AAE Colloquium: Dr. Robert Bitmead

Event Date: October 11, 2018
Hosted By: AAE
Time: 3:00pm
Location: ME 1061
Priority: Yes
School or Program: Aeronautics and Astronautics
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AirCraft Engine Certification: The Role of Theory in Practice

Dr. Robert Bitmead
Cymer Corporation Endowed Chair
Mechanical & Space Engineering
University of California, San Diego

Abstract

The Joint Strike Fighter engine controller is a fully multi-input multi-output design with nine output signals and five inputs, fully coupled. The certification of the engine-controller pair required the development and application of tools from multivariable robust control. The result was an accepted certification procedure which was applied to the controlled first engines in a test-stand prior to their use in flight. This development process will be described without too much math – just the good stuff – in this presentation but with the real focus being on what is the role of control theory in practice and on how do the practical requirements influence the development of theory. That is, what drives new theory. For the speaker, who considers himself a theoretician, this certification problem’s dance between theory and practice provided a head-slapping realization. Hopefully, the audience will be driven to slap their own heads too.

Bio

Bob Bitmead occupies the Cymer Corporation Endowed Chair in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. He holds degrees in Applied Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from Sydney University and Newcastle University, both in Australia. He is a control theorist with a long experience in control applications in many industrial sectors. His theoretical work is strongly informed and guided by these applications. He was the recipient of the 2014 ASME Rufus Oldenburger Medal and of the 2015 IEEE Controls Systems Transition to Practice Award. Bob is President Elect of the IEEE Control Systems Society. He was a member of the IFAC
Council from 1996 to 2002 and is Editor-in-Chief designate of the new IFAC Journal of Systems & Control. Bob brews his own beer and is an accredited and active Australian Rules Football umpire. Immediately after this visit to Purdue, he heads to Racine, Wisconsin, to officiate at the 22nd (and Bob’s 16th) National Championships of the US Australian Football League.