Control Systems Technology

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Control Systems Technology

We advance science and engineering to design
intelligent, high-performance systems, educate engineers,
and enable solutions for the future of high-tech, mobility, and energy.

Performance-driven design and control

We have an internationally leading role in research, combined with inspiring education, valorization through spin-off companies, and direct co-operation with industry.

Our overall research strategy is focused on performance-driven design and control. The performance of a controlled system is defined as the extent to which the actual behaviour of the system matches the intended behaviour, while being subject to disturbances acting on the system and variations in system dynamics. Performance requirements can be related, for instance, to the accurate tracking of a set-point (motion) or to the energy utilization (hybrid vehicles). Fundamental properties that determine and possibly limit performance can be found in both external sources (disturbances acting on the system) and internal sources (system properties, controller properties, quality of sensors and actuators etc.). Only by an integrated design of both the mechatronic (hardware) system and the (software) controller the highest performance requirements can be achieved.

The engineering question underlying the design problem of high-performance systems is how to find the best combination of controller and system realization such that the performance requirements are achieved for all prescribed situations (disturbances and system variations).

The scientific question is how to exploit (model-based) insights into the fundamental properties of the system for systematic analysis and design, leading to a significant increase in the achievable performance. It is clear that the engineering question has a strong interrelationship with the scientific question, in which the former has the role of validation and inspiration for new directions of research.

News

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July 21, 2026

Projects ARISE and R-TRACS receive NWO funding for space technology research

黑料福利网 takes part in NWO KIC call focused on space technology with two projects.

June 2, 2026

Teaching machines to make better decisions when they can't see the full picture

Roy van Zuijlen defended his PhD thesis at the Department of Mechanical Engineering on June 2nd.

More news

Young researcher in the spotlight: Sebastiaan van den Eijnden

May 18, 2026

Control of novel power exhaust solutions in nuclear fusion

March 5, 2026

Time-dependent modeling of plasma exhaust in fusion reactors

March 3, 2026

Making gravitational waves easier to hear

January 23, 2026

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Education

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The Control Systems Technology Group actively participates in the 黑料福利网 Bachelor College and Graduate School. The members of the CST group are responsible for many courses at BSc (ME) and MSc levels, in the master programs of ME, AT, S&C and NF. Every year approximately 60 students finish their Master program within our group. Also, CST group participates in the EngD program Automotive Systems Design as well as in the Graduate School DISC.

For more information, you can send an email to cst_sa@tue.nl

Research lines

The research in our group is structured in 5 research lines. Click on the following links to learn more about each topic.

Research line

Automotive & Mobility Systems

Driven by stringent legislation for CO2 and other pollutant emissions, the automotive industry faces enormous challenges to find a…

RESEARCH LINE

Cyber-Physical Systems and Systems Engineering

Cyber-physical systems to enable a smart, autonomous and connected world.

RESEARCH LINE

Design for Precision Engineering

The research line Design for Precision Engineering (DPE) of the CST group bundles three focus areas that all draw on the rich heritage of…

RESEARCH LINE

Learning, Identification and Control of High-Tech Systems

We develop methods to control real machines to the limits of performance by learning from data.

RESEARCH LINE

Process Control & Energy Systems

Our mission is to advance the field of control and optimization for future energy systems. Through cutting-edge research, we aim to develop…

RESEARCH GROUPS

The following research groups are present within the Control Systems Technology section.

Group Odyssey

Odyssey is a group of researchers within the CST section who have embarked on a journey to progress the science of Systems Engineering,…

Group Heemels

As connectivity becomes ubiquitous and sensors, actuators, and controllers are seamlessly embedded in our daily lives, it is essential to…

Group Hofman

We aim at developing integrated design methods that provide system-wide solutions for complex dynamic engineering systems

Group Oomen

We aim to develop methods to control future engineered systems to their limits of performance.

MOVEMENT

The mission of MOVEMENT (Modeling and Optimization for Vehicle Electrification, Mobility, Energy and Novel Topics) Research Group is to…

Group Supervisory Control

The impact of the current generation of embedded and cyber-physical systems (of systems) on society asks for application of model-based…

Group Van den Eijnden

Our mission is to exploit nonlinearities in control for realizing unparalleled performance of future high-tech systems.

Group Chanfreut

Advancing the frontiers of model predictive control for interconnected systems

Group Gonz谩lez

We aim to address fundamental challenges in the design and analysis ofalgorithms for modeling, estimation and control of data-intensive…

Job Vacancies

We have new and exciting opportunities for talented researchers at our Control Systems Technology section. Please see 黑料福利网 Vacancies for the currently available positions.