Last updated February 2007

Richard H.  (Rick) Middleton 

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Contact Details

Director

ARC Centre for Complex Dynamic Systems and Control
The University of Newcastle, NSW 2308
Australia 

phone +61 2 49216033         fax +61 2 49601712

email: 

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Biography

Richard H. (Rick) Middleton was born in Newcastle Australia in 1961. He received his B.Sc. (Physics/Maths) in 1983, and B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering in 1983. He was awarded his Ph.D. (1986) from the University of Newcastle , Australia under the supervision of Professor G.C. Goodwin. Since that time he has held various appointments at the University of Newcastle, currently at the Professor level, and has had visiting appointments for a semester at both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at the University of Michigan.
He has published research results in a range of areas including electric machine control, adaptive control, robot control, digital control systems theory using delta operators, multirate and sampled-data systems, performance limitations in feedback control systems (including multivariable and nonlinear systems), metal rolling control problems, robotics, constrained control, and signal processing for condition monitoring of electrical power equipment, control over communications channels. In 1990 he jointly published, with Professor Goodwin the text "Digital Control and Estimation: A Unified Approach" (Prentice-Hall). He has been involved in industrial applications of systems and control to radio astronomy, satellite tracking, metals processing industries, power electronic inverter controls and various applications of Kalman filtering.
He has served as an associate editor of both the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and the IEEE Transaction on Control System Technology. He has also served as Head of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Newcastle,as a panel member and sub panel chair for the Australian Research Council, as Director of the Centre for Integrated Dynamics and Control (A Commonwealth Special Research Centre). He is currently Director of the Australian Research Council Centre for Complex Dynamic Systems and Control, node leader for the CRC-Mining , a Fellow of the IEEE and of Engineers Australia, and Vice President Conference Activities of the IEEE Control System Society .

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Some Current Research Interests

  • Sensitivity Issues and Performance Trade offs in Control Systems
  • Multivariable Control Systems and Model Predictive Control
  • Performance limitations in nonlinear systems
  • Applications of Control and Signal processing including Condition Monitoring for HV Power Equipment
  • Robocup Legged LeagueRobocup Soccer 2004 ( the NUbots !)

Publications (recent)

Invited Lectures

R.H. Middleton, “Performance Limits in Feedback Control: Communications and Distributed Systems Issues”, Keynote Lecture, Information, Decision and Control 2007: The Challenge of Distributed Systems, Adelaide, February 2007.

 

R.H. Middleton, “Performance and Communication Limits and Control of Multiagent Systems”, 2007 NATO/RTO Lecture Series LS-SCI-175, May 2007

Journal Papers

·         K. Lau, R.H. Middleton and J.H. Braslavsky, “Undershoot and settling time trade-offs for nonlinear nonminimum phase systems”,  IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, V48, N8, pp1389-1393, August 2003.

·         P.V. Zhivoglyadov and R.H. Middleton. “Stability and switching control design issues for a class of discrete time hybrid systems”, Automatica Vol.39, No.6, pp.981-987, June 2003.

·         K. Lau and R.H. Middleton, “Switched Integrator Control Schemes for Integrating Plants”, European Journal of Control, V9, N6, pp539-559, 2003

·         P.V. Zhivoglyadov and R.H. Middleton, "Networked Control Design for Linear Systems", Automatica, Vol 39 N4, pp743-750, 2003.

·          J.S. Freudenberg, C.V. Hollot, R.H. Middleton and V. Toochinda, "Fundamental Design Limitations of the General Control Configuration", IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, V48, N8, pp1355-1370, August 2003.

·         R.H. Middleton, J. Chen and J.S. Freudenberg, "Tracking Sensitivity and Achievable Hinfinity Performance in Preview Control", Automatica, V40, pp1297-1306, 2004.

·         D.J. Woodhouse and R.H. Middleton, "Consistency in Ground Potential Rise Estimation Utilising Fall of Potential Method Data", IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery,V20, N2, pp1226-1234, 2005.

·         G.C. Goodwin, M.M. Seron, R.H. Middleton, M. Zhang, B.F. Hennessy, P.M. Stone and M. Menabde, “Receding Horizon Control Applied to Optimal Mine Planning”, Automatica  V42, N8, pp1337-1342, August 2006.

·         J. H. Braslavsky, R. H. Middleton and J. S. Freudenberg, “Feedback Stabilization over Signal-to-Noise Ratio Constrained Channels”, to appear, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, October, 2007

·         R.H. Middleton and D. E. Miller, “On the Achievable Delay Margin using LTI Control for Unstable Plants”, to appear, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2007

·         T. Saha, A. Thomas and R.H. Middleton ,“Diagnostic Methodologies for Power Transformers Insulation Based on Polarisation Methods “, Submitted Oct 2005 to IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery

·         J. Chen, S. Hara, L. Qiu, and R.H. Middleton, “Best Achievable Tracking Performance in Sampled-Data Control Systems”, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control

·         D.E. Miller and R.H. Middleton, “The Limitations of Trajectory Tracking”, submitted October 2006 to IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control

 

Conference Papers

·         J.S. Freudenberg, C.V. Hollot and R.H. Middleton, “A Tradeoff Between Disturbance Attenuation and Stability Robustness”, Proc. American Control Conference, Denver, June 2003.

