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My research has been involved with a wide range of topics in Applied Control including control of structurally flexible robots and mechanisms, control of smart material actuators, medical robotics, embedded control systems, and power electronics.

 

My currently active research is focused on control issues in sustainable energy systems including High Brightness LED Lighting Control, Control of Power Electronic Converters, and Energy Harvesting. An overview of some of my recent research activities is as follows:

 

·      Regenerative Suspension for Vehicular Applications: This work involves development of power electronics and mechanical system for shock absorbers that convert the mechanical vibration energy into the electric battery charge. Harnessing the shock vibration energy into electric battery charge can improve the vehicle’s fuel efficiency, and is of particular interest for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.

 

·      Lighting Control for Building Energy Efficiency: This work is in collaboration with a local company in BC. In this activity, we are developing intelligent lighting control strategies using High Brightness Light Emitting Diode (LED) arrays and wireless-enabled embedded computers to improve energy efficiency through intelligent control.

 

·      Applications of Smart Material Transducers:  This work focuses on applications involving power electronics, control, mechanics, and circuitry for vibration energy harvesting and other novel applications using smart materials such as piezo-electric and magneto-rheological fluids.

 

·      Control & Monitoring for Solar Energy Conversion: This project was in collaboration with a local company, in Vancouver, BC. In this research, we developed an embedded system for performance monitoring of PV panels. Ongoing research focuses on developing novel power electronics circuitry and real-time control/monitoring algorithms for Maximum Power Point Tracking of PV arrays.

 

·      Wave Energy Conversion: A marine wave energy converter is a robotic arm acting in a reverse mode, i.e., converting the end-effector motion into electric energy. There are challenging issues with regard to developing such robotic devices and their power electronics control that we are currently exploring, including robotic system design and power electronics control.

 

Partial List of Publications (student authors at the time of submission are underlined)

Recent Journal Papers:

  • R. Sabzehgar, A. Maravandi, M. Moallem, “Energy Regenerative Suspension using an Algebraic Screw Linkage Mechanism,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, accepted following minor revisions, 2013.
  • R. Sabzehgar, M. Moallem, “Modeling and Control of a Three-phase Boost Converter for Resistive Input Behavior," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, to appear in 2013.
  • R. Sabzehgar and M. Moallem, “A Boost-type Power Converter for Energy Regenerative Damping,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, to appear in 2013.
  • R. Sabzehgar and M. Moallem, “Modeling and Control of a Boost Converter for Irregular Input Sources," IET Power Electronics, Vo. 5. No. 6, pp. 702-709, 2012.
  • F. Khameneifar, S. Arzanpour and M. Moallem, “A Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Rotary Motion Applications Design and Experiments,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, accepted (May 2012) (online early access).
  • A. Bazaei,  M. Moallem, “Friction Hysteresis Modeling and Force Control in a Constrained Single-link Arm,”   ASME Journal  of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, Vol. 133,  No. 6, 061016 (9 pages), 2011  (doi:10.1115/1.4004580).
  • A. Bazaei and M. Moallem, “A Fundamental Limitation on the Control of End-point Force in a very Flexible Single-link Arm,” Journal of Vibration and Control, Volume 18, Issue 8, pp. 1207-1220, 2012.
  • F. Khameneifar, M. Moallem and S. Arzanpour, “Modeling and Analysis of a Piezoelectric Energy Scavenger for Rotary Motion Applications,” ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, Vol. 133, No. 1, 2011.
  • M.  Madani, M. Moallem, “Hybrid Position/Force Control of a Flexible Parallel Manipulator,” Elsevier Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. 348, Issue 6, pp. 999-1012, 2011.
  • A. Bazaei, M. Moallem, “Improving Force Control Bandwidth of Flexible-link Arms through Output Re-definition,” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 380-386, 2011.

·       A.  Mesbah  Nejad, M. Moallem, “A New Actuation Mechanism for an Interfacial Force Microscope: Design, Implementation, and Feedback Control,” Mechatronics, Vol. 20, Issue 6, pp.  640-647, 2010.

·       Pourash Patel and M. Moallem, “A Reconfigurable System for Real-time Embedded Control Applications,” IET Control Theory & Applications, Vol. 4, No. 11, pp. 2506-2515,  2010.

·       A. Bazaei, M. Moallem, “Pre-stiction Friction Modeling and Position Control in an Actuated Rotary Arm," IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation & Measurement,  59(1), pp. 131-139, 2010.

