Coffee and Control

In this episode I had a wonderful time talking with Dr Hamed Rahimi Nohooji and all about control of robotics! We discussed dealing with constraints using barrier Lyapunov functions, control considerations in human-robot interaction,  control objectives for soft robotics, co-design of soft robots, wind turbine control, and a whole lot more! You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/cDetOw Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/References:Hamed Rahimi Nohooji: https://www.uni.lu/snt-en/people/hamed-rahimi-nohooji/Path planning of manipulators with flexible links: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.5772/10524Flexible robotics review: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01691864.2013.839079Moving obstacle avoidance paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00707-012-0799-5 PhD thesis: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/FBl2X0Adaptive control for robots with joint-space constraints: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0888327018301614Control for robots with velocity constraints: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016003217306269CLF and CBF reviews: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050921019128https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8796030 Original progressive BLF paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.06288 Learning progressive BLFs: [Under review]Romeo Ortega inControl episode: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/s5WEDsNNs for exoskeletons review: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/14/1/16Original paper by Nussbaum: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/016769118390021XChen Automatica Nussbaum function paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005109818306423Hamed’s Nussbaum function paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020025518310417Nussbaum functions for cyber attacks: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rnc.4749Nussbaum functions for wind turbine control: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8403101Neural impedance control paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925231218301607Hamed’s assist-as-needed control paper: https://www.araa.asn.au/acra/acra2016/papers/pap114s1.pdfWolbrecht paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4451797/ Shared autonomy in human-robot interaction: [Under review] Adaptive PID control paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001600321930955XNussbaum function-based PID control: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.soton.idm.oclc.org/document/10566270Adapting PID gains using reinforcement learning: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568494623011717 Wind turbine control paper: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/24/4712 Hamed’s hierarchical optimisation framework: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11020848Model-based soft robotic control review: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10136424Cossimo della Santina inControl episode: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/Nj9YFuPaper on soft robotic co-design: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.03761 Gioele Zardini episode of co-design: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3upRUgZBy79tqihMy9BDsJReview of soft robots in space: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aisy.202400785 Using physics-informed neural ODEs to control soft robots: https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105050598202Experimental control of soft robots using PINNs: https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105021529003 Sustainable interaction for soft robotics: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3776734.3794544IFAC cosserat rod paper: [Accepted]CSL paper on reachability constrained control: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=11664472

In this episode I got to chat with the incredibly wonderful Dr Keyan Miao about the fascinating work she’s done on neural ODEs. We discuss applying control theoretic tools to optimise neural ODEs, as well as their use for both controller and observer design. And in case that wasn’t already enough we also touch on dissipativity, Koopman operators, and reinforcement learning! You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iI0swQSnNEqgGQgf7og8udRV3IBCXbbfEkLFlolGxEU/edit?usp=sharingFollow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ Join the live recording on 20th October 2026!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S9X66_Wfzc( 9:30 PDT, 12:30 ET, 16:30 UTC, 17:30 BST, 18:30 CEST)ReferencesKeyan Miao: https://kymiao.github.io/Richard Vinter: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/r.vinter QianXiao Li from NUS and Wei-Nan Er from Princeton: https://www.jmlr.org/papers/volume18/17-653/17-653.pdfhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40687-018-0172-yhttps://ems.press/journals/jems/articles/5404458 Book on control theory/ philosophy: https://apac.ee.kntu.ac.ir/publications/books/control-systems-a-historical-and-philosophical-perspective/Control theory/ philosophy article: https://www.numberanalytics.com/blog/control-theory-philosophical-lens-languageNCCR automation fellowship: https://nccr-automation.ch/research-fellowshipAndreas Krause: https://las.inf.ethz.ch/krausea Steve Brunton ResNet video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1UsKanMatM&t=911sOriginal neural ODE paper: https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2018/file/69386f6bb1dfed68692a24c8686939b9-Paper.pdfSpeeding up Neural ODE training and inference: https://proceedings.mlr.press/v235/miao24a.html Neural ODE review: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950550X25000263Review of Neural ODEs in biomedical engineering: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-bioeng-110824-124907 Neural ODEs for observer design paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.00866 Non-linear observer review: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1367578821000948 Neural ODEs for control design papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17139 Survey on CBFs: https://coogan.ece.gatech.edu/papers/pdf/amesecc19.pdf Koopman operator paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.07294 Combining neural ODEs with RL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925231225007131 Neural ODE dissipativity paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005109826003043 Papers on Neural Network Verification: HuanZhang (UIUC)https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2018/file/d04863f100d59b3eb688a11f95b0ae60-Paper.pdfhttps://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper_files/paper/2021/file/fac7fead96dafceaf80c1daffeae82a4-Paper.pdfhttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.26577 Papers on Direct NN parameterization: Ian Manchester (USyd)and Patricia Pauli (Eindhoven)https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9319198https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.22258https://proceedings.mlr.press/v202/wang23v.htmlhttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9867842 Ricky Chen: https://rtqichen.github.io/Flow matching paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.02747 Antonis Papachristoudolou: https://eng.ox.ac.uk/people/antonis-papachristodoulouCarmen Amo Alonso episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/393QBgVgsQwgh4wKj1bcLy

