Nonlinear & Adaptive Control Laboratory

Azad Ghaffari

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0411

Office: 1801 EBU1
E-mail: aghaffari@ucsd.edu
Ph: (858) 822-2406




I currently work under the supervision of Prof. Miroslav Krstić on safety verification of cyber-physical systems and performance optimization of systems with state-dependent sample rate.

Research Interests

  1. Controls
  2. Safety verification, distributed supervisory control design, component swapping modularity, linear matrix inequalities, extremum seeking, sliding mode control, and artificial neural networks.

  3. Energy Systems
  4. Aggregate modeling and power control of responsive loads, load forecasting, photovoltaic systems, wind energy conversion systems, combined cycle power generators, induction machines, multiphase synchronous machines, power electronics theory, multilevel inverters, and DC-DC converters.

  5. Precision Mechatronics
  6. High-precision motion control and contouring, cross-coupling control, contour error estimation, distributed servo-systems, flexible-link robots, autonomous vehicles.


Past and Current Research

Google Scholar Citations


Education

Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences (2013), University of California, San Diego   and   San Diego State University (joint degree)
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (2004), K. N. Toosi University of Technology
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (2001), K. N. Toosi University of Technology


Work Experience

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, under supervision of Prof. Galip Ulsoy, U-M, Ann Arbor (2014-2016)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, under supervision of Prof. Miroslav Krstić and Prof. Scott Moura, UCSD, San Diego (2013-2014)
Graduate Research Fellow, under supervision of Prof. Miroslav Krstić and Prof. Sridhar Seshagiri, UCSD-SDSU, San Diego (2009-2013)
Design Engineer, Interra Energy, Inc., San Diego (Summer 2012)
Design Engineer, Monenco Iran Company, Tehran-Iran (2007-2009)
Electrical Engineering Instructor, Sanandaj Azad University, Sanandaj-Iran (2008)
Research Engineer, Niroo Research Institute, Tehran-Iran (2004-2007)
Teaching Assistant and Graduate Researcher, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran-Iran (2001-2004)


Publications

    Journal Papers

  1. A. Ghaffari and A. G. Ulsoy, “Component swapping modularity for distributed precision contouring,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, to appear.
  2. A. Ghaffari and A. G. Ulsoy, “LMI-based design of distributed controllers to achieve component swapping modularity,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, to appear.
  3. A. Ghaffari and A. G. Ulsoy, “Dynamic contour error estimation and feedback modification for high-precision contouring,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, DOI 10.1109/TMECH.2015.2494518.
  4. A. Ghaffari, S. Moura, and M. Krstić, “Modeling, control, and stability analysis of heterogeneous thermostatically controlled load populations using partial differential equations,” ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, vol. 137, pp. 101009(1-9), 2015.
  5. A. Ghaffari, S. Seshagiri, and M. Krstić, “Multivariable maximum power point tracking for photovoltaic micro-converters using extremum seeking,” Control Engineering Practice, vol. 35, pp. 83-91, 2015.
  6. A. Ghaffari, M. Krstić, and S. Seshagiri, “Power optimization for photovoltaic micro-converters using multivariable Newton-based extremum seeking,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 22, pp. 2141-2149, 2014.
  7. A. Ghaffari, M. Krstić, and S. Seshagiri, “Power optimization and control in wind energy conversion systems using extremum seeking,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 22, pp. 1684-1695, 2014.
  8. A. Ghaffari, M. Krstić, and S. Seshagiri, “Extremum seeking for wind and solar energy applications,” Mechanical Engineering, vol. 136, no. 3, pp. S13-S21, March 2014.
  9. A. Ghaffari, M. Krstić, and D. Nešić, “ Multivariable Newton-based extremum seeking,” Automatica, vol. 48, pp. 1759-1767, 2012.
  10. Conference Papers

  11. A. Ghaffari, I. Abel, D. Ricketts, S. Lerner, and M. Krstić, “Safety verification using barrier certificates with application to second order systems with constrained discrete inputs,” American Control Conference, submitted.
  12. A. Ghaffari and A. G. Ulsoy, “Experimental verification of component swapping modularity for precision contouring,” American Control Conference, 2017.
  13. A. Ghaffari and A. G. Ulsoy, “Design of distributed controllers for component swapping modularity using linear matrix inequalities,” in Proc. of IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, 2016.
  14. A. Ghaffari and A. G. Ulsoy, “Experimental verification of dynamic contour error estimation for high-precision contouring of two-axis servo-systems,” in Proc. of ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, 2015.
  15. A. Ghaffari and A. G. Ulsoy, “Newton-based contour error estimation and robust cross-coupling control for high-precision fast contouring,” in Proc. of American Control Conference, 2015.
  16. A. Ghaffari, S. Moura, and M. Krstić, “Analytic modeling and integral control of heterogeneous thermostatically controlled load populations,” in Proc. of ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, 2014.
  17. M. Krstić, A. Ghaffari, and S. Seshagiri , “Extremum seeking for wind and solar energy applications,” in Proc. of 1st International Conference on Electrical, Electronic and Computing Engineering, Keynote Session, 2014.
  18. M. Krstić, A. Ghaffari, and S. Seshagiri , “Extremum seeking for wind and solar energy applications,” in Proc. of 11th World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation, Plenary Lecture, 2014.
  19. A. Ghaffari, M. Krstić, and S. Seshagiri, “Power optimization and control in wind energy conversion systems using extremum seeking,” in Proc. of American Control Conference, 2013.
  20. A. Ghaffari, M. Krstić, and S. Seshagiri, “Power optimization for photovoltaic micro-converters using multivariable Newton-based extremum-seeking,” in Proc. of IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2012.
  21. A. Ghaffari, S. Seshagiri, and M. Krstić, “Power optimization for photovoltaic micro-converters using multivariable gradient-based extremum-seeking,” in Proc. of American Control Conference, 2012.
  22. A. Ghaffari, M. Krstić, and D. Nešić, “Multivariable Newton-based extremum seeking,” in Proc. of IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2011.
  23. A. Ghaffari and M. J. Yazdanpanah, “Computing optimized nonlinear sliding surfaces,” in Proc. of Chinese Control and Decision Conference, 2008.
  24. M. J. Yazdanpanah and A. Ghafari, “Modification of sliding mode controller by using a neural network with application to a flexible-link,” in Proc. of European Control Conference, 2003.

Educational Notes

The following documents are prepared for educational purposes and, upon recognizing the source, can be used by interested scholars.

Last updated on 10 Oct 2017