Control
If it moves, we control it.
Our expertise in this area covers multivariable, nonlinear, optimal and model-predictive control theory, nonlinear estimation, nonlinear dynamical systems, and mechanical design. We conduct both fundamental and applied research targeting a wide range of applications including autonomous driving, factory automation and HVAC systems.
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Researchers
Stefano
Di Cairano
Yebin
Wang
Avishai
Weiss
Scott A.
Bortoff
Christopher R.
Laughman
Abraham P.
Vinod
Daniel N.
Nikovski
Diego
Romeres
Arvind
Raghunathan
Abraham
Goldsmith
Philip V.
Orlik
William S.
Yerazunis
Vedang M.
Deshpande
Purnanand
Elango
Chungwei
Lin
Hongtao
Qiao
Jianlin
Guo
Toshiaki
Koike-Akino
Yanting
Ma
Matthew
Brand
Dehong
Liu
Nobuyuki
Yoshikawa
Pedro
Miraldo
Alexander
Schperberg
Bingnan
Wang
Petros T.
Boufounos
Hassan
Mansour
Ye
Wang
Gordon
Wichern
Jinyun
Zhang
Siddarth
Jain
Jordan
Leung
Saviz
Mowlavi
Kieran
Parsons
Zhaolin
Ren
Hongbo
Sun
Kento
Tomita
Kei
Suzuki
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Awards
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AWARD MERL intern and Researchers wins 2025 IEEE CCTA Best Student Paper Award Date: August 27, 2025
Awarded to: Yingjie Hu (Student, Intern), Karl Berntorp, Stefano Di Cairano (MERL Researchers)
MERL Contact: Stefano Di Cairano
Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Signal ProcessingBrief- MERL intern Yingjie Hu was recognized as the winner of the 2025 IEEE CCTA Best Student Paper Award for the paper "Optimal Measurement Projection in GNSS-RTK Factor Graph Optimization" written in collaboration with MERL Researchers Karl Berntorp and Stefano Di Cairano during the internship at MERL
The paper develops methods for measurement projections for reducing the computational burden of factor graph optimization algorithms in GNSS applications, thus enabling their use in real-time in a wider range of positioning applications.
The IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Application is the conference of the IEEE Control Systems Society focused on applications and technological advances of control systems
- MERL intern Yingjie Hu was recognized as the winner of the 2025 IEEE CCTA Best Student Paper Award for the paper "Optimal Measurement Projection in GNSS-RTK Factor Graph Optimization" written in collaboration with MERL Researchers Karl Berntorp and Stefano Di Cairano during the internship at MERL
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AWARD MERL work receives IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best New Application Paper Award from IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Date: May 19, 2025
Awarded to: Yehan Ma, Yebin Wang, Stefano Di Cairano, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Jianlin Guo, Philip Orlik, Xinping Guan and Chenyang Lu
MERL Contacts: Stefano Di Cairano; Jianlin Guo; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Philip V. Orlik; Yebin Wang
Research Areas: Communications, Control, Machine LearningBrief- The paper “Smart Actuation for End-Edge Industrial Control Systems”, co-authored by MERL intern Yehan Ma, MERL researchers Yebin Wang, Stefano Di Cairano, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Jianlin Guo, and Philip Orlik, and academic collaborators Xinping Guan and Chenyang Lu, was recognized as the Best New Application Paper of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), for "a new industrial automation solution that ensures safety operation through coordinated co-design of edge model predictive control and local actuation".
The award recognizes the best application paper published in T-ASE over the previous calendar year, for the significance of new applications, technical merit, originality, potential impact on the field, and clarity of presentation.
- The paper “Smart Actuation for End-Edge Industrial Control Systems”, co-authored by MERL intern Yehan Ma, MERL researchers Yebin Wang, Stefano Di Cairano, Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Jianlin Guo, and Philip Orlik, and academic collaborators Xinping Guan and Chenyang Lu, was recognized as the Best New Application Paper of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), for "a new industrial automation solution that ensures safety operation through coordinated co-design of edge model predictive control and local actuation".
