ECE 451: Control Engineering (Fall 2018)

Note: This webpage is for course information only. For latest announcements and course material, you should visit the Piazza page.

Lectures

Tue/Thu, 5:00-6:15pm, C1 LC

Instructor

Shuo Han (hanshuo@uic.edu)
Office hour: Mon, 3:00-5:00pm, 1110 SEO

Teaching Assistant

Duc Vu (dvu4@uic.edu)
Office hour: Tue, 12:30-1:30pm, 923 SEO

Course Description

The course serves as a second course in control for undergraduates and first-year graduate students who wish to learn more about modern control design techniques from a practical perspective. The course mainly focuses on analysis and design of dynamical systems using state space methods and tools from linear algebra. Topics to be covered include: State space modeling of dynamical systems; Stability analysis in state space; Reachability/controllability and state feedback; Observability and observer design; Optimization-based design of controllers (linear quadratic regulator, receding-horizon control) and observers (Kalman filtering).

Prerequisites

ECE 350 or equivalent course on introductory control. Linear algebra. Familiarity with MATLAB.

Topics

• State space modeling of dynamical systems
• Stability analysis
  • Equilibrium point
  • Solution of linear dynamical systems using matrix exponential, modal decomposition
  • Eigenvalue test of stability
• State feedback
  • Reachability/controllability
  • State feedback and pole placement
  • Reference tracking
• Output feedback
  • Observability
  • Observer design
  • Output feedback, separation principle
• Optimal control and filtering
  • Linear-quadratic regulator (LQR)
  • Receding-horizon control
  • Kalman filter

Grading

• Homework (30%): Homework sets are usually issued every Thursday and are due the following Thursday in class.
  • There will be 12 homework sets in total.
  • No homework will be assigned in Weeks 8 and 15 due to midterm and final exams.
  • Homework 11 will be assigned on Tuesday, Week 13 (prior to Thanksgiving) and due on Thursday, Week 14.
  • The lowest one will be dropped.
  • (Updated 10/2/18) If you are an undergraduate but choose to solve the homework problems that are marked "for graduate students only", your solutions will still be graded by the TA. For any single homework assignment, points earned from these problems will be counted toward the total grade, but your grade cannot exceed the maximum possible total grade from all regular problems (i.e., not marked with "G"). On Blackboard, you will still see the total grade from all problems, but we will perform the truncation when determining your final letter grade at the end of the semester.
• Midterm (30%) and final (40%) exams: Both will be in-class, closed-book, and close-notes. The dates will be announced at a later time. You may use a single letter-sized double-sided "cheat sheet" during the exam. The cheat sheet may contain formulas, facts, definitions, and theorems. However, your cheat sheet may not contain worked examples. You must hand in your cheat sheet along with your completed exam. No calculators/computers are allowed in the exams.
• Cutoff grades: A-85%, B-70%, C-55%.

Course Policy

• Check the Piazza page regularly for latest announcements and course material. The UIC Blackboard page will only be used for posting grades and lecture recordings.
• Homework
  • Collaboration on homework assignments is encouraged. You may consult the lecture notes, the textbook listed below, references mentioned in class, other students, the TA, or the instructor. You may also consult outside references not listed on the course webpage, provided that you cite those references in your homework solutions.
    
  • You cannot consult homework solutions from prior years or solution manuals. All solutions that are handed in should be written up individually and should reflect your own understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Identical solutions will receive no credits.
  • MATLAB scripts and plots are considered part of your writeup and should be done individually (you can share ideas, but not code).
  • Show all your work to receive credits. However, we will deduct points from long needlessly complex solutions, even if they are correct. If you find that your solution to a problem goes on and on for many pages, you should try to come up with a simpler one. One useful way to shorten your solutions is to cite results derived in class or from the textbooks.
  • Make a copy of your homework prior to submission. You will be asked to provide your copy for any claims of missing homework.
  • Late homework: Late homework will not be accepted without proper supporting documents (e.g., a note from doctor or the Dean).
• You should keep the course material (lecture notes, audio recordings, and homework problems and solutions) for personal use only and not post them on public websites (e.g., Course Hero).
• Students who wish to observe their religious holidays should notify instructor by the tenth day of the semester of the date when they will be absent unless the religious holiday is observed on or before the tenth day of the semester. In such cases, the students should notify the instructor at least five days in advance of the date when he/she will be absent. Every reasonable effort will be made to honor the request.

Course Text and References

The lecture notes will be the primary source of reference. The main textbook for the course is

• [Bay99] John S. Bay, Fundamentals of Linear State Space Systems, 1999. Online access

Other references

For textbooks with "UIC access", you need to connect to the UIC campus network or VPN. Alternatively, you can search for the textbook on the UIC library website and click the eBook link therein.

Control theory:

• [AM08] K. J. Astrom and Richard M. Murray, Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers, Princeton University Press, 2008. Online access
• [WL07] Robert L. Williams II and Douglas A. Lawrence, Linear State-Space Control Systems, Wiley, 2007. UIC access
• [AM07] Panos J. Antsaklis and Anthony N. Michel, A Linear Systems Primer, Springer, 2007. UIC access

Linear algebra:

• Sheldon Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right, Springer, 2015. UIC access
• Géza Schay, A Concise Introduction to Linear Algebra, Springer, 2012. UIC access (Note: The odd-numbered exercises have solutions available in the Solutions Manual for Students on the book's webpage.)