Control Group

Cambridge University Department of Engineering

Professor Malcolm C. Smith

Faculty Member

Tel: +44 1223 3 32745
Fax: +44 1223 332662
Email: mcs@eng.cam.ac.uk
Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ

Background

Malcolm Smith received the B.A. (M.A.) degree in mathematics, the M.Phil in control engineering and operational research and the Ph.D. degree in control Engineering from the University of Cambridge, England. He was subsequently a Research Fellow at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, a Visiting Assistant Professor and Research Fellow with the Department of Electrical Engineering at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. He is now a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and a Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He received the 1992 and 1999 George Axelby Best Paper Awards, in the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control in 1992 and 1999, both times for joint work with T.T. Georgiou. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Current Research Interests

Robust control, passivity based control, circuit synthesis, mechanical networks, mathematical systems theory, nonlinear systems and automotive applications.

Publications

Selected Recent Papers of M.C.Smith

The Inerter

  • Synthesis of Mechanical Networks: The Inerter, by M.C. Smith. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume 47, Number 10, Pages 1648- 1662, October 2002 PDF
  • The Inerter Concept and Its Application, Plenary Lecture, Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE) Annual Conference, Fukui, Japan, 4 August 2003
  • Performance Benefits in Passive Vehicle Suspensions Employing Inerters, by M.C. Smith and F.-C. Wang. Vehicle System Dynamics, Volume 42, Number 4, Pages 235-257, 2004
  • Positive real synthesis using matrix inequalities for mechanical networks: application to vehicle suspension, by C. Papageorgiou and M.C. Smith. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Volume 14, Number 3, Pages 423-435, May 2006
  • Passive Network Synthesis Revisited, Semi-Plenary Lecture, 17th International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems (MTNS), Kyoto, Japan, July 24-28, 2006
  • Experimental Testing and Analysis of Inerter Devices, by C. Papageorgiou, N.E. Houghton and M.C. Smith. Transactions of ASME, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, vol. 131, pp. 011001-1-11, 2009
  • The missing mechanical circuit element, by M.Z.Q. Chen, C. Papageorgiou, F. Scheibe, F-C. Wang and M.C. Smith. IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine,9(1), pp. 10-26, 2009
  • Passive Suspensions Incorporating Inerters for Railway Vehicles, by J.Z. Jiang, A.Z. Matamoros-Sanchez, R.M. Goodall and M.C. Smith. Vehicle System Dynamics, 50, Supplement, pp. 263-276, 2012
  • Control for Formula One!, by M.C. Smith. IEEE Control Systems Society report on Impact of Control, Part 2: Success Stories in Control

Circuit Synthesis

  • Regular Positive-Real Functions and Five-Element Network Synthesis for Electrical and Mechanical Networks, by J.Z. Jiang and M.C. Smith. IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control, vol. 56, pp. 1275-1290, 2011
  • On the theorem of Reichert, by J.Z. Jiang and M.C. Smith. Systems and Control Letters, vol. 61, pp. 1124-1131, 2012
  • Series-Parallel Six-Element Synthesis of Biquadratic Impedances, by J.Z. Jiang and M.C. Smith. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I, vol. 59, 2543-2554, 2012
  • Algebraic criteria for circuit realisations, by T.H. Hughes and M.C. Smith, Mathematical System Theory - Festschrift in Honor of Uwe Helmke on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, Knut Hueper and Jochen Trumpf (eds.), CreateSpace, 2013, ISBN 978-1470044008, pp. 211-228 PDF

Vehicle Suspensions

  • Analytical solutions for optimal ride comfort and tyre grip for passive vehicle suspensions, by F. Scheibe and M.C. Smith. Vehicle System Dynamics, 47, 1229-1252, 2009
  • Linear Quadratic Optimal and Risk-Sensitive Control for Vehicle Active Suspensions, by P. Brezas and M.C. Smith. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 2013, online

Power Dissipation

  • Power dissipation in automotive suspensions, by M.C. Smith and S.J. Swift. Vehicle System Dynamics, vol. 49, 59-74, 2011
  • Power Absorption Invariance for Brownian Spring Forcing, by J.M.C. Clark and M.C. Smith. 51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Maui, Hawaii, Dec.10-13, 2012, pp. 4396-4399

Validated Numerical Methods

  • Validated numerical computation of the L-infinity norm for linear dynamical systems, by M. Kanno and M.C. Smith. Journal of Symbolic Computation, Volume 41, Number 6, Pages 697-707, June 2006
  • Guaranteed Accuracy Computations in Systems and Control, by M. Kanno and M.C. Smith. European Control Conference, September 2003 PDF
  • Maple programs for validated numerical computation in systems control, by M. Kanno and M.C. Smith. 2005

Other Articles

  • A Behavioral Approach to Play in Mechanical Networks, by F. Scheibe and M.C. Smith. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, 47, pp. 2967-2990, 2008
  • Feedback control and the arrow of time, by T.T. Georgiou and M.C. Smith. International Journal of Control, 83: 7, pp. 1325-1338, 2010