Dynamical Systems Lab

Areas of Research

Dynamical Systems theory, control and optimization:

Geometric and topological methods in dynamical systems
Operator theoretic methods (Perron-Frobenius/Koopman) for analysis and control
Continuum approach to multi-agent system control and decision making (Mean-field control and mean-field games, Optimal Transport)

Applications to:

Large-scale multi-agent systems (swarm robotics, traffic)
Microfluidics and active fluids (chaotic mixing, topological chaos, flow control)
Metamaterial design (Energy transfers in nonlinear media)
Atmospheric Flows (Reduced-order modeling , LiDAR data-assimilation)
Astrodynamics (Low-energy space mission design)
Buoyancy driven flow in built environment (control of HVAC)

Dynamical Systems Lab (DSL), led by Prof. Piyush Grover in Mechanical and Materials Engineering (MME) at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, focusses on developing analysis, control and optimization methods for nonlinear dynamical systems, and their application to several areas including large-scale multi-agent robotics, fluid mechanics, structural mechanics/nonlinear vibration and astrodynamics. Dynamical systems and control theory provides a strong foundation for tackling problems in (solid/fluid/bio) mechanics, and robotics, among other areas.

Updates

Feb 2020: Joint work with Mike Norton on optimal control of active nematics will be presented by Mike at the APS March Meeting.

Jan 2020: Paper accepted at American Control Conference (ACC 2020) with colleagues from MERL and Univ. Minnesota on robust estimation of airflow in buildings. Preprint forthcoming.

Nov 2019: Conference APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Meeting Nov 2019: 2 Talks with collaborators from MERL and Univ. Cambridge.

Nov 2019: Presented work on mean-field games at UNL Math Department's Continuum Mechanics Seminar

Oct 2019: New poster on LiDAR based data assimilimation.

Oct 2019: A new postdoctoral position is available. See ad here.

Sept 2019: New paper with colleagues from MERL and Univ. Cambridge on optimal control of airflow in buildings.

August 2019: DSL is established. We are looking for undergraduate and graduate students to join the lab.

July 2019: Workshop Particulate and Granular Networks, Max Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany
June 2019:Workshop Crowds: Models and Control workshop, CIRM, Marseille, France
May 2019: Conference SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, Utah. Presented a talk on MFG based flocking models and their stability analysis.