Dr. Martin v. Mohrenschildt

 

Associate Professor  Dr. sc. math. ETH., Dipl. math. ETH., P.Eng. Computing and Software Faculty of Engineering  McMaster University  Phone: (905) 525-9140 ex. 23844  Office: ITB 164 E-Mail: mohrens@mcmaster.ca  FAX: (905) 521-2922

Research Interests

Model Predictive Control
The objective in control is to determine inputs to a system such that the outputs exhibit the desired behavior. In practice the input can not be chosen entirely freely but has to satisfy constraints. Many different control strategies have been developed to solve this problem including control strategies for hybrid systems. In situations where optimal operation is at an extremum of the constraint set or the process is nonlinear one single control strategy can not satisfy all objectives over the entire runtime of the system and it is difficult to handle constraints with some control strategies. To overcome these problems we propose a control algorithm that combines several different control strategies into one controller.
 
Vibration Analysis
Since about 2004 we research signal processing, especially related to vibration analysis. We are actively engaged with industry in developing new approaches to extract health information and machine characteristics using sensors (e.g. accelerometers) attached to large operating mechanical machinery.


Hybrid Systems

In engineering mathematics discontinuities appear in many equations. Based on our theory for closed form solutions of differential equations with piecewise coefficients or perturbation, we perform further research on the theoretical and computational aspect of piecewise functions.

Immersive Simulation

Together with Dr. Shedden from Neuroscience we are investigating the effects of a fully immersive environment (motion simulator) on humans. One goal is to further our understanding about how motion cues are processed and integrated with other information to enhance learning and facilitate transfer of learning outside of the simulator.

Motion Simulator Laboratory

Please visit the new simulator we page
The Motion Simulator Laboratory houses our simulator. The mini-van-sized simulator was modified to contain 3 42'' LCD screens to give a 180 degree field of view. We are installing an eye/head tracker and a EEG system. The synthetic environment is generated by Presagis software, including visualization software, scenario software, AI, and several other components. (The same software as used on CAE commercial flight simulators) The system presents a precision timed, 60Hz, 3D interactive environment to the test subjects. It is controlled by 8 high computers, linked by several networks to ensure low and predictable latency. The simulator offers both driving (using a self coded car simulator) and flying (using the Presagis flight/heli sim packages).

The pictures below where taken before the modification, new pictures will follow soon.



PRESS

Embedded Systems Laboratory

The Embedded Systems Laboratory is equipped to study different mechatronics devices (two robots, two XYZ-tables, an industrial conveyor belt) and has a fully equipped electronics workplace (4 channel scope, function generator, two precision multi-meters, a micro controller programmer, e.t.c). Several interesting projects were done over the last years including the hardware and software for an alternative fuel injection controller for a Ford Crown Victoria (V8, 6.8L).

PRESS



Teaching

• CAS-748 (Term II) 2025 Time Series Analysis
• MECHTRON/ SFWR ENG 3MX3 (Term I) 2024 Signals and Systems
• MECHTRON 4AX3 (Term I) 2024 Predictive and Intelligent Control
  
  
  
• SFWR ENG 2SO3 (Term II) DONE
• SFWR ENG 3KO4 (Term I) DONE
• SFWR ENG 3GP6 (Term III) DONE
  
  

Some Simulator Videos

Two videos to show the traffic environment I created. It is used to give test subjects a realistic environment to perform their tasks. Below is just mini 5x5=25 tile scenario to test, real scenarios have about 60x40=2400 tiles. There is a 2D editor, (C++, openGl, FLTK), and the 3D driving environment (C++, VegaPrime as render engine, 3 screens, self coded solid body car physics too). Lots and lots of code. But this allows full control or everything. This is only a tool we need to do our research. There is even more code to analyze the performance of the test subjects. In the second video I clearly do not follow traffic rules ...