·       B.F. Yousef, R.V. Patel, M. Moallem, “A Manipulator for Medical Applications: Design and Control,” ASME Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 4, No. 4 (11 pages), 2010.

·       A. Bazaei, M. Moallem, “Force Transmission through a Structurally Flexible Beam: Dynamic Modeling and Feedback Control," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 1245-1256, 2009.

·       R. Fadaeinedjad, G. Moschopoulos, M. Moallem,  “The Impact of Tower Shadow, Yaw Error, and Wind Shears on Power Quality in a Wind-Diesel System,” IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 24, , No. 1, pp. 102-111, 2009.

·       M. Moallem, V. Tabrizi, “Tracking Control of an Antagonistic Shape Memory Alloy Actuator,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 184-190, 2009.

·       M. Moallem, “Modeling and Control of Torsional Beam Vibrations: A Wave-based Approach," ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, Vol. 130, No. 2, 021014 (5 pages), 2008.

·       R. Fadaeinedjad, M. Moallem, G. Moschopoulos, “Simulation of a Wind Turbine with Doubly-Fed Induction Generator by FAST and Simulink,” IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 690-700, 2008.

·       R. Fadaeinedjad, G. Moschopoulos, M. Moallem, “Investigation of Voltage Sag Impact on Wind Turbine Tower Vibrations," Wind Enery (Wiley), Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 351-375, 2008.

·       Bazaei, M. Moallem, “Online Neural Neural Identification of Multi-input Multi-output Systems,” IET Proceedings: Control Theory and Applications, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 44-50, 2007.

·       Y.F. Chan, M. Moallem and W. Wang, “Design and Implementation of Modular FPGA-based PID Controllers,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 1898-1906, 2007.

Books/Monographs and Book Chapters:

  • R. Fadaeinedjad, M. Moallem, G. Moschopoulos, Electromechanical and Aerodynamic Simulation of Wind Turbines: Bascis, Concepts, and Applications, VDM Verlag, Saarbrucken, Germany, 2009 (ISBN-10: 363918971X).
  • M. Kermani, M. Moallem and R.V. Patel, Vibration Suppression using Piezoelectric Materials, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., NY, USA, 2008 (ISBN: 1-60021-896-2).

·       M. Tavakoli, R.V. Patel, M. Moallem, A. Aziminejad,  Haptic Interaction in Robotic Systems for Surgery and Telesurgery, New Frontiers in Robotics Series, World Scientific Publishers, Singapore, 2008 (ISBN: 978-981-281-315-2).

  • M. Moallem, R.V. Patel and K. Khorasani, Flexible-Link Robot Manipulators: Control Techniques and Structural Design, Springer-Verlag, London, 2000 (ISBN: 1-85233-333-2)

·       Book Chapter: M. Moallem, “Networking Multiple Robots for Cooperative Manipulation,”  Industrial Robots: Theory, Modeling, and Control, Advanced Robotic Systems International, Germany, 2007 (ISBN: 3-86611-285-8).

·       Book Chapter: A. Aziminejad, M. Tavakoli, R.V. Patel, M. Moallem, “Improving Transparency in Delay-free and Delayed Teleoperation: A Generalized 4-Channel Control Architecture,” Recent Advances in Control Systems, Robotics and Automation (2nd ed.),  International Society for Advanced Research, S. Pennacchio (Ed.), 2008  (ISBN 978-88-901928-3-8).

·       Book Chapter: T. Barlas, M. Moallem, “Developing FPGA-based Reconfigurable Controllers using Matlab/Simulink,” "Factory Automation", ISBN 978-953-7619-42-8, 2009.

Selected Conference Proceedings:

 