In this episode I take you with me to the 2026 IFAC World Congress in Busan, South Korea, where I got to talk to a bunch of wonderful control researchers about their work. We cover a wide range of fascinating research areas, including observer design for transportation, event-triggered control, consensus control, extremum-seeking, robotic manipulation, control education and outreach, and a whole lot more! You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XE4krcWk6KgQjUUtgxKejmsTBYTermPeL9e3uVOnRJQ/edit?usp=sharing Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ReferencesWorkshopsArun Tangirala: https://arunkt-dev.github.io/Prem Jagadeesan: https://www.amrita.edu/faculty/prem-jagadeesan/Paper on defining sloppiness: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0282609Tom Oomen: https://toomen.eu/MondayinControl podcast: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/ Live event recording: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/19954769-ep49-incontrol-ifac-2026-m-vidyasagar-h-khalil-s-boyd-so-you-want-to-write-a-classicSelsabil Bougherara:  https://www.uphf.fr/lamih/membres/bougherara_selsabilShengya Meng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shengya-meng-1b299a294/Laura Albert: https://engineering.wisc.edu/directory/profile/laura-albert/TuesdayYing Tan: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/28203-ying-tanMiroslav Krstic inControl interview: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/16954129-ep31-miroslav-krstic-nonlinear-adaptive-control-pdes-delays-extremum-seeking-safety-neural-operators-for-controlESC paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4177053 WednesdayFrank Park: https://me.snu.ac.kr/en/snu__professor/park-frank-chongwoo/Talk on geometric methods for robot learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIKZzlomGIYPritesh Patel: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/667tf7/doctor-pritesh-patelPaper on stability of adaptive control of switched systems: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751570X25000457 Interview with Brian Douglas: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0yUF9sf0cM2K9AeoQzoHalNikwist: https://www.nikwist.be/David Tinoco: https://dtinas10.github.io/homepage/Quantum control podcast episodes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5t577mI6iCh6ypd40nMxBQhttps://open.spotify.com/episode/31XLcllhy4XK7gQ9NnDGfzOlaf Stursberg:  https://www.uni-kassel.de/eecs/en/sections/control-and-system-theory/team/prof-stursberg.html Sudhanshu Shekhar: https://www.iitk.ac.in/sudhanshu-shekharSonia Martinez: http://muro.ucsd.edu/sonia/Overview of coverage control: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.13890 Paper on optimal transport: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8619816 ThursdayArkadeep Saha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arkadeep-saha-1b1a84252/Steve Brunton SINDy videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSCa78TIldgOpen source soft robotic platform: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5609765https://github.com/ReshapeTUe/Soft-Legged-Wheel-TestbedNicolás Faedo: https://www.polito.it/en/staff?p=nicolas.faedoEmilia Fushimi: http://www.gca.ing.unlp.edu.ar/?q=fushimiTore Gude: https://www.ntnu.no/ansatte/tore.gudeFridayDan Hobson: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xp9hs/mr-daniel-hobson/profileview/edit/Cristina Stoica: https://l2s.centralesupelec.fr/en/u/stoica-cristina/IFAC youTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ifacyoutube3132OosCar non-linear control video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaOk003CiqAArt and control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awx-LOdbNH8Rebecca Thien: https://l2s.centralesupelec.fr/en/u/thien-rebbecca-tze-yean/Kuberknots podcast: https://kuberknots.com/  IET travel support: https://www.theiet.org/impact-society/awards-prizes-and-scholarships/travel-awards