·         M. Quinlan, C. Murch, R.H. Middleton and S. Chalup, “Traction Monitoring for Collision Detection with Legged Robots”, 7th International Robocup Conference, Padova, Italy, July 2003.

·         K. Lau and R.H. Middleton, “Switched Integrator Control Schemes for Integrating Plants”, Proc. 2003 European Control Conference, Cambridge, September 2003.

·         A. Syaichu-Rohman, R.H. Middleton and M.M. Seron, “A Multivariable Nonlinear Algebraic Loop as a QP with Application to MPC”, Proc. 2003 European Control Conference, Cambridge, September 2003.

·         R.H. Middleton, “NUBots:  Robot Soccer – modelling and uncertainty”, Invited Presentation, Young Statisticians Conference, Canberra, September 2003.

·         Shuzen Xu, R.H. Middleton, F. Fetherston and D. Pantalone, “A comparison of return voltage measurement and frequency domain spectroscopy test on high voltage insulation”, 7th International Conference on Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials, Nagoya, Japan, June 2003.

·         Shuzen Xu, S. Mitchell and R.H. Middleton, “Partial discharge localization for a transformer based on frequency spectrum analysis”,  AUPEC’2003, Christchurch, New Zealand, 28 September – 1 October 2003.

·         R.H. Middleton, K. Lau and J.H. Braslavsky, “Conjectures and Counterexamples on Optimal L2 Disturbance Attenuation in Nonlinear Systems”, Proc. 42nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Hawaii, USA, December 2003.

·         M. Quinlan, S. Chalup and R.H. Middleton, “Application of SVMs for colour classification and collision detection with AIBO robots”, NIPS 2003, Vancouver Canada.

·         S.K. Chalup, R.H. Middleton, M.J. Qhinlan and L.S. Wiklendt, “Neurocomputational aspects of legged locomotion motor control”, ANS 2004, (24th Annual Meeting of the Australian Neuroscience Society Incorporated), Melbourne, January 2004.

·         J.H. Braslavsky, R.H. Middleton and J.S. Freudenberg, “Feedback stabilization over signal-to-noise ratio constrained channels”, 2004 American Control Conference, Boston, June 2004.

·         C. Seysener, C. Murch and R.H. Middleton, “Extensions to Object Recognition in the Four-Legged League”, Proceedings of the 2004 Robocup Symposium, Lisbon, July 2004

·         R.H. Middleton, J.H. Braslavsky and J.S. Freudenberg, “Stabilization of Non-minimum phase plants over signal-to-noise ratio constrained channels”, The 5th Asian Control Conference, Melbourne, July 2004.

·         A. Syaichu-Rohman and R.H. Middleton, “An Explicit Static Anti-Windup Design for a Class of Two Input Two Output Plants”, The 5th Asian Control Conference, Melbourne, July 2004.

·         A. Syaichu-Rohman and R.H. Middleton, “Anti-windup schemes for discrete time systems: An LIM-based approach”, The 5th Asian Control Conference, Melbourne, July 2004.

·         R.H. Middleton, M. Freeston and L. McNeill, “An Application of the Extended Kalman Filter to Robot Soccer Localisation and World Modelling”, Proc. IFAC Symposium on Mechatronic Systems, Sydney, September, 2004.

·         T.K. Saha, R.H. Middleton and A. Thomas “Correlation between time and frequency domain polarisation measurements for transformer moisture assessment”, Australian Universities Power Engineering Conference, Brisbane, September 2004

·         B. Lennartson, R. H. Middleton, A.K. Christiansson and T. McKelvey,  “Low Order Sampled Data H∞ Control using the Delta Operator and LMIs”, 2004 Conference on Decision and Control, Bahamas, December 2004.

·         B. Lennartson, R. H. Middleton and A.K. Christiansson , “Unified, Periodic & Sampled Data H∞ Control
using the Delta Operator”, 2004 Conference on Decision and Control, Bahamas, December 2004.

·         A. Syaichu-Rohman and R.H. Middleton, “Convergence Study of Some Simple Gradient Projection Based QP Solvers for MPC”, 2004 Conference on Decision and Control, Bahamas, December 2004.

·         A. Rojas and R. H. Middleton, “Phase Analysis for 2-D weakly coupled oscillatory systems”, to be presented, 2005 American Control Conference.

·         J.H. Braslavsky, R.H. Middleton and J.S. Freudenberg, “Effects of Time Delay on Feedback Stabilisation over Signal to Noise Ratio Constrained Channels”, to be presented, 2005 IFAC World Congress, Prague.

·         B. Lennartson, R.H. Middleton, A.-K. Christiansson, and C.-M. Fransson, “On The Choice Of Sampling Rate And Anti-Alias Filter Using Multi Criteria H∞ Control”, to be presented, 2005 IFAC World Congress, Prague.

