How to get a faculty job, Part 1: The application, a blog post by Matt Welsh. An important precondition is that the competence of the candidate should pass a certain threshold, which may be a bottleneck for most people.

Some interesting papers (co-)authored by Markus Brandner:

• Graphical modelling of measurement uncertainties in vision-based metrology, in Advanced Methods for Uncertainty Estimation in Measurement (AMUEM) 2009.
• Vision-Based Control of an Inverted Pendulum using Cascaded Particle Filters, in Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference 2008. It compares measurements from a camera against measurements from a hall effect sensor. The difference between them is at the scale of 10 millimeters for the inverted pendulum setup. The hall effect sensor is the AS5040 from austriamicrosystems (AMS).
• Uncertainty in optical measurement applications: a case study, in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement (TIM) 2006.

Vibroacoustic: The challenges of a mission impossible?, in Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing Jan. 2013.

Some interesting papers in Computer Vision and Image Understanding Jan. 2013:

• Modeling dynamic swarms
• Efficient and accurate face detection using heterogeneous feature descriptors and feature selection
• Adaptive Census Transform: A novel hardware-oriented stereovision algorithm

Two interesting papers in Annual Reviews in Control Dec. 2012:

• Origins of robust control: Early history and future speculations
• Nanopositioning for storage applications

Discrimination and description of repetitive patterns for enhancing the performance of feature-based recognition, in Image and Vision Computing Nov. 2012.

Contour tracking control in position domain, in Journal of Mechatronics Oct. 2012.

Ultra-precision positioning system using robust sliding mode observer and control, in Precision Engineering Jan. 2013.

Model predictive controller design and implementation on FPGA with application to motor servo system, in Control Engineering Practice Nov. 2012.

Two recent papers in IEEE Transactions on Informatics (TII) on variable structure control:

• Variable Structure Systems With Sliding Modes in Motion Control—A Survey, in TII May 2011.
• Computer-Controlled Variable Structure Systems: The State-of-the-Art, in TII May 2012.

Two old papers on deadtime compensation:

• Deadtime compensation for nonlinear processes, in 1989.
• On-line dead-time compensation method based on time delay control, in TCST 2003.

Energy-efficient mechanisms for managing on-chip storage in throughput processors, the PhD thesis of Mark Gebhart, in 2012.

Control of cyber-physical systems using incremental properties of physical systems, the PhD thesis of Majid Zamani, in 2012.

Signal Filtering in PID Control (paper, slides), by Tore Hägglund, the keynote in proceesings of IFAC Conference on Advances in PID Control 2012. More info is available from the website of the PID Control project.

A random collection of Smith Predictor:

• A simple adaptive Smith-predictor for controlling time-delay systems: A tutorial, in IEEE Control Systems Magazine 1983.
• From Smith’s predictor to model-based predictive control, a talk by Peter Gawthrop in Delay Equations and Their Applications 2003.

System identification—A survey, by Karl Johan Aastroem, in Automatica 1971.

Several preprints in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII):

• Data-Driven Reference Trajectory Tracking Algorithm and Experimental Validation
• Model Predictive Control for Reference Tracking on an Industrial Machine Tool Servo Drive
• A Comparison of Model Predictive Control Schemes for MV Induction Motor Drives
• Stabilization of systems over bit rate constrained networked control architecture
• Survey of Studies on Network-Induced Constraints in Networked Control Systems

A random collection of papers on model predictive control:

• Model Predictive Control of Unknown Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Based on Recurrent Neural Networks, in TIE 2012.
• Model Predictive Control of Nonlinear Systems With Unmodeled Dynamics Based on Feedforward and Recurrent Neural Networks
• Embedded high-speed Model Predictive Controller on a FPGA, in Adaptive Hardware and Systems 2011.

A random collection of papers on input/command/reference shaping:

• Reference Signal Shaping for Closed-Loop Systems With Application to Seeking in Hard Disk Drives, in TCST 2012.
• Embedded Optimization for Input Shaping
• Trajectory design considering derivative of jerk for head-positioning of disk drive system with mechanical vibration, in TMECh 2006.
• Fast and precise positioning of ball screw-driven table system using minimum jerk control-based command shaping, in Advanced Motion Control 2006.

