Stephen Rock

Contact

rock AT stanford DOT edu

Education History

S.B., Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T., 1972

S.M., Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T., 1972

Ph.D., Applied Mechanics, Stanford University, 1978

Experience

Professor and Associate Professor at Stanford University, 1988-present

Adjunct Research Engineer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 1995-present

Senior Engineer and Manager of the Controls and Instrumentation Department at Systems Control Technology, 1977-1988

Development Engineer at Hewlett Packard Co., 1972-1974

Research Interests

Dr. Rock's interests include the development and experimental verification of advanced control techniques for robotic and vehicle systems. Areas of emphasis include underwater remotely operated vehicle control; precision end-point control in the presence of flexibility and uncertainty; adaptive control for unknown payloads; neural network based control for fault accommodation, and cooperative control of multiple manipulators and multiple robots. Dr. Rock and his students have also developed innovative control approaches for a variety of aircraft systems. Contributions include the development of an integrated flight/propulsion control design procedure that enables the coordination of distinct subsystem controllers in the context of an integrated design. This approach has been applied to both fixed-wing and helicopter control system problems. He and his students have also developed and verified experimentally nonlinear control techniques that use tangential blowing to modify vortex shedding and hence to control aircraft operating at extreme attitudes.

Dr. Rock teaches several courses in dynamics and control.

Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Dr. Rock led the Controls and Instrumentation Department of Systems Control Technology, Inc. In his eleven years at SCT he performed and led research in four main areas: integrated control; fault detection, isolation and accommodation; turbine engine modeling and control; and parameter identification.

Selected Publications

Mclain, T.W. and Rock, S.M., "Development and Experimental Validation of an Underwater Manipulator Hydrodynamic Model," International Journal of Robotics Research,Vol. 17, No. 7, July 1998, pp748-759.

Pedreiro, N., Rock, S.M., Zeki, C. and Roberts, L., "Roll-Yaw Control at High Angle of Attack by Forebody Tangential Blowing," AIAA Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 35, No. 1, January-February 1998, pp69-77.

Eggers, A.J., Ashley, H., Rock, S.M., Chaney, K. and Digumarthi, R., "Effects of Blade Bending on Aerodynamic Control of Fluctuating Loads on Teetered HAWT Rotors," ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 118, No. 4, November 1996, pp 239-245.

Alder, L.J. and Rock, S.M., "Frequency-Weighted State Estimation with Application to Estimation in the Presence of Sensor Bias," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Vol. 4, No. 4, July 1996, pp 427-436.

Conway, A., Montgomery, P., Rock, S.M., Cannon, R.H. and Parkinson, B., "A New Motion Based Algorithm for GPS Attitude Integer Resolution," Navigation: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Vol. 43, No. 2, Summer 1996.

McLain, T.L., Rock, S.M. and Lee, M.J., "Experiments in the Coordinated Control of an Underwater Arm/Vehicle System.'' Autonomous Robots 3, 1996, pp. 213-232.

Wang, H.H., Rock, S.M. and Lee, M.J., "OTTER: The Design and Development of an Intelligent Underwater Robot.'' Autonomous Robots 3, 1996, pp. 297-320.

Healey, A.J., Rock, S.M., Cody, S., Miles, D. and Brown, J.P., "Toward an Improved Understanding of Thruster Dynamics for Underwater Vehicles," IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 4, October 1995, pp. 354-361.

Wilson, E. and Rock, S.M., "Neural Network Control of a Free-Flying Space Robot," Simulation, Vol. 65, No. 2, August 1995, pp. 103-115..

Marks, R.L., Rock, S.M. and Lee, M.J., "Real-Time Video Mosaicking of the Ocean Floor," IEEE Journal of Ocean Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 1995, pp 229-241.

Neighbors, W.K. and Rock, S.M., "Integrated Flight/Propulsion Control: Subsystem Specifications for Performance," Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Vol.18, No.3, May-June 1995, pp 572-578.

Alder, L.J. and Rock, S.M., "Experiments in Control of a Flexible Link Robotic Manipulator with Unknown Payload Dynamics: An Adaptive Approach," International Journal of Robotics Research Vol. 13, No. 6, Dec. 1994, pp. 481-495.

Rock, S.M. and Neighbors, W.K., "An Integrated Control Design Approach for Rotorcraft Systems," Journal of the American Helicopter Society, Vol. 39, No. 3, July 1994, pp. 34-42.

Wong, G.S., Rock, S.M., Wood, N.J. and Roberts, L., "Active Control of Wing Rock of a Delta Wing at Post-Stall Using Tangential Leading Edge Blowing," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 31., No. 3, May-June 1994, pp. 659-665.

Rock, S.M. and Emami, A.E., Neighbors, W.K., "Integrated Flight/Propulsion Control: Subsystem Specifications," Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Vol. 17, No. 1, Jan-Feb 1994, pp. 201-208.

Woodard, J.C., Rock, S.M. and Portner, P.M., "A Sophisticated Electromechanical Ventricular Simulator for Ventricular Assist System Testing," ASAIO Transactions, Vol. 37, No. 3, July-Sept. 1991, pp. M210-211.

Emami, A.E., Akhter, M.M., and Rock, S.M., "Effect of Model Uncertainty on Failure Detection: The Threshold Selector," IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Dec. 1988, Vol. 33 No. 12, pp. 1106-1115.

Rock, S.M., and DeBra, D.B., "Prediction and Experimental Verification of Transient Airfoil Motion in a Small Wind Tunnel," Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 19, No. 6, June 1982, pp. 456-464.