AZ

M. Sc. Andreas Zürcher

  • Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Campus Süd
    Institut für Regelungs- und Steuerungssysteme
    Geb. 11.20 (Engler-Villa)
    Kaiserstr. 12
    D-76131 Karlsruhe

Curriculum Vitae

Studies of mechanical engineering at the university of applied science Karlsruhe. Meanwhile several years of practical work at the Robert-Bosch GmbH Bühl in the field of process development, closing with the bachelorthesis „Analysis of the influential factors to reduce the characteristic-curve scattering of EC-Drives“. Masterthesis at the Physik Instrumente GmbH & Co. KG in cooperation with the European Southern Observatory ESO on the topic „Modelling and simulation of a hybridactuator with active damping for the main mirror of the Extremely Large Telescope“.
Afterwards working as a development engineer at the Physik Instrumente GmbH & Co. KG in Karlsruhe.
Since February 2020 research associate at the IRS.

Research

Control of overactuated nano-positioning systems

In my research, I am concerned with a particular class of highly dynamic and highly precise positioning systems. These systems essentially consist of a serial interconnection of different actuator technologies. As a rule, this involves the combination of two actuators with complementary properties. The result is an overall system which, in the best case, combines the advantages of both actuators and compensates for their disadvantages.

These systems are used mostly in adaptive optics. The exact applications are very differently; from the inspection of semiconductors up to astronomical instruments, like the Extremely Large Telescope. However, all applications have in common, that the precision of the controlled system has to be in a range of a view nanometers.

The targeted exploitation of complementary properties poses an insufficiently clarified question from the perspective of systems theory. Previous approaches are often very specific, as well as not very scalable, and usually do not exhibit modular properties. I am therefore concerned with the question of how a general modular framework for the design of a control system for overactuated nano-positioning systems can look like. In order to explicitly consider functionally critical constraints, optimal methods are an integral part of the control structure.

For students interested in the topic of motion control: Even if there is no suitable thesis advertised, you are welcome to contact me on your own initiative. In addition to the theoretical content, it is also important to me to establish a practical reference, which is why, depending on the topic, a cooperation with the company Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH & Co. KG in Karlsruhe is given.

Open Theses
Title Type

Publications


Dynamic Model of a Piezoelectric Walking Drive
Zürcher, A.; Raiser, T.; Hohmann, S.
2022. 2022 IEEE 17th International Conference on Advanced Motion Control (AMC), Padova, Italy, 18-20 Feb. 2022, 157–163, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). doi:10.1109/AMC51637.2022.9729310