James Forbes
Title:
Associate Professor
Academic title(s):
William Dawson Scholar

Degree(s):
Ph.D. Aerospace Science and Engineering, University of Toronto
M.A.Sc. Aerospace Science and Engineering, University of Toronto
B.A.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo
Courses:
MECH 412: System Dynamics and Control (3 Credits)
MECH 600: Adv. Topics in Mech. Eng. 1 (4 Credits)
Research areas:
Dynamics and Control
Selected publications:
- M. Cohen and J. R. Forbes, “Navigation and Control of Unconventional VTOL UAVs in Forward- Flight with Explicit Velocity Wind Estimation,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters," vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 1151-1158, 2020.
- C. C. Cossette, A. Walsh, and J. R. Forbes, “The Complex-Step Derivative Approximation on Matrix Lie Groups," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 906-913, 2020.
- D. E. Zlotnik and J. R. Forbes, “Higher-Order Nonlinear Complementary Filtering on Lie Groups,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 1772–1783, 2019.
- D. E. Zlotnik and J. R. Forbes, “Gradient-Based Observer for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 63, no. 12, pp. 4338 – 4344, 2018.
- A. Walsh and J. R. Forbes, “Constrained Attitude Control on SO(3) via Semidefinite Programming,” AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, vol. 41, no. 11, pp. 2480–2485, 2018.
- R. J. Caverly and J. R. Forbes, “Dynamic Modeling, Trajectory Optimization, and Control of a Flexible Kiteplane,” IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 1297–1306, 2017.
- L. J. Bridgeman and J. R. Forbes, “The Extended Conic Sector Theorem,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 61, pp. 1931–1937, July 2016.
Current research:
Navigation, Guidance, and Control
- Nonlinear state estimation including batch and filtering methods for robot navigation
- Nonlinear control including Lyapunov approaches, input-output stability, and gain-scheduled control
- Controller synthesis via numerical optimization and Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs)
- System identification
- The application of mathematics, optimization, and machine learning tools to problems found in robotics
Robotics Applications
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
- Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), including on- and off-road vehicles, rail vehicles
- Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV)
- SLAM
- Serial robots
- Cable-actuated robots
- Spherical robots (i.e., “rolling robots”)
Areas of interest:
Primary Research Theme: Dynamics and Control
Research Lab/Group: Dynamics Estimation & Control of Aerospace & Robotics Systems
I am interested in navigation, guidance, and control (commonly referred to as “GNC”) techniques for robotic systems. I am interested in fundamental theoretical developments, as well as the application of new and existing theories to practical, real-world problems.