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AWARD Arvind Raghunathan receives Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award at 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC) Date: December 8, 2022
Awarded to: Arvind Raghunathan
MERL Contact: Arvind Raghunathan
Research Areas: Control, OptimizationBrief- Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Data Analytics group, received the IEEE Control Systems Society Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award. The award was presented at the 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC).
The award is given annually in honor of Roberto Tempo, the 44th President of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS). The Tempo Award Committee selects the best paper from the previous year's CDC based on originality, potential impact on any aspect of control theory, technology, or implementation, and for the clarity of writing. This year's award committee was headed by Prof. Patrizio Colaneri, Politecnico di Milano. Arvind's paper was nominated for the award by Prof. Lorenz Biegler, Carnegie Mellon University, with supporting letters from Prof. Andreas Waechter, Northwestern University, and Prof. Victor Zavala, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Arvind Raghunathan, Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Data Analytics group, received the IEEE Control Systems Society Roberto Tempo Best CDC Paper Award. The award was presented at the 2022 IEEE Conference on Decision & Control (CDC).
See All Awards for MERL -
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News & Events
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NEWS Stefano Di Cairano elected to the Board of Governors of the IEEE Control System Society Date: February 11, 2026
MERL Contact: Stefano Di Cairano
Research Areas: Control, Dynamical SystemsBrief- Dr. Stefano Di Cairano, Distinguished Research Scientist at MERL and Fellow, IEEE has been recently elected as a member of the board of governor of the IEEE Control Systems Society, for the term 2026-2028.
The Control Systems Society (CSS) is the IEEE society dedicated to advancing the theory and practice of automatic control, engineering systems, and decision-making.
The Board of Governors has the responsibility for governing the IEEE Control Systems Society, by operating according to a set of bylaws to set strategic direction, provide necessary resources, and make key decisions to implement that will meet member needs.
- Dr. Stefano Di Cairano, Distinguished Research Scientist at MERL and Fellow, IEEE has been recently elected as a member of the board of governor of the IEEE Control Systems Society, for the term 2026-2028.
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TALK [MERL Seminar Series 2026] Zac Manchester presents talk titled Is locomotion really that hard… and other musings on the virtues of simplicity Date & Time: Tuesday, January 20, 2026; 12:00 PM
Speaker: Zac Manchester, MIT
MERL Host: Pedro Miraldo
Research Areas: Computer Vision, Control, Optimization, RoboticsAbstract
For decades, legged locomotion was a challenging research topic in robotics. In the last few years, however, both model-based and reinforcement-learning approaches have not only demonstrated impressive performance in laboratory settings, but are now regularly deployed "in the wild." One surprising feature of these successful controllers is how simple they can be. Meanwhile, Art Bryson’s timeless advice to control engineers, “Be wise – linearize,” seems to be increasingly falling out of fashion and at risk of being forgotten by the next generation of practitioners. This talk will discuss several recent works from my group that try to push the limits of how simple locomotion (and, possibly, manipulation) controllers for general-purpose robots can be from several different viewpoints, while also making connections to state-of-the-art generative AI methods like diffusion policies.
