• Head of the Control and Instrumentation Research Group
• Second Year Tutor
• MSc Coordinator
• Assistant Senior Tutor
• Erasmus Student Tutor
• International Student Affairs

Professor in Engineering
Control and Instrumentation Research Group
BA (Fudan), MSc (ShanghaiJiaoTong), PhD (London), DIC, MIEE,
T: +44 (0)116 252 2560
F: +44 (0)116 252 2619
E: dag@le.ac.uk

Location: Room 904, Engineering Tower

Main Research Interests:
Professor Gu's research interests include robust control, optimal control, optimization algorithms, nonlinear control, fault detection and computer-aided control systems design. He
has made significant contributions to the theoretical development of H-inf optimization, super H-inf optimization solutions, low-order controller design, mixed optimisation approaches in control systems design, strong stabilisation methods, etc. He is particularly interested in combining sophisticated numerical optimization techniques, including semi-infinite optimisation, neural network techniques, genetic algorithms and simulated annealing algorithms in robust control systems design in order to meet more practical, multiple design objectives. His research results have been well received in the international community.

Professor Gu is a recognised expert in the development of reliable computational methods for control systems design. He is a co-author of Stable-H, the first commercially available
software for H-inf control systems design and a co-author of Slicot, a numerically reliable software package for control systems identification and design. Subroutines of this package
have been widely used by control systems design engineers and researchers. Some of the routines have been adopted in MATLAB, one of the most widely used packages in science and engineering. He is also a founder member of NICONET, the EU network for reliable software for control engineering.

In the past few years, he has increasingly been involved with research organizations and industry such as QinetiQ, BAE Systems and TRW (Conekt). He has been actively engaged in
the area of coordinated control of uninhabited air vehicles, with emphasis in autonomy. This is a relatively new field in the UK and Professor Gu has quickly become a key player and is making significant contributions in the development of numerical algorithms for path planning and mission assignment. He is also a major contributor to the Garteur action group on Autonomous Systems. (Garteur stands for Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in EURope, and includes all the large aerospace companies in Europe along with national research organizations and with universities of relevant expertise).

Professor Gu has also applied his skills to problems of importance in the metal processing industry, working with VAI Industries and British Aluminium Plate (now Alcoa). Recently,
he has independently developed a new direction of research at the life sciences interface bringing together experts from Warwick and De Montfort Universities to work with him on
fundamental cell/tissue modelling problems related to cancer tissue characterisation and the early diagnosis of cancer.

Current Major Research Projects:
A major EPSRC/BBSRC grant has been awarded to support this research. Professor Gu has been involved with many industrial projects in aerospace and manufacturing and has received significant funding from EPSRC, EU and industry (in excess of £2M over the last 4 years).

Over the years, Professor Gu has published more than 250 papers and two books, Perturbation Theory for Matrix Equations (Elsevier, May 2003) and Robust Control Design with
MATLAB (Springer, June 2005). The latter is being translated to Korean. He is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the IET (formerly IEE).

Recent Publications:
• Y. Kim, D.-W. Gu and I. Postlethwaite, “Real-time optimal mission scheduling and flight path selection”, IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., Vol.52, No.6, pp. 1119-1123, June 2007.
• Y. Kim, D.-W. Gu and I. Postlethwaite, “Real-time path planning with limited information for Autonomous uninhabited air vehicles”, Automatica, Vol. 44, No. 3, March 2008.
• K. Natesan, D.-W. Gu and I. Postlethwaite, “Design of Static H-inf Linear Parameter Varying Controllers for Unmanned Aircraft”, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.
30, No. 6, pp. 1822-1827, Nov.-Dec. 2007.
• D.-W. Gu, K. Natesan and I. Postlethwaite, “Modelling and Robust Control of Fluidic Thrust Vectoring and Circulation Control for Unmanned Air Vehicles”, Proceedings of IMechE,
Part I, Journal of Systems and Control Engineering, Vol. 222(I5), pp. 333-345, 2008.
• I. Samy, I. Postlethwaite and D.-W. Gu, “Subsonic tests of a flush air data sensing system applied to a fixed-wing micro air vehicle”, Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Vol.
54, No. 1-3, pp. 275-295, 2008.
• Y. Kim, D.-W. Gu and I. Postlethwaite, “Spectral Radius Minimization for Optimal Average Consensus and Output Feedback Stabilization”, to appear, Automatica, 2009.
• D.W. Gu and F. Poon, “A Robust State Observer Scheme.” IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., Vol.46, No.12, pp.1958-1963, December 2001.
• D.W. Gu and F. Poon, “A Robust Fault Detection Approach with Application in a Rolling Mill Process.” IEEE Trans. Control Systems Technology, Vol.11, No.3, pp. 408-414, May
2003.
• P.-A. Juang and D.-W. Gu, “Analysis, Measurement and Control of a New Disc-type Ultrasonic Motor System.” Mechatronics, Vol. 16, pp. 1-12, February 2006.