Alan Lynch

Biography

Alan F. Lynch obtained his BASc degree with honours at the University of Toronto in engineering science (electrical option) in 1991, his MASc degree in electrical engineering from University of British Columbia in 1994 under the supervision of Professor S.E. Salcudean, and his PhD degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto in 1999 under the supervision of Dr. S.A. Bortoff. From 1999 to 2001 he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Germany at the Institut fuer Regelungs und Steuerungstheorie (RST) at the Technische Universitaet Dresden with Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. J. Rudolph. Since 2001 he has been a faculty member at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta, and currently holds the rank of Professor. From 2009 to 2010 he was a Visiting Professor and Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Instituts fuer Systemtheorie und Regelungstechnik (IST) at the Universitaet Stuttgart (directed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Allgoewer). Dr. Lynch is a member of IEEE and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). He is a Professional Engineer in the province of Alberta and an Associate Editor of Control Engineering Practice (Elsevier)

Research Interest

Research Interests My main research area is Control Systems. In particular, I investigate the application and theory of nonlinear control for finite- and infinite-dimensional systems. This research addresses the broad problem of analyzing, predicting, and influencing systems accurately described by nonlinear dynamics. Research projects are often motivated by specific electromechanical system applications and primary objectives include derivation of control theory which leads to mathematically well-founded robust performance. Current Research Power Converters: nonlinear control methods are applied to a voltage source converter for power factor compensation and active power filtering. Helicopter Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): this research involves various aspects of indoor and outdoor autopilot development for helicopter UAVs for visual inspection of electrical transmission lines. Research objectives include mathematical modeling, model identification, navigation and control algorithm design, hardware/software implementation, multiview geometry, 3D modeling from images, and real-time visual tracking. Magnetic Bearings and Self-bearing Motors: the modeling and nonlinear control of various magnetic bearing systems is being investigated. This work includes a Lorenz-force permanent magnet synchronous self-bearing motor test stand.