Dr. Nariman Sepehri, PhD, PEng, FCAE, FASME, FCSME

Area

Fluid Power Systems and Technology, Robotics and Teleoperation, Control, Condition Monitoring, Mechatronics of Rehabilitation Devices, Modeling and Simulation.

Expertise

Controller Design, Hydraulics and Pneumatic Devices, Fault Detection and Isolation, Energy Efficient Hydraulic Machines.

Research description

Fluid Power Research Laboratory at the University of Manitoba houses essential equipment to gain in-depth understanding of the dynamics and develop advanced tools and supporting theories for robust control design and intelligent condition monitoring, of fluid power systems with applications to robots, heavy-duty machines, and rehabilitation assistive devices. Support for the infrastructure has come from many sources including Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, NSERC. The laboratory houses the following equipment:

A. State-of-the-art human plus robot-in-the-Loop simulator is being constructed. The simulator will be a fully integrated system consisting of a seven degree-of-freedom hydraulic robot, an industrial hydraulic slave manipulator, two master arms (one with force feedback and the other one without force feedback, a motion simulator (representing elevated platforms or submersible vehicles), and human interfacing and display systems. Using the simulator, new concepts and ideas will be validated through examining tasks that relate closely to Manitoba hydro generation maintenance and live-line work.

B. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator test facility for research on condition monitoring and fault-tolerant control design of hydraulic actuators. The HIL simulator integrates real hydraulic actuator hardware into the software simulation of a high-performance jet aircraft. The experimental hydraulic system consists of two independent circuits. The first circuit is comprised of a servovalve controlled ram and has been equipped with additional hardware elements that enable the effects of various system faults to be simulated experimentally. The second servovalve controlled hydraulic ram, is employed as a dynamic load emulator.

C. Pneumatic test rig that uses a modular design approach in order to be adaptable for operation of different circuit configurations of control valve and actuator setups. The simulation software, having an interactive graphic user interface, has been developed in-house, to offer users with results similar to the ones from experiments conducted on the test rig.

Nariman Sepehri is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Manitoba, Canada. He received his PhD degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He served as Department Associate Head (Graduate Studies) of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Dean of Engineering (Undergraduate Programs) and Acting Dean of Engineering at the University of Manitoba. He received Dean of Engineering’s Award for Superior Academic Performance and the University of Manitoba Rh Award for outstanding contributions to scholarships and research in Applied Sciences.
Sepehri is a Senior Member of IEEE, Fellow of ASME, Fellow CSME, Fellow CAE, Past-Chair ASME Fluid Power Systems and Technology Division, Co-founder and Chair of IEEE Winnipeg Robotics, Control, Instrumentation and Measurement (RobConIM) Chapter and has been the Associate Editor or Editorial Board member of several journals including ASME Journal of Dynamics Systems, Measurement and Control, International Journal of Control and, IFAC Control Engineering Practice. He has developed undergraduate courses on “Mechatronics Systems Design”, “Fluid Power Systems Design” and “Industrial Process Control” as well as graduate-level courses “System Design for Robots and Teleoperators”, “Modeling and Simulations” and most recently an interdisciplinary topic course “Mechatronics Systems for Neurorehabilitation”.
Research and development activities of Sepehri are primarily centered in fluid power related aspects of systems, manipulation, diagnosis, and control covering a wide range of applications: robotics (mining/underwater hydraulic manipulators), manufacturing (injection molding), aerospace (flight control actuators), off-highway (excavator machines), processes and healthcare (assistive devices).
He has collaborated with researchers in USA, Brazil, China, Hungary, Romania, Denmark, Sweden and France. His research contributions include publication of over 160 journal articles and book chapters and, over 140 conference papers. He holds 7 patents and is co-author of a textbook by Wiley. Over 100 individuals at Master’s, Doctoral or Postdoctoral levels, conducted their research under his supervision.

Summary (November 2022):
Author or coauthor of 159 journal papers, 147 conference papers, 1 textbook (by Wiley), 5 book chapters, 8 patents and 43 poster presentations.

