1/2, 2007).
1990-1994 (May 1995) PhD. Applications of Complex Systems to Pattern Recognition, Optimisation and Control. University of Sheffield, UK.
This research involved the study of the emergent global properties of systems that are governed by simple, locally acting rules. The research explored methodologies to control of the evolution of a systems structure towards solutions which guarantee desirable properties of the final systems behaviour.
1989 – 1990 (May 1991) MSc. Control Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK.
Dissertation: The design and development of a software package for the analysis and design of nonlinear systems using the describing function. Modules: Introduction to Simulation and Control; System Modelling and Simulation; Control Systems Analysis and Design; Adaptive and Self-Tuning Control; System Identification; Software Engineering; Computer Control and Architectures; Signal Processing and Estimation; Nonlinear Systems; Optimal Control; State Space and Multivariable Systems and Intelligent Systems.
1984 – 1987 (July 1987) BSc. (Hons.) Cybernetics and Control Engineering, University of Reading, UK.