·         J. S. Freudenberg, R. H. Middleton, and V. Solo, “The Minimal Signal-to-Noise Ratio Required to Stabilize over a Noisy Channel”, submitted for presentation, Joint 2005 CDC/ECC Seville.

·         J.S. Freudenberg, J.H. Braslavsky, and R. H. Middleton, “Control over Signal-to-Noise Ratio Constrained Channels: Stabilization and Performance”, submitted for presentation, Joint 2005 CDC/ECC Seville.

·         J. H. Braslavsky, R.H. Middleton and A. Rojas, “Control over a Bandwidth Limited Signal to Noise Ratio constrained Communication Channel”, submitted for presentation, Joint 2005 CDC/ECC Seville.

·         K. Peterson, R.H.  Middleton, and J. S. Freudenberg, “Fundamental Limitations in Active Magnetic Bearings with Periodic Perturbations”, Proc. 2006 American Control Conference. Minneapolis, June 2006.

·         Rojas, J.H. Braslavsky and R.H. Middleton , “Output Feedback Stabilisation over Bandwidth Limited, Signal to Noise Ratio Constrained Communication Channels”, Proc 2006 American Control Conference. Minneapolis, June 2006

·         J. S. Freudenberg, R.H. Middleton and V. Solo, “The Minimal Signal-to-Noise Ratio Required to Stabilize over a Noisy Channel”, Proc 2006 American Control Conference. Minneapolis, June 2006

·         S. Nicklin, R. Fisher and R.H. Middleton, “Rolling shutter image compensation”, Robocup Symposium, Bremen, Germany, June 2006

·         R. H. Middleton, C. M. Kellett, and R. N. Shorten, “Fairness and Convergence results for Additive-Increase Multiplicative Decrease multiple-bottleneck networks”, to appear, 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, December 2006

·         D. Miller and R.H. Middleton, “On Limitations to the Achievable Path Tracking Performance for Linear Multivariable Plants”, 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, December 2006

·         A.J. Rojas, J.S. Freudenberg, J.H. Braslavsky and R.H. Middleton, “Optimal Signal to Noise Ratio in Feedback Over Communication Channels with Memory”, 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, December 2006

·         S.K. Chalup, M. Dickinson, R. Fisher, R.H. Middleton, M.J. Quinlan and P. Turner, “Proposal of a kit-style Robot as new standard platform for the four-legged league”, to appear, proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, Auckland, Dec, 2006.

·         M.M. Zhang, R.H. Middleton, P.M. Stone and M. Menabde, “A Reactive Approach For Mining Project Evaluation Under Price Uncertainty”, to appear, proceedings of the 33rd International Symposium on Application of Computers and Operations Research in the Mineral Industry (APCOM), Santiago, Chile, April  2007.

·         A.J. Rojas, J.H. Braslavsky and R.H. Middleton, “Feedback Control over Signal to Noise Ratio Constrained  Communication Channels”, SIAM Conference on Control and its Applications, San Fransisco, June/July 2007



 Many of my publications are available electronically and can be found at the department publications database .

Research Grants (recent)

1995-1997  Australian Research Council (Large Grant)
Title:  “Sensitivity Trade-offs for Digital and/or  Periodically Time Varying Feedback Systems”.
Chief Investigator:  R.H. Middleton

1997-2002 Australian Research Council Special Research Centre.
Title:  “Centre for Integrated Dynamics And Control”
G.C. Goodwin (Director: 1997-2001; Research Director 2002), R.H. Middleton. (Associate Director: 1997-2001; Director 2002), et al

1999 Australian Research Council
Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities
Title "Smart Structures Control Laboratory"
Principle Researchers Goodwin, Moheimani, Fu, Middleton, Petersen, Pota, Lai

1999  ARC (Collaborative)
Title: "Advanced Electrical Condition Monitoring System for High Voltage Equipment. "
Chief Investigators: R.H. Middleton and B.F. Finlay

2000-2002    Australian Research Council (SPIRT)
Title: "Signal Processing for Off-line and On-line Condition Monitoring of Electrical Power Equipment"
Chief Investigators: R.H. Middleton, B.F. Finlay

2001-2003 Australian Research Council Large Grant
Title: "Instantaneous Power Control for AC Machines"
Principle Investigators: R.E. Betz and R.H. Middleton

2003-present Australian Research Council
"Centre for Complex Dynamic Systems and Control"
Chief Investigators: R.H. Middleton, G.C. Goodwin, M. Fu, K.L. Mengersen, S.O.R. Moheimani, I. Raeburn, et al

2007-2011 Australian Research Council Discovery Project
“Robust Control of Electrostatic Microactuators”
Chief Investigators: S.O.R. Moheimani and R.H. Middleton

The Delta Toolbox

Sometime ago, several people here worked on a Matlab Delta toolbox for Delta operators. The original version was released around 1989. Since then a few minor bug fixes and additions have been made. For the latest version  try Matlab Delta Toolbox (zipped file, 114K) This file includes documentation in Postscript (198K) and LateX forms. I haven't tried the toolbox seriously with Matlab 5 or later, so I can't vouch for whether it will work properly or not.

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Other Links...

Rick Middleton,