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Internships
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MS0098: Internship - Control and Estimation for Large-Scale Thermofluid Systems
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ST0245: Internship - Python-OpenFOAM Interface for Active Flow Control
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CI0197: Internship - Embodied AI & Humanoid Robotics
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Openings
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Recent Publications
- , "Continuous-Time Successive Convexification for Passively-Safe Spacecraft Rendezvous on a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit", AIAA SciTech Forum 2026, January 2026.BibTeX TR2026-016 PDF
- @inproceedings{Elango2026jan,
- author = {Elango, Purnanand and Vinod, Abraham P. and Kitamura, Kenji and Acikmese, Behcet and {Di Cairano}, Stefano and Weiss, Avishai},
- title = {{Continuous-Time Successive Convexification for Passively-Safe Spacecraft Rendezvous on a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit}},
- booktitle = {AIAA SciTech Forum 2026},
- year = 2026,
- month = jan,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-016}
- }
- , "Robust Optimal Control for Autonomous Precision Landing via Set-based Dynamic Programming", AIAA SciTech Forum, January 2026.BibTeX TR2026-015 PDF
- @inproceedings{Kamath2026jan,
- author = {Kamath, Abhinav and Vinod, Abraham P. and Elango, Purnanand and {Di Cairano}, Stefano and Weiss, Avishai},
- title = {{Robust Optimal Control for Autonomous Precision Landing via Set-based Dynamic Programming}},
- booktitle = {AIAA SciTech Forum},
- year = 2026,
- month = jan,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-015}
- }
- , "Powered Descent Decision Making: A Reachability-Steering Approach", AIAA SciTech Forum, January 2026.BibTeX TR2026-014 PDF
- @inproceedings{Kento2026jan,
- author = {Kento, Tomita and Elango, Purnanand and Vinod, Abraham P. and {Di Cairano}, Stefano and Weiss, Avishai},
- title = {{Powered Descent Decision Making: A Reachability-Steering Approach}},
- booktitle = {AIAA SciTech Forum},
- year = 2026,
- month = jan,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-014}
- }
- , "Relaxed barrier function based model predictive control with hard input constraints", IEEE Control Systems Letters, DOI: 10.1109/LCSYS.2025.3645287, Vol. 9, pp. 2927-2932, December 2025.BibTeX TR2026-005 PDF
- @article{Castroviejo-Fernandez2025dec,
- author = {Castroviejo-Fernandez, Miguel and Leung, Jordan},
- title = {{Relaxed barrier function based model predictive control with hard input constraints}},
- journal = {IEEE Control Systems Letters},
- year = 2025,
- volume = 9,
- pages = {2927--2932},
- month = dec,
- doi = {10.1109/LCSYS.2025.3645287},
- issn = {2475-1456},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-005}
- }
- , "Motion Planning for Information Acquisition via Continuous-time Successive Convexification", IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), December 2025.BibTeX TR2025-170 PDF
- @inproceedings{Uzun2025dec,
- author = {Uzun, Samet and Acikmese, Behcet and {Di Cairano}, Stefano},
- title = {{Motion Planning for Information Acquisition via Continuous-time Successive Convexification}},
- booktitle = {IEEE Control Systems Letters},
- year = 2025,
- month = dec,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-170}
- }
- , "Set-based lossless convexification for a class of robust nonlinear optimal control problems", IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), DOI: 10.1109/CDC57313.2025.11312593, December 2025, pp. 1769-1776.BibTeX TR2025-160 PDF
- @inproceedings{Vinod2025dec,
- author = {Vinod, Abraham P. and Kamath, Abhinav and Weiss, Avishai and {Di Cairano}, Stefano},
- title = {{Set-based lossless convexification for a class of robust nonlinear optimal control problems}},
- booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)},
- year = 2025,
- pages = {1769--1776},
- month = dec,
- doi = {10.1109/CDC57313.2025.11312593},
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-160}
- }
- , "Quantile-SMPC for Grid-Interactive Buildings with Multivariate Temporal Fusion Transformers", Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Workshop on UrbanAI, December 2025.BibTeX TR2026-001 PDF
- @inproceedings{Hutchinson2025dec,
- author = {{{Hutchinson, Spencer and Vinod, Abraham P. and Germain, François G and Di Cairano, Stefano and Laughman, Christopher R. and Chakrabarty, Ankush}}},
- title = {{{Quantile-SMPC for Grid-Interactive Buildings with Multivariate Temporal Fusion Transformers}}},
- booktitle = {Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Workshop on UrbanAI},
- year = 2025,
- month = dec,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-001}
- }
- , "Constrained Optimization From a Control Perspective via Feedback Linearization", The Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NuerIPS), December 2025.BibTeX TR2025-165 PDF
- @inproceedings{Zhang2025dec,
- author = {Zhang, Runyu and Raghunathan, Arvind and Shamma, Jeff and Li, Na},
- title = {{Constrained Optimization From a Control Perspective via Feedback Linearization}},
- booktitle = {The Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NuerIPS)},
- year = 2025,
- month = dec,
- url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-165}
- }
- , "Continuous-Time Successive Convexification for Passively-Safe Spacecraft Rendezvous on a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit", AIAA SciTech Forum 2026, January 2026.
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