In conjunction with the 37th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, December 16-18, 1998, Tampa, FL

Speakers:

R. W. Brockett and Howard Stone, Harvard University

John Baillieul and T. Bifano, Boston University

P. S. Krishnaprasad and Stuart S. Antman, University of Maryland

Mehran Mehraganey, Case Western Reserve University

This workshop presents an integrated view of smart materials, devices, and their promising applications; it also points out opportunities for contributions from the control community.

Advances in material science have opened up exciting possibilities for creating novel devices and structures which respond in safe, effective, and speedy manners to changing environmental and operational conditions. Typically these SMART materials exploit the coupling of elastomechanics and fluid mechanics with electro-physical influences such as piezo-electric effects, magnetostrictive effects, and electrocapillary forces. While millimeter and larger scale devices based on such principles are beginning to find their way into consumer products, prospects for miniaturization and micro- miniaturization are emerging that further widen the area of applicability of these smart materials. The processing capabilities associated with MEMS technology are important here. This workshop presents careful expositions of the physics, models, design techniques, and fabrication techniques that are needed to fully realize the promise of this emerging area of science and technology.

Specific topics include: nonlinear modeling, simulation, and control of magnetostrictive materials (e.g. Terfenol-D), electrostrictive materials, and other materials used in smart actuators; problems of control of deformable bodies with embedded smart materials using electromagnetic fields; communication and networking considerations in the integrated design of smart composites; computation and design tools for smart actuators and sensors; fluid-structure interactions; design, fabrication and testing of arrays of MEMS structures (arrays of microvalves and electrostatically deformable structures); and issues of coupling elastomechanics and fluid mechanics with electrophysical influences such as piezo-electric effects, magnetostrictive effects, and electrocapillary forces. This workshop examines the highly nonlinear equations governing the relevant phenomena and the necessary control-oriented approaches to exploit and manipulate these effects in engineering applications. Approximately one third of the workshop will be devoted to discussions of ongoing experimental efforts.

SCHEDULE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15

ACTUATION, SENSING, AND SYSTEM MODELING

08:30-09:30 Multiport Representation of Electromechanical Systems

09:30-10:30 Scaling and the Importance of Nonlinear Effects

BASIC PHYSICS - PHENOMENA AND MODELS

11:00-12:00 The Physics of Piezoelectric and Magnetostrictive Substances

13:30-14:30 The Physics of Nitinol and Other Phase Change Effects

14:30-15:30 The Physics of Fluid-Structure Interaction at Small Scales

FABRICATION, PROTOTYPES AND MANUFACTURING

16:00-17:00 Microfabrication Processes

17:00-18:00 Fabrication of Electrostatically Driven Systems