  • R. Sabzehgar,  M. Moallem, “Modeling and Control of a Three-Phase Boost converter for Irregular Input Sources,” 38th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON 2012), Montreal, Canada, 2012.
  • Y.M. Roshan, M. Moallem, “Control of a Boost Converter for Resistive Input Behavior in the Continuous Conduction Mode,” 38th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON 2012), Montreal, Canada, 2012.
  • M. Nasri, H. Farhangi, A. Palizban, and M. Moallem “Multi-Agent Control System for Real-time Adaptive VVO/CVR in Smart Substation,”  IEEE Canada Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC), London, ON, 2012.
  • S. Faghihi, M Moallem, “Analysis and Design of a Low Power Electronics Circuit for Energy Harvesting Applications,” IEEE International Symp. on Industrial Electronics, Hangzhou, China, 2012.
  • R. Sabzehgar, M. Moallem, “Regenerative Vibration Damping of a Suspension System Testbed,” IEEE International Symp. on Industrial Electronics, Hangzhou, China, 2012.
  • Y.M. Roshan and M. Moallem, “Maximum Power Point Tracking using Boost Converter Input Resistance Control,” IEEE International Symp. on Industrial Electronics, Hangzhou, China, 2012.
  • Y.M. Roshan and M. Moallem, “Maximum Power Point Tracking Using Boost Converter Input Resistance Control by Means of Lambert W-Function,” IEEE Int. Symp. on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems, Aalborg, Denmark, 2012.
  • R. Sabzehgar and M. Moallem, “Modeling and Control of a Boost Converter for Pseudo-resistive Input Behavior,” IET Conference on Renewable Power Generation, Edinburgh, UK, 2011.
  • R. Sabzehgar, V. Zakeri, P. Grewal, and M. Moallem, “Smith Predictor Control of a Ball Levitation Laboratory Testbed,”  ASME  Int. Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Denver, CO, 2011.
  • Y. M. Roshan, M. Moallem, “Maximum Power Point Tracking Control using Resistive Input Behavior of the Power Converter," IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, Seattle, WA, 2011.
  • Y. Rashidi, M. Moallem, S. Vojdani, “Wireless Zigbee System for Performance Monitoring of Photovoltaic Panels," IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, Seattle, WA, 2011.
  • A. Maravandi, M. Moallem, “Study of Robotic Arms with Flexible Elements for Wave Energy Conversion,” 10th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies, Istanbul, Turkey, 2011.
  • Y. Rashidi and M. Moallem, “Embedded Wireless Sensor System for Applications in Building energy Efficiency,” 10th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies, Istanbul, Turkey, 2011.
  • Y. M. Roshan, M. Moalem, “Developing a Course and Laboratory for Embedded Control of Mechatronic Systems,” Proc. of the American Society of Engineering Education, Vancouver, Canada, 2011.
  • Pourash Patel, M. Moallem, “Using FPGA-Based Platforms for Embedded Control Applications in Mechatronics,” IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Montreal, QC, Canada, 2010.
  • R. Sabzehgar, M. Moallem, “Neural Network Control of a Flexible Link Manipulator in Contact with a Compliant Environment,” ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Vancouver, BC, 2010.
  • F. Khameneifar, S. Arzanpour, M. Moallem, "Piezo-actuated Active Decoupler Hydraulic Engine Mount, "ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Vancouver, BC, 2010.
  • F. Khameneifar, S. Arzanpour, M. Moallem, “Vibration Energy Harvesting from a Hydraulic Engine Mount via PZT Decoupler,” ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Vancouver, BC, 2010.
  • R. Sabzehgar, M. Moallem, “A Review of Ocean Wave Energy Conversion Systems, “Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC), Montreal, QC., 2009.
  • R. Fadaeinedjad,  G. Moschopoulos, and M. Moallem, “The Impact of Tower Shadow, Yaw Error, and Wind Shears on Power Quality in a Wind-Diesel System,”  Proc. IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, 2009.
  • T. Barlas, M. Moallem, ``Next Generation of Embedded Controllers: Developing FPGA-based reconfigurable controllers using Matlab/Simulink," IEEE Conf. on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, Hamburg, Germany, 2008.
  • A. Mesbah-Nejad, M. Moallem, R.V. Patel, “Modeling and Control of a New Actuation Mechanism for Interfacial Force Microscopy,” American Control Conference, Seattle, WA, 2008.
  • R. Fadaeinedjad, G. Moschopoulos, M. Moallem, and S. Bassan, “Flicker Contribution of a Wind Power Plant with Single and Multiple Turbine Representations,” Electrical Power Conference (EPC07), Montreal, QC, Canada, October 2007.
  • R. Fadaeinedjad, G. Moschopoulos, and M. Moallem, “Voltage Sag Impact on Wind Turbine Tower Vibration,” IEEE Power Engineer Society General Meeting, Tampa, FL, USA, June 2007.

Patents:

·        M. Moallem, R. Sabzehgar, “Control Technique for a Three-Phase Boost Converter to Achieve Resistive Input Behavior,”  US Provisional patent (application #61/607373 filed March 6, 2012) .

  • M. Tavakoli, R.V. Patel and M. Moallem, “Force Reflective Robotic Control System and Minimally Invasive Surgical Device”, U.S. Provisional Patent Application #60/513,581, October 2003.