Control of Nonlinear Physical Systems Workshop

The workshop will provide a comprehensive view of the subject of nonlinear control of physical systems. As geometry and calculus of variations are of fundamental importance for physics and nonlinear control, the workshop will promote the use of these techniques in both theoretical engineering and applications. It will focus on the structure of configuration/state spaces, symmetry and reduction in dynamics and control, exactly-solvable nonlinear control problems, control and stabilization of underactuated systems with constraints, and numerical techniques for nonlinear control, including structure-preserving geometric integrators. Examples will be drawn from recent work, chosen to illustrate the broad range of applicability these methods have in engineering. Professor Anthony M. Bloch is a leading researcher and widely recognized contributor to the field of nonlinear dynamics and control. His 60th birthday is celebrated with this workshop devoted to the exploration of nonlinear control methods as applied to physical systems, both classical and quantum, the areas in which Professor Bloch made fundamental contributions. He is a fellow of the IEEE, AMS, and SIAM, Editor in Chief of SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, and current or former member of editorial boards of many excellent journals.