Biography
Xu Chen pursues a research passion at the intersection of dynamic systems, information processing, and controls, to better understand and engineer smart machines that positively impact our lives. He leads the MACS Lab — a team focusing on sensing, actuation, and automation that facilitate e.g., robots that inspect complex, highly reflective parts in aerospace, and additive manufacturing that make engineered materials with extraordinary properties at low unit costs compared to conventional machining. Xu Chen also serves as Director of the Boeing Advanced Research Collaboration at UW – an interdisciplinary Boeing-UW partnership for the future of flight. He is a recipient of the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the SME Sandra L. Bouckley Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, the IFAC Mechatronic Systems Outstanding Young Researcher Award, and the Young Investigator Award from ISCIE/ASME International Symposium on Flexible Automation. He is an alumnus of the US NAE Frontiers of Engineering.
- Dynamic Systems
- Controls and Sensing
- Robotics and Manufacturing
- Adaptation and Learning
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PhD, Mechanical Engineering, 2013
University of California, Berkeley
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MS, Mechanical Engineering, 2010
University of California, Berkeley
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BS, Mechanical Engineering, 2008
Tsinghua University
Areas of Research and Teaching
Selected Projects
Boeing Advanced Research Collaboration at UW
(as Director) The Boeing Advanced Research Collaboration (BARC) at UW is an interdisciplinary Boeing-UW partnership for the future of flight. BARC unites UW faculty and students with Boeing subject matter experts to evolve aerospace systems with next-generation technologies such as new materials, digital twin, AI, robotics, and human-technology partnership.
American Control Conference 2024
(as Program Committee Member) The 2024 American Control Conference (ACC) will be held Wednesday through Friday, July 10-12 (Workshops to be held July 8-9), 2024 in Toronto, ON, Canada at the Westin Harbour Castle. Toronto is Canada’s largest city and a world leader in such areas as business, finance, technology, entertainment and culture. Its large population of immigrants from all over the globe has also made Toronto one of the most multicultural cities in the world.
Illustrating Number Theory and Controls
Interactively generate intriguing patterns in nature and engineering. Try it on your own computer!
2023 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics
(as Local Arrangement Chair) The IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM) is a flagship conference of IEEE/ASME Transactions on mechatronics. The AIM 2023 was held on June 27-July 1 (Tue-Sat), 2023, in Seattle, Washington, USA. Check out an exciting conference program at https://aim2023.org!
2024 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics
(as Publication Chair) The AIM 2024 will be held on July 15-July 18, 2024, in Boston, MA, USA. The sponsors and organizers of AIM 2024 invite submissions describing original work, including but not limited to Actuators, Automotive Systems, Bioengineering, Data Storage Systems, Electronic Packaging, Fault Diagnosis, Human-Machine interfaces, Human-Robot Interaction/Collaboration, Human Factors in Mechatronics Systems, Industry Applications, Information Technology, Intelligent Systems, Machine Vision, Manufacturing, Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems, Micro/Nano Technology, Modeling and Design, System Identification and Adaptive Control, Motion Control, Vibration and Noise Control, Neural and Fuzzy Control, Opto-Electronic Systems, Optomechatronics, Prototyping, Real-Time and Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation, Robotics, Sensors, System Integration, Transportation Systems, Smart Materials and Structures, Energy Harvesting, and other frontier fields. Check out an exciting conference program at https://aim2024.org!
Collaborative Robots
From visual servo to control under limited feedback
Composite Manufacturing
From visual to ultrasonic inspections
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
(as Associate Editor 2022-2025) The IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics publishes high quality technical papers on technological advances in mechatronics. A primary purpose of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics is to have an archival publication which encompasses both theory and practice. Papers published in the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics disclose significant new knowledge needed to implement intelligent mechatronics systems, from analysis and design through simulation and hardware and software implementation. The Transactions also contains a letters section dedicated to rapid publication of short correspondence items concerning new research results.
Intelligent Grasping
From tactile feedback to slip prevention
Journey to controls
all about controls, in a learning tree
New Book!
