Dr. Zhiqiang Gao is an Associate Professor and Director of Center for Advanced Control Technologies (CACT) at Fenn College of Engineering, Cleveland State University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1990 from University of Notre Dame where the mystery of feedback control woke him up from his slumber and fill him with wonder and imagination. He was fascinated by both its mathematical elegance and immense practical applications.  At Notre Dame, he was deeply influenced by Dr. Charles Rohrs, who dared to challenge the practicality of the predominant control theory.

Dr. Gao joined Cleveland State University in 1990 and was promoted to associated professor with tenure in 1996, allowing him to pursue wherever his curiosity led. Eager to get his hands dirty, he decided to see firsthand how engineering is practiced and what problems real world presents. Through his students, he visited many local companies and engaged in a dialogue with their engineers, companies such as Invacare, AlliedSignal, Nordson, Kirby, USS Steel, Bailey Controls, Energizer, Rockwell Automation, etc. and also NASA Glen Research Center. He is the founder of CACT which has developed a collaborative research relationship with most of these companies.  Over the years, he and his team of researchers began to provide novel solutions to their industry partners on a project by project basis, resulting in multi-million dollar research grants. He also lectures extensively on industrial control and consult for various businesses. Started out as a pure theoretical researcher, Dr. Gao reeducated himself by learning from his students who are practicing engineers and by immersing himself in real world engineering problems. The end result is a revelation.

Industrial controllers have been upgraded constantly with ever faster computer chips and better sensors, Dr. Gao found, but when you open the hood and look inside the brain, or the control algorithm, of a machine, you will most likely see a technology dated to 1920s. That’s right, the predominant control algorithm, called PID, has been around since 1922. It is not much different from the first breakthrough in control technology, the flyball governor, of the eighteen’s century.  Granted, we now understand how a feedback control system works a lot better than before and we have a slew of mathematical tools to bear on any given applications. But the matter of fact is that we haven’t come close to find a better controller that could replace the 86 years old PID, until now.

As he worked his way through challenges engineering problems present, Dr. Gao is constantly reminded of the absurdity of the situation. It feels like a 2008 BMW with an engine of 1922 Model T inside. Effective as it has been, PID is an error-based control technology that only reacts passively to disturbances in a process, such as temperature and humidity change, machine wear and tear, unpredictable frictional forces etc. The controller only reacts when such disturbances cause disruptions in the operations of machines. The down side is, by the time the disturbance work through the process, it maybe too late to prevent a deterioration of machine performance. This turned out to be a common scene that repeats itself over and over again in all projects Dr. Gao had hands on and it got the point where enough is enough. Let’s fix it once for all, thought Dr. Gao.

It has been 23 years since he first took that fateful controls course at Notre Dame fro Dr. Charles Rohrs, and Dr. Gao and his team of researchers finally find an answer in Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC), a technology that actively seeks out and fights  disturbance rather than passively wait for it to affect machine operation. 86 years is long enough for a major technology upgrade, said Dr. Gao, and the world is listening. Recently, the CSU spinoff company, ADRC Technologies, of which Dr. is the chief technology officer, received $1 million investment from a venture capital firm, Early Stage Partners in Cleveland, to bring industrial machine control technology into the 21st century.

See adrcinc.com for more details.

PD articles:

"CSU prof's industrial control technology could make machines run more efficiently"

"A NewIndustrial Revolution?"

E-mail:

Telephone Numbers:

Office: