We make control theory tangible and explore exciting new applications.

Browse our website to learn more about control theory and its applications or reach out to join the movement*!

Latest posts

Blog
First, Solve the Wrong Problem
First, Solve the Wrong Problem

Controlling complex systems by making them look simple - by Vishnu Varadan

One controller to rule them all!
One controller to rule them all!

How to mass-produce reliable, high-performance systems - by Vaibhav Gupta

Follow the light
Follow the light

How autonomous vehicles find the safest path by thinking like a lamp - by Simone Baratto

Grid2050: Keeping the Lights on
Grid2050: Keeping the Lights on

Automation solutions for next-generation electric grids - by Pulkit Nahata

The City’s Invisible Sponge
The City’s Invisible Sponge

How to optimally schedule district heating operation to support the electricity grid - by Giacomo Mastroddi and Marco Muttoni

You don’t get enough sleep.
You don’t get enough sleep.

How rules help guide decision-making in complex systems - by Matteo Penlington

How to decide upon groceries daily
How to decide upon groceries daily

How to decide upon groceries daily and what this has to do with time-varying optimisation problems - by Xian Li

Getting away with mistakes
Getting away with mistakes

Getting away with mistakes and applying this to the energy transition - by Sven Neubauer

Behind Ride Fares
Behind Ride Fares

Learning taxi prices through interactions - by Zhiyu He

How to walk the electricity slackline
How to walk the electricity slackline

Mitigating the detrimental effect of AI on the power grid - by Jethusan Jeyaruban

Power on Tap
Power on Tap

How to increase the transmission capacity of the electric power grid efficiently and economically - by Samuel Renggli

One Giant Leap for Robotkind
One Giant Leap for Robotkind

A new way to explore the moon - by Joseph Church

Staying Afloat
Staying Afloat

Safe Recommendations for Adaptive Control Algorithms - by Marcell Bartos

No need to wait
No need to wait

Learning from traffic management to speed up the energy transition - by Fabian Böhm

Geo-trax
Geo-trax

Extract georeferenced vehicle trajectories from drone videos - by Robert Fonod

When you do not know how the world will react
When you do not know how the world will react

Use distributionally robust Stackelberg games to make decisions - by Zheyu Wu

The Recipe for Adapting
The Recipe for Adapting

Meta-learning, the secret to fast recalibration of controllers - by Salma Elfeki

When Water Meets Lithium
When Water Meets Lithium

Can batteries support Run-of-River power plants during periods of low electricity prices? - by Yannick Schüpbach

Read all explainers

Why REAL?

  • This hidden champion of engineering is omnipresent in our day-to-day lives, be it in a car or an electric toothbrush, in a factory robot or in a fridge. Almost everything that consumes electric power has a controller inside.

  • And it is not just the applications that make it exciting. It is a most attractive field of research for anyone who is into mathematics or physics.

  • However, the universality comes at a cost: Its concepts are often not easy to explain. This, in turn, makes it tricky to identify the applications that could benefit most from new control methods.

  • At the Research Explanation and Application Laboratory (REAL) students and researchers work together to move cutting-edge research closer to applications. We put a strong emphasis on explaining research in a relatable manner. This helps to identify novel applications which students get to explore in their Master projects.

*REAL is not a research institute of its own, but a joint initiative of labs involved in the NCCR Automation like IfA, PSL or IDSC at ETH Zurich or any of the automation groups at EPFL, ZHAW, FHNW or OST. It is like a “flavour” that can be added to a PhD or Master projects to put an emphasis on applications, storytelling, and presentation skills.

Check out our open projects or contact us!