Selected Journal Papers:
1. G K Costa, N. Sepehri, The Cavitation Issue in Asymmetrical Axial-Piston Pumps, ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, ASME J. of Dynamic systems, measurement and Control, Vol 144, May 2022.

2. S T Parmar, T Szturm, A Kanitkar, N Sepehri, S Bhairannawar, Computer Game-Based Telerehabilitation Platform Targeting Manual Dexterity: Exercise is Fun? You're Kidding – Right? Sensors – Special issue - Rehabilitation, Vol. 21 – No. 17, 2021.

3. Kh Butt, G K Costa, N Sepehri, Optimization-driven controller design for a high-performance electro-hydrostatic asymmetric actuator operating in all quadrants, Int. J. Dyn. Sys measurement and control, Vol. 143, 2021, 094503 (P. 1-7).

4. G Ren, G. K. Costa, N Sepehri, Velocity Control of an Electro-hydrostatic Asymmetric Actuator Operating in All Quadrants, Int. Journal of Fluid Power 21 (2), 235–262, 2020.

5. Y Cai, G. Ren, J Song, N Sepehri, High precision position control of electro-hydrostatic actuators in the presence of parametric uncertainties and uncertain nonlinearities, Elsevier J of Mechatronics 68, 2020.

6. S Ahmadi, N Sepehri, C Wu, T Szturm, Comparison of selected measures of gait stability derived from center of pressure displacement signal during single and dual-task treadmill walking, Elsevier J of Medical Engineering & Physics, Vol. 74, December 2019, pp. 49-57.

7. A. Maddahi, N. Sepehri, W. Kinsner, Fractional-order Control of Hydraulically powered Actuators: Controller Design and Experimental Validation Paper Type, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol 24, No. 2, April 2019, pp. 796-807.

8. G. Costa and N. Sepehri, Four-Quadrant Analysis and System Design for Single-Rod Hydrostatic Actuators, ASME J of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control 141(2), 2019.

9. M Esfandiari, N Sepehri, Controller Design and Stability Analysis of Output Pressure Regulation in Electro-hydrostatic Actuators, ASME J of Dyn Sys, Measurement and Control 141, No. 4, April 2019.

10. Z Chu, C Wu, N Sepehri, Automated Steering Controller Design for Vehicle Lane Keeping Combining LADRC and Quantitative Feedback Theory, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering Part I - Journal of Systems and Control Engineering 232 (7), 2018.

11. V. Banthia, K. Zareinia, S. Balakrishnan, N. Sepehri, A Lyapunov stable controller for bilateral haptic teleoperation of single-rod hydraulic actuators, ASME J. of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Vol 139, No. 11, 2017.

12. YH Sun, Y Sun, C Wu, N Sepehri, Stability Analysis of a Controlled Mechanical System with Parametric Uncertainty in LuGre Friction Model, International Journal of Control, 1-14, 2017.

13. Kh Butt, R A Rahman, N Sepehri, Sh Filizadeh, Globalized and Bounded Nelder-Mead Algorithm with Deterministic Restarts for Tuning Controller Parameters: Method and Application, J. of Optimal Control Applications and Methods, Vol 38, No. 6, 1042-1055, 2017.

14. N. Garmsiri, Y. Sun, N. Sepehri, Impedance Control of a Teleoperated Pneumatic Actuator: Implementation and Stability Analysis, ACTA Control and Intelligent Systems, 45(1), 19-30; 2017.

15. J Liniger, M Soltani, H.C Pedersen, J Carroll, N Sepehri, Reliability Based Design of Fluid Power Pitch Systems for Wind Turbines, Wiley J. of Wind Energy, 20:1097-1110.

16. R A Rahman, L He, N Sepehri, Design and experimental study of Dynamical Adaptive Backstepping-Sliding Mode Control scheme for position tracking and regulating of a low-cost pneumatic cylinder”, International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control 26(4): 853-875, 2016.