Background

Apprentice with British Aerospace, Aircraft Group, studied Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough University. Seven years of industrial experience with British Aerospace working on real-time distributed systems. Visiting Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore. PhD in distributed machine control systems from Loughborough University. Ford Motor Company Research Fellow from 1996 to date.

Professional Affiliations

Member of the IMechE

External Activities

Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College
Member of the IMechE Mechatronics Forum
Retained consultant on distributed control to several European companies

Broad Interests and Expertise

Component based, modular approaches to the design and control of products and processes.
Design/simulation tools for modular mechatronic systems. In particular:
   1) real-time control system design and implementation
   2) control logic design and analysis
   3) VRML based machine/process modelling and visualisation
   4) the monitoring of machines/processes (both locally and remotely) using embedded web server technology

Research Interests and Activities

Research focused on systems modelling, integration and control. Creating globally distributed virtual environments to underpin the life cycle engineering of component-based machines and process control systems. The Manufacturing System Integration (MSI) Research Group is currently collaborating with the Ford, Mazda, Jaguar and leading automotive machine builders to develop the next generation of machine design, control and monitoring systems for factory automation. The aim is to enable the global engineering of production systems within the automotive industry. Other embedded control and monitoring systems currently under development include LonWorks based distributed lifting systems for railway rolling stock.

Publications

View central admin publications database (new window)

School Research Groups

Manufacturing
Manufacturing Systems Integration

Links

Research into next generation machine design, control and monitoring systems: http://msiri.lboro.ac.uk/ccg/
MSI Research Institute: http://msiri.lboro.ac.uk