The Control Systems group here at
Loughborough University have been working at
the interface between mechanical and
electrical engineering for over 40 years.
We develop innovative technologies
across a range of sectors and we're
striving to improve the hidden
technology that we all rely on in our
day-to-day lives. The members of our
group come from a variety of different
engineering backgrounds, and we have
substantial industry experience.
This gives us a broad perspective and allows
us to take knowledge from one industry
sector and apply it to solve problems in another.
The Control Systems group's research spans
several industry sectors, from aerospace to automotive
through the energy sector and a particular focus on
the rail sector. So as a group we have a
very strong industrial focus we work
closely with our partners in industry to
solve real-world problems that they have.
So that can go from working with
fundamental concepts in a simulation
space, through to building lab-scale
demonstrators which prove those concepts,
and eventually taking those proven
concepts out into the field and into
real-world applications.
RSSB had been working with the group for a
number of years but I've been working with them in
in particular for three or four years. They
submitted an ESB RC funded idea which we
thought had legs so we funded them and
they delivered a really really good
prototype. We have funded the group again
to develop a live prototype on the
railway and it will take a number of years
but I'm really excited to see the outcome.
Working with industrial partners
gives us a real insight into their
current challenges but it also allows us
a chance to try and change their
thinking to use some of the more to date
methodologies and control and condition
monitoring in particular. And really it's
about trying to influence their way of
thinking and change practice going
forward. If we look at the rail sector we
are particularly doing this in terms of
how vehicles are constructed, challenging
entrenched ideas of how
you make a rail vehicle. And in the
infrastructure side, particularly with
the repoint project, we've challenged 150
years of thinking in terms of how you get a
train to change from one track to another track.
So as well as the research
output what we produce as a group are
graduates and people who've worked in
the group who are now out there in
industry taking the ideas that they've
developed with us to change thinking
across a range of industry sectors. For
example we have people who have moved on
to academic roles in other universities,
we have people in Formula One people in
automotive and also people in the rail
industry.
I work for Jaguar Land Rover as
a control engineer and working on hybrid
vehicles. The research work I did during
my PhD was fault-tolerant control and
then I got a job as an RA in the control
systems group. We actually used a systems
approach when I was doing my PhD and
we're actually using that for our
development at Jaguar Land Rover. We have
requirements we use these requirements
to develop functions and then we have
brainstorming sessions to basically kick
the ideas into shape. Then we use those
ideas and then actually develop the
function and I'm actually using this on
a day to day basis.
At Loughborough we have
the facilities, the research expertise
and the industrial experience that
allows us to work with you to solve your
future technology challenges.