An introduction to modern controls, with concurrent examples in MATLAB and Python
Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference
(as Program Chair in 2022 and 2025) MECC aims to serve the scientific and engineering communities with interests in the modeling, estimation, and control of cross disciplinary mechanical systems to provide a platform for the dissemination and discussion of the state of the art in relevant research areas; and to create opportunities for networking with colleagues. The conference features conference awards, contributed sessions, invited sessions, workshops, special sessions, plenary talks, keynote speeches, student programs, as well as committee meetings, industry programs, and social functions
American Control Conference 2021
(as Exhibits Chair) ACC is the annual conference of the American Automatic Control Council (AACC), the U.S. national member organization of the International Federation for Automatic Control (IFAC). National and international society co-sponsors of ACC include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), IEEE Control Systems Society (IEEE-CSS), Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), International Society of Automation (ISA), Society for Modeling & Simulation International (SCS), and Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
ASME DSCD Technical Committee on Vibrations
(as the 2008-2020 Chair) The Technical Committee on Vibrations seeks to disseminate research results in vibration and control of smart structures by organizing invited sessions at national and international conferences; by giving lectures, invited talks, and presentations in the broad area of vibration and control of smart structures; to promote the engineering profession via professional meetings of the TC and TC activities; to educate the members especially the graudate students for preparing the academia and professional life in general; to promote research success of the graduate students working in the field, and to serve the needs of the society through research, education, and industry liaisons.
Boeing Advanced Research Center
(as Scientific Committee Member) The Boeing Advanced Research Center (BARC) represents a new paradigm in the execution of industrial research at the University of Washington. Boeing-employed affiliate instructors work in the lab side by side with faculty and students on joint research projects in the manufacturing and assembly of aircraft and spacecraft structures.
Dynamic Systems and Control Conference 2016 & 2020
(as Student and Young Members Chair) The DSCC is the showcase technical forum of the Dynamic Systems and Control Division of ASME. It provides a focused and intimate setting for dissemination and discussion of the state of the art in dynamic systems and control research, with a mechanical engineering flavor. The technical program typically covers the modeling, simulation, analysis, design, and control of dynamical systems. Topics include control theory, industrial applications, and innovations in dynamical systems and control education.
International Symposium on Flexible Automation 2020, 2022, 2024
(as Organizing Committee in 2020, Program Co-Chair in 2022, and Program Chair in 2024) The ISFA conference, a biennial summit on manufacturing automation and related technologies, was initiated in 1986 under co-sponsorship of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers (ISCIE) in Japan. It provides a focused and intimate setting for dissemination and discussion of advanced manufacturing technologies and other related fields such as dynamical systems and control, logistics and informatics, and design and optimization. It features synergistic blend of topics encompassing various aspects of manufacturing such as sensing and control, mechatronics, material design and synthesis, process modeling, lean manufacturing, diagnosis and prognosis, and emerging concepts including artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things (IoT), cloud computing, and environmental sustainability, etc.
UW Advanced Composites Center
(as Scientific Committee Member) The UW ACC leverages a 16,000 sq ft high-tech space and equipment to build a robust innovation ecosystem for industry and academia to advance the field of data-driven methods for composites manufacturing.
2020 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics
(as Publicity Chair) As a flagship conference focusing on mechatronics and intelligent systems, AIM 2020 brought together an international community of experts to discuss the state-of-the-art, new research results, perspectives of future developments, and innovative applications relevant to mechatronics, robotics, automation, industrial electronics, and related areas. 2020 marked the first virtual AIM in the history of the conference!
2021 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics
(as Publicity Chair) The IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM) is a flagship conference of IEEE/ASME Transactions on mechatronics. The AIM 2021 will be held on July 12 – 16, 2021 at TU Delft, The Netherlands. It will bring together an international community of experts to discuss the state of the art for new research results, perspectives of future developments, and innovative applications relevant to mechatronics, robotics, control, and automation.
Beyond-Bandwidth Control in High-Speed Precision Mechatronics
Customizing control to the performance extreme.
Focused Section on Machine Learning, Estimation and Control for Intelligent Robotics at International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications
(as Guest Editor) Owing to the explosive advancements in recent years in the areas of computational intelligence, material synthesis, and device integration, a new era of intelligent robotics, featuring unprecedented capabilities of sensing, actuation, and decision making, has arrived. Various newly developed robotic systems have penetrated into virtually all industrial sectors, ranging from manufacturing, energy, aerospace and naval, infrastructure, to health care and service, etc. They possess remarkably enhanced performances in terms of accuracy, adaptivity, reliability, and autonomy, and are poised to change fundamentally our modalities of working and living. The new accomplishments exemplify the collaborative efforts by academia and industry that are currently accelerating. Aiming at documenting and disseminating the progresses and identifying growth opportunities, this focused section showcases a number of recent technological achievements in the learning and control of robotic systems. It includes nine papers that share the common theme of robotic systems utilizing complex or heterogeneous data in their design and control through advanced learning and estimation techniques.
