• 3rd/4th Year Exam Board Secretary
• Modules taught: EG1110, EG3170, EG3190, 2nd Year Control Labs
  
• 3rd/4th/MSc Projects

Senior Lecturer in Control Engineering
Control and Instrumentation Research Group

BEng (Surrey), PhD (Leicester)
T: +44 (0)116 252 2548
F: +44 (0)116 252 2619
E: mct6@le.ac.uk

Location: Room 803, Engineering Tower

Main Research Interests:
Dr. Turner's research interests lie on the boundary between linear and nonlinear control. In other words he is interested in how largely linear control methods can be used for systems which have nonlinear characteristics. This has much practical appeal due to (i) the preponderance of linear controllers in industrial settings and (ii) the fact that all real-world systems are, to some extent, nonlinear. He is particularly interested in the design of additional control elements to improve the behaviour of existing (legacy) controllers.

He is particularly interested in constrained control systems, where certain variables - normally control signals and variables associated with system safety - have to remain within certain limits to ensure satisfactory behaviour. Much of his recent research has studied the anti-windup design approach in which a local (normally legacy) controller is responsible for the majority of the system's behaviour but when certain variable limits are exceeded, a so-called anti-windup compensator becomes active to assist the legacy controller in retaining stability and limiting performance degradation. The approach is considered attractive since it allows the preservation of nominal controller behaviour unless a limit is exceeded. There has been recent industrial success in applying advanced anti-windup techniques and in 2006 a group of control engineers from Leicester and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) successfully flight-tested an experimental aircraft equipped with Leicester-designed anti-windup compensators. The test pilots reported that when the anti-windup compensators were engaged, during aggressive tasks, the aircraft handling qualities did not degrade as much and that the aircraft was much less prone to pilot-induced-oscillation (PIO). Other work with Dr. Guido Herrmann at the University of Bristol has applied anti-windup compensation to high-precision tracking systems in hard-disk drives where again anti-windup was shown to be effective at preserving stability and limiting performance degradation.

Dr. Turner's other research interests are broadly in the fields of robust control and flight control and he has collaborated extensively with QinetiQ, Augusta Westland Helicopters, DLR and the Canadian NRC in Ottawa, along with several other companies. He has designed H-infinity Controllers for the Bell 205, the Westland Lynx Mk5/Mk7 and the Augusta Westland EH101 helicopters, many of which have been tested in flight. He is currently involved in a project with Augusta Westland Helicopters and the Universities of Bristol and Liverpool in the development of novel actuators to improve vibration reduction (and hence longer component life and decreased pilot fatigue) in helicopters. He has also been a member of GARTEUR (Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe) Action Groups AG12 and AG15 which have studied the prediction and prevention of PIO's, which are a curious interaction between aircraft, their control systems and their human operators.

Recent Publications:
• Please see personal webpage: http://www.le.ac.uk/eg/mct6