In this episode I had the pleasure of talking to the fantastic Francesca Boem about her work on monitoring networked systems, approaches to detecting faults and cyber attacks, as well as her new start-up helping to ensure the security of wireless health-tech devices! You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ttf7raapfDW4_aj3mnD8mSoy704d9T9BLnJk9QXbLqM/edit?usp=sharing Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/Drop me an email if you’re attending IFAC WC: [email protected]   ReferencesFrancesca Boem: https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/65682-francesca-boemPhD thesis: https://www.openstarts.units.it/entities/publication/c9e28dd2-a9f3-4deb-bfb9-886a8f5d1661/detailsThomas Parisini: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/t.parisiniDistributed fault detection paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6580380 Detectability of cyber attacks: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8264562Cyber attack detection for microgrids: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9054955Detecting covert cyber attacks: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9104026Detecting replay attacks: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.00737 Fault-tolerant control/ active fault diagnosis: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8700304 CONTROL 2026 episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2MTAxQo4PlTC0zo7OcYRB4 BLE vulnerabilities paper: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212293/1/ISCAS_2025_V4.pdf   GiancarloFerrari Tricate: https://people.epfl.ch/giancarlo.ferraritrecateKIOS centre: https://www.kios.ucy.ac.cy/

In this episode I have the pleasure of attending the CONTROL2026 conference, and bring you along with me! This conference was the largest gatheringof control engineers in the UK recent years, co-organized by the ACE network and UK Automatic Control Council (UKACC). Join me as I explore the ACE network and some of the fabulous control engineering research taking place across theUK!Join the ACE network!: ⁠https://ukcontrol.org/join-ace You can find the transcript for this episode at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1131VDAX37W9GOJ87c0PZqXt83VMds1rAdapr1HdgN3Q/edit?usp=sharing Follow the podcast on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coffee-and-control-podcast/Or connect with me directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/ ReferencesControl 2026: https://control2026.ukcontrol.org/Conference proceedings: https://control2026.ukcontrol.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Control-2026-Proceedings-Booklet.pdfACE network: https://ukcontrol.org/UKACC: https://ukacc.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/IFAC: https://www.ifac-control.org/Pramod Khargonekar: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/khargonekar/Slides from his talk: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/yaf5rkNorbert Weiner: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Norbert-WienerAutomony vs automation: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-020-01004-zInControl episode: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/1632769/episodes/11513053-ep6-norbert-wiener-and-cyberneticsMacy Conference proceedings: http://cybernetic-bookshelf.org:8083/book/2636Dartmouth conference: https://opendigitalai.org/en/the-dartmouth-conference-1956-the-big-bang-of-ai/John McCarthy: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-McCarthyDaniel Coca: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/engineering/staff/profile/danielcoca.htmlEPSRC: https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/Interview with Andy Lawrence: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6BvPXw3YyoqdsvbQ573OF1William Heath: https://www.bangor.ac.uk/staff/scse/william-heath-680178/enAlessandro Astolfi: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/a.astolfiAntonis Papachristodoulou: https://eng.ox.ac.uk/people/antonis-papachristodoulouStephen Duncan: https://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-stephen-duncan/Francesca Boem: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/f.boemEDI survey: https://coffeecontrollinks.short.gy/ahijkyMentorship scheme sign-up form: https://ukcontrol.org/ace-network-mentor-schemeACE position paper: https://ukcontrol.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/ACE-Position-Paper.pdfNetwork + survey: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=yRJQnBa2wkSpF2aBT74-hyrBNzE3vqFAgmzn8RVGrRVUM1pNMEZFREExUTBJQ1dRUkJTNFRGNEJPVi4u&route=shorturl Claude shutdown: https://www.ithinkdiff.com/claude-fable-5-disabled-us-government/Brian Douglas podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0yUF9sf0cM2K9AeoQzoHal Chao Gu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chao-gu-609073220/Petri nets: http://www.petri-net.de/AEGEAN: https://en.about.aegeanair.com/company/fleet/Liam Hallinan: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LmZyKIIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=aoSalma Iraky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salmassabry/TERRA github: https://github.com/sssabry/teraAnton Selivanov: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anton-SelivanovAllan Nascimento (Multi-horizon MPC author): https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.soton.idm.oclc.org/author/867072138905292 Miroslav Krstic: https://flyingv.ucsd.edu/Neural operators: https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.08481Mohammad Adballah: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/schools/meme/staff/phd/mohammad-abdallah/ Luke Rickard: https://www.lukerickard.co.uk/Will Rohde: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wfmrohde/Dan Hobson: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xp9hs/mr-daniel-hobsonAnthony Rossiter: https://ieeecss.org/contact/anthony-rossiterControl101 toolbox: https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/130439-control-101-toolbox