Electronic Instruments

Many know that i build and maintain electronic music instruments, from a large modular, a 1962 Hammond, a 1967 Leslie, and a 1972 Fender Rhodes. Getting asked what music I like, I added some of my favourite, inspiring songs to a play list of electronic music "different was good" most of them have a organ, a Hammond or a Vox Continental, I also like 60's Jazz.

Selected Publications

M. v. Mohrenschildt,  (2005), "A Hybrid Controller for a Nonholonomic Car-like Robot",   International Conference on informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, ICINCO 2005, September (14-17) in Barcelona/Spain.  

M. v. Mohrenschildt,  (2005), "Model Predictive Traces",   Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, Special Issue: Selected Papers from the 2005 International Conference on Embedded and Hybrid Systems, Vol. 15, No. 2 (April 2005), 289-298.  

M. v. Mohrenschildt,  (2005), "Model Predictive Traces in Hybrid Systems",  International Conference on Hybrid Systems,  IEHSC'05

W. M. Farmer, M. v. Mohrenschildt, (2004), "Simple Type Theory: Simple Steps towards a formal Specification",  In the Proceedings of the FIE 2004.

W. M. Farmer, M. v. Mohrenschildt, (2003), "A Formal Framework for Managing Mathematics", Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, May 2003, Volume 38, Issue 1-3, pp. 165-191

N. Nedialkov, M. v. Mohrenschildt (2002), "Rigorous Simulation of Hybrid Dynamic Systems with Symbolic and Interval Methods", ACC 2002, 7 pages. PDF

M. v. Mohrenschildt (2001), "Symbolic Verification of Hybrid Systems: An Algebraic Approach", European Journal of Control, Vol 7, Num 5, 2001 pp: 541-556. PDF

W. M. Farmer and M. v. Mohrenschildt, (2001), "A formal framework for managing mathematics", Electronic Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Mathematical Knowledge Management: MKM'2001, 38 pp., RISC, Hagenburg, Austria, September 24-26, 2001.

W. M. Farmer, M. v. Mohrenschildt (2000), "Transformers for Symbolic Computation and Formal Deduction", , Proceedings of the Workshop on the Role of Automated Deduction in Mathematics, pp. 36-45, CADE-17, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 20-21, 2000.

M. v. Mohrenschildt, (2000), "Hybrid Differential Equations and Hybrid Systems", SCI'2000/ISAS'2000.

M. v. Mohrenschildt, (2000), "Hybrid Systems: Solutions, Stability, Control", ACC 2000, 692-698

M. v. Mohrenschildt, (1999), "Algebra of Normal Function Tables ", "Formal Aspects of Computing", 12(1):41-51, (2000).

M. v. Mohrenschildt, (1999) "Symbolic Verification of Hybrid Systems", In the proceedings of IMACS/IEEE 99 Athens, July 4 - 8, 1999, pp 1511-1519 also in Software and Hardware Engineering for the 21th Century, World Scientific Engineering Society (1999).

M. v. Mohrenschildt, (1998) "A Normal Form for Rings of Piecewise Functions", Journal of Symbolic Computation(1998) 26(5), 607-619 PDF

M. v. Mohrenschildt, "Using Piecewise to Solve Classes of Control Theory Problems", MapleTech97, Vol .4, No. 3, pp. 33-3

M. v. Mohrenschildt, D. Peters, The Draw-Bot: A software Engineering Project (1998) In the proceedings of the Frontiers of Engineering Education FIE98

M. v. Mohrenschildt, The Maze Tracing Robot, Technical Report 1998, PDF

D.J. Jeffrey, G. Labahn, M. v. Mohrenschildt, A.D. Rich (1997) Integration of signum, piecewise and related functions. In proceedings ISSAC 97, 324-330.

M. v. Mohrenschildt, (1999), "Communicating Software Specifications using XML: OpenSpec", CRL REPORT 373

M. v. Mohrenschildt, (1997) "Closed Form Solutions of Hybrid Systems", CRL Report 371, Feb 1999

M. v. Mohrenschildt,  (1997) "Algebra of Normal Functions Tables", CRL Report 315, McMaster University, NSERC, CRL, May 1997