Distinguished Professors

Distinguished Professors

Dr. Warren Dixon

Dean’s Leadership Professor, Distinguished Professor, and Department Chair
Address Office MAE-A 231 Lab MAE-B 325 Phone: (352) 846-1463 Website: Nonlinear Controls & Robotics

Biography

Prof. Warren Dixon received his Ph.D. in 2000 from Clemson University. He worked as a research staff member and Eugene P. Wigner Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) until 2004, when he joined the University of Florida in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, where he is now an Ebaugh Professor and Department Chair. His main research interest has been the development and application of Lyapunov-based control techniques for uncertain nonlinear systems. His work has been recognized by the 2019 IEEE Control Systems Technology Award, (2017-2018 & 2012-2013) University of Florida College of Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Mentoring Award, 2015 & 2009 American Automatic Control Council (AACC) O. Hugo Schuck (Best Paper) Award, the 2013 Fred Ellersick Award for Best Overall MILCOM Paper, the 2011 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Dynamics Systems and Control Division Outstanding Young Investigator Award, the 2006 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Early Academic Career Award, an NSF CAREER Award (2006-2011), the 2004 Department of Energy Outstanding Mentor Award, and the 2001 ORNL Early Career Award for Engineering Achievement. He is an ASME Fellow (2016) and IEEE Fellow (2016), was an IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) Distinguished Lecturer (2013-2018), served as the Director of Operations for the Executive Committee of the IEEE CSS Board of Governors (BOG) (2012-2015), and served as an elected member of the IEEE CSS BOG (2019-2020). His technical contributions and service to the IEEE CSS were recognized by the IEEE CSS Distinguished Member Award (2020). He was awarded the Air Force Commander’s Public Service Award (2016) for his contributions to the U.S. Air Force Science Advisory Board.

Education

Ph.D., 2000, Clemson University

Professional Memberships and Fellowships

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Member
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fellow 2016
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Fellow 2016

Teaching Interests

Nonlinear Control, Adaptive Control, Control of Mechanical Engineering Systems

Research Interests

Adaptive nonlinear control, robotics, human-machine interactions, biomedical, visual servo control

Selected Publications

  1. R. Kamalapurkar, P. S. Walters, J. A. Rosenfeld, W. E. Dixon, Reinforcement Learning for Optimal Feedback Control: A Lyapunov-based Approach, Springer, 2018.
  2. A. Behal, W. E. Dixon, B. Xian, and D. M. Dawson, Lyapunov-Based Control of Robotic Systems, Taylor and Francis, 2009, ISBN: 0849370256.
  3. W. E. Dixon, A. Behal, D. M. Dawson, and S. Nagarkatti, Nonlinear Control of Engineering Systems: A Lyapunov-Based Approach, Birkhauser Boston, 2003, ISBN: 0- 8176-4265-X.
  4. S. Bhasin, R. Kamalapurkar, M. Johnson, K. Vamvoudakis, F. L. Lewis, and W. E. Dixon, “A novel actor-critic-identifier architecture for approximate optimal control of uncertain nonlinear systems,” Automatica, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 89-92 (2013).
  5. N. Fischer, R. Kamalapurkar, and W. E. Dixon, “LaSalle-Yoshizawa Corollaries for Nonsmooth Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 58, No. 9, pp. 2333-2338 (2013).
  6. P. M. Patre, W. MacKunis, K. Kaiser, and W. E. Dixon, “Asymptotic Tracking for Uncertain Dynamic Systems via a Multilayer Neural Network Feedforward and RISE Feedback Control Structure,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 53, No. 9, pp. 2180-2185 (2008).
  7. C. Cousin, V. Duenas, C. Rouse, M. Bellman, P. Freeborn, E. Fox, and W. E. Dixon, “Closed-Loop Cadence and Instantaneous Power Control on a Motorized Functional Electrical Stimulation Cycle,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Vol. 28, No. 6, pp. 2276-2291 (2020).
  8. T.-H. Cheng, Z. Kan, J. R. Klotz, J. M. Shea, and W. E. Dixon, “Event-Triggered Control of Multi-Agent Systems for Fixed and Time-Varying Network Topologies,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 62, No. 10, pp. 5365-5371 (2017).