Should you follow the experts?, a blog post by Daniel Lemire. The comments of this post are also interesting. The comments point to two other interesting articles:

• Who Are These Economists, Anyway?, by James K. Galbraith.
• “No One Saw This Coming”: Understanding Financial Crisis Through Accounting Models, by Dirk J. Bezemer with University of Groningen.

Two interesting articles in Communications of the ACM (CACM) Oct. 2012:

• A few useful things to know about machine learning
• Toward higher precision

The challenges ahead for bio-inspired ‘soft’ robotics, in CACM Nov. 2012.

FPGA Implementations of Piecewise Affine Functions Based on Multi-Resolution Hyperrectangular Partitions, by Francesco Comaschi, et al., to appear in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I.

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine Sep. 2012 is a special issue on aerial robotics and the quadrotor. Articles on this topics are:

• Multirotor Aerial Vehicles: Modeling, Estimation, and Control of Quadrotor
• Build Your Own Quadrotor: Open-Source Projects on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
• Toward a Fully Autonomous UAV: Research Platform for Indoor and Outdoor Urban Search and Rescue
• Agile Load Transportation : Safe and Efficient Load Manipulation with Aerial Robots
• Shared Control : Balancing Autonomy and Human Assistance with a Group of Quadrotor UAVs

Two interesting papers in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (TIE) Jan. 2013:

• Frequency-Domain Damping Design for Time-Delayed Bilateral Teleoperation System Based on Modal Space Analysis
• Sliding-Mode Control for Systems With Mismatched Uncertainties via a Disturbance Observer

Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Validation of Single-Phase Direct Versus Cascade Voltage Control in Islanded Microgrids, in TIE Feb. 2013.

Response of Dynamical Systems to Nonstationary Inputs, in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (TSP) Nov. 2012.

A Customized Processor for Energy Efficient Scientific Computing, from University of Michigan, in IEEE Transactions on Computers Dec. 2012.

Some recent overview of PID controller design and analysis:

• The future of PID control, in Control Engineering Practice 2000.
• PID controllers: recent tuning methods and design to specification, in IET-CTA 2002.
• PID control system analysis, design, and technology, in TCST 2005.
• PID control system analysis and design, in IEEE Control Systems Magazine (MCS) 2006.
• Patents, software, and hardware for PID control: an overview and analysis of the current art, in MCS 2006.

Finite-State Machine Motion Controller: Servo Drives, in IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine (MIE) Sep. 2012.

Several interesting papers in IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO) Oct. 2012:

• Automated Multiprobe Microassembly Using Vision Feedback
• Coherent Pattern Prediction in Swarms of Delay-Coupled Agents
• Modeling the Motion of Microrobots on Surfaces Using Nonsmooth Multibody Dynamics

The proceeding of American Control Conference (ACC) 2012 is available. Several papers are from Eindhoven. A random collection of them:

• Improving the performance of a printing system using Model Reference Adaptive Control: An LMI approach
• Control strategy for systems with input-induced nonlinearities: A printing system case study
• Observer-based robust L2 control for a professional printing system
• Parameterized Iterative Learning Control: Application to a wide format inkjet printer
• Next-generation wafer stage motion control: Connecting system identification and robust control
• Combined input shaping and feedforward control for flexible motion systems
• Variable gain motion control for transient performance improvement
• Data-based control tuning in master-slave systems
• Model-based feedforward for inferential motion systems, with application to a prototype lightweight motion system
• Plant enhancements in motion systems by modal control
• Tracking control of mechanical systems with impacts
• Robust performance control design for bilateral teleoperation under time-varying bounded operator and environment dynamics
• Lyapunov-based constrained engine torque control using electronic throttle and variable cam timing
• Scheduling measurements and controls over networks — Part I: Rollout strategies for protocol design
• Scheduling measurements and controls over networks — Part II: Rollout strategies for simultaneous protocol and controller design

Some interesting papers in IEEE Micro Sep.-Oct. 2012:

• Optimizing Data-Center TCO with Scale-Out Processors
• DySER: Unifying Functionality and Parallelism Specialization for Energy-Efficient Computing
• e6500: Freescale’s Low-Power, High-Performance Multithreaded Embedded Processor

Methodology for the Design of Analog Integrated Interfaces Using Contracts, from UC Berkeley, in IEEE Sensors Journal Dec. 2012.

Extendable pattern-oriented optimization directives, in ACM TACO Sep. 2012. It uses Godson-T as an example target.