Jumping in controls
Taming discontinuities and jumping states.
Manufacturing Robotics Training Resources in Northwest U.S.
Help build a national robotic resource map for manufacturing.
Reliable Additive Manufacturing
Towards an agile manufacturing of quality-assured, short-run products.
Robotic Inspection of Complex Metalic Parts
Robots that remedy burdensome and subjective human inspections.
Sensing and Control under Constrained Information Feedback
From irregular, asynchronous data to agile system response.
Sustainable Additive Manufacturing
Towards a zero-waste agile manufacturing of quality-assured, short-run products.
LaTeX for Controls Research
Drawing block diagrams in LaTeX.
Adaptation over Unsteady Dynamics
Learning and adapting like humans do.
Media and News
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06/2024: Arun’s paper “Agile Surface Inspection Framework for Aerospace Components Using Unsupervised Machine Learning” was awarded the Best Paper in Theory Award at the 2024 Japan Institute of Systems, Control, and Information Engineers (ISCIE) / ASME International Symposium on Flexible Automation. Congrats!
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01/11/2024: New Book released: “Introduction to Modern Controls, with Illustrations in Matlab and Python”!
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09/2023: excited to attend the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2023 Frontiers of Engineering Symposium
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01/03/2023: New Review Paper A review of aging, degradation, and reusability of PA12 powders in selective laser sintering additive manufacturing published at Materials Today Communications!
- 09/08/2022: honored to receive the Mechatronic Systems Outstanding Young Researcher Award, IFAC Technical Committee on Mechatronic Systems
- 04/27/2022: Highlighted Project, DoD Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute, “Automated Defect Inspection of Complex Metallic Parts”
- 04/2022: Seattle Times Cover Article, “Robots are learning to think like humans. Can they meet Amazon’s demands for speed?”
- 04/2022: Project Demonstration to DoD and Federal Stakeholders, “Robotic Inspection of Complex Metallic Parts”
- 07/01/2022: excited to start the New NSF award aiming to enable engineered systems to effectively respond to real-time data collected from asynchronous sources
- 2022: honored to receive the SME Sandra L. Bouckley Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. Thanks, SME, my nominator Ramulu Mamidala, and letter supporters!
- 04/21/2021: DoD ISEA of the Future Biweekly Drumbeat, “Automated Defect Inspection of Complex Metallic Objects”
- 04/21/2021: Microsoft Surface Tech Talk, “Automated Defect Inspection of Complex Metallic Parts”
- 09/2020: Highlighted Project, SME Media, “ARM Counts Wire-harness Installation, Pop-up Boot Camp Among Its Successes”
- 11/05/2020: University of Huston distinguished departmental seminar, “Control Across Different Temporal Scales – A Mechatronic-System Perspective”
- 10/13/2020: Highlighted Project, DoD Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute, “Automated Defect Inspection of Complex Metallic Parts”
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03/15/2018: CAREER Award, National Science Foundation
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10/11/2019: Hui’s paper “Following fast-dynamic targets with only slow and delayed visual feedback - a Kalman filter and model-based prediction approach” received Best Student Paper on Robotics, ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division. Congrats!
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07/19/2018: Dan’s paper “Synthesis and analysis of multirate repetitive control for fractional-order periodic disturbance rejection in powder bed fusion” received the Best Paper Award, Japan Institute of Systems, Control, and Information Engineers (ISCIE) / ASME International Symposium on Flexible Automation. Congrats!
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10/03/2018: Hui Xiao’s paper “Multi-band beyond-Nyquist disturbance rejection on a galvanometer scanner system” received Best Student Paper on Mechatronics, ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division. Congrats Hui!
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10/13/2017: Tianyu’s paper “An inverse-free disturbance observer for adaptive narrow-band disturbance rejection with application to selective laser sintering” received the Best Vibrations Paper Award, ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division. Congrats Tianyu!
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08/03/2022: Hui’s paper “Robotic Target Following with Slow and Delayed Visual Feedback” received the Best Paper Award Finalist, International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications, Springer Nature. Congrats Hui!
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07/16/2014: honored to receive the Young Investigator Award, ISCIE/ASME International Symposium on Flexible Automation. Thanks, ISCIE and ASME, my nominator Robert Gao and letter supporters, and the Award Selection Committee!
Featured Publications
Contact
- chx[AT]uw.edu
- 3900 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA 98195
- Enter the MEB building and take the stairs to Office 325 on Floor 3
- Youtube Channel