Faculty

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC , 2006
• M.S., Control Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, 2000
• B.S., System Engineering,
  Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, 1989

Research Interests Include

• Dynamic modeling and simulation for complex systems;
• Adaptive and intelligent Systems;
• Robotics and vision Systems;
• Sensor data fusion;
• Fault tolerant flight control;
• Energy efficient autonomous soaring;
• Modeling, control and management for energy storage and conversion Systems.

Dr. Sun received the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC  in May 2006, the M.S. in Control Science and Engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, China in March 2000, and the B.S. in System Engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China in July 1989.  Before she joined the EE faculty in September 2011,  She had worked as a lecturer in School of Electrical Engineering of Nanjing Normal University,  research associate with Center for Cooperative Systems of North Carolina A&T State University/National Institute of Aerospace, and research scientist with National Institute of Aerospace.   Dr. Sun  is a senior AIAA member and Senior IEEE member.   Several highlighted R&D projects that she had worked on before she came to HU are listed as following:

• “Suspicious Activity Detection for Perimeter Safety and Force Protection”, funded by Army Research Lab.  Sole-PI of subcontract  to NIA, working on adaptive sensor control, management, and performance optimization.
• “Fault-tolerant Control in the presence of Actuator and Sensor Failures”, funded by NASA Langley Research Center.   Analysis and development of fault-tolerant control in the presence of actuator and sensor failures.
• “Cooperative Control of Unmanned Ground Vehicles” funded by US Army Research Office .  Involved in system modeling and control scheme design and dynamic simulation.
•  “Biologically Inspired Adaptive and Reconfigurable Systems” funded by National Science Foundation .  Contributed to the proposal development and conducted theoretical studies on memory-based control algorithms.
• “Fault-tolerant Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)”  funded by Office of Naval Research. Designed and simulated a class of control algorithms for formation control of UAVs
• “Advanced Space Vehicle technology” funded by University of Maryland/National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Designed and evaluated robust guidance and control strategies for RLVs, CEVs.

Research Projects

“Computational and Informatics Tools for Supporting Collaborative Wildlife”,  funded by  National Science Foundation, 2011.8 – 2014.8
PI Institute: University of Missouri.
Role: Responsible for development of methods and algorithms for interface, management, and fusion with weather, GIS and other environmental data.

Selected Publications

• Z. Sun, X. Chen, and Z. He, “Adaptive Critic Design for Energy Minimization of Portable Video Communication Devices,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and System for Video Technology, Jan. 2010, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 27-37.
• Z. Sun,  W. C. Cai, L. G. Weng, and Y. D. Song, “Nonlinear Pitch Control of  Wind Turbines,”  International Journal of Factory Automation, Robotics and Soft Computing, Issue 4, October  2008, ISSN 1828-6984, pp. 57-62.
• X. H. Liao, Z. Sun, Y. D.  Song, B. Li, and  X. Y. Mei, “ Variable Speed Control of Wind Turbines via Memory-based Firing Angle Sequences Adjustment,” Journal of Solar Energy, 2008,  Vol. 130,  No. 3, pp. 166-173.
• Z. Sun, X. H. Liao, F. Stewart, B. Li, and Y. D. Song, “Neuro-Robust Reentry Path Control of Reusable Launch Vehicles,” International Journal of Computational  Intelligence Research. 2006, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.76-80.
• Z. Sun,  W. C. Cai, L. G. Weng, and Y. D. Song, “Nonlinear Pitch Control of  Wind Turbines,”  in Recent Advances in Control Systems, Robotics and Automation, Third Edition, Volume 1, pp.104-109.
• Z. Sun, R. Zhang, T. Dong, X. H. Liao and  Y. D. Song “Fuzzy Logic Approach to Path Tracking and Obstacles Avoidance of  UAVs,”in Advanced Fuzzy Logic Technologies in Industrial Applications, Springer, October 2006, Chapter 15, pp. 212-223.
• Y. Li, Z. Sun, R. Zhang, B. Li, L. G. Weng and Y. D. Song, “Close  Formation Flight Control of Multi-UAVs via Fuzzy Logic Technique,”in Advanced Fuzzy Logic Technologies in Industrial Applications, Springer, October 2006, Chapter 21, pp. 298-308.
• Z. Sun, and S. M. Joshi, “An Indirect Adaptive Control Scheme in the Presence of Actuator and Sensor Failures,”  AIAA GNC Conference, Chicago, IL, Aug 10-13, 2009.
• Z. Sun, X. Chen and Z.  He, “Adaptive Critic Design for Energy Minimization of Portable Video Communication Devices,” International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks, Aug. 2008, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Z. Sun, W. C. Cai, X. H. Liao and Y. D. Song, “Virtual Leader Based Robust Adaptive Formation Control of Multi-Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs),” American Control Conference, July 2007, New York city,  pp. 1876-1881.
• Z. Sun, W. C. Cai, X. H. Liao and Y. D. Song, “Neuro-Adaptive Formation Control of Mobile Vehicles: Virtual Leader Based Path Planning and Tracking,” International Symposium on Neural Networks, June  2007, Nanjing, China,  pp. 786-795.
• Z. Sun, W. C. Cai, X. H. Liao, T. Dong, and Y. D. Song, “Adaptive Path Control of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs),” IEEE 38th Southeastern Symposium on Systems Theory (SSST 06). March 2006, Cookeville, TN,  pp.507-511.
• X. Y. Mei, Z. Sun, B. Li, Z. Yang and Y. D. Song, “Short-term Memory-based Control of Wind Energy Conversion Systems,”  2006 IEEE international Conference on Control Applications, October, 2006, Munich, Germany, pp.2462-2467.
• Y. D. Song, Z. Sun, X. H. Liao and R. Zhang, “Short Term Memory-based Control of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Part II – Applications,” IEEE First Conference on  Industrial  Electronics  and  Application  , May 2006,   Singapore, pp. 58-63.
• X. H. Liao, Z. Sun, L. G.  Weng, B. Li, Y. Li and Y. D. Song, “Adaptive Neural Network Path Tracking of Unmanned Ground Vehicle,” International Conference on Neural Networks, May 2006,        Chengdu China, pp. 1233-1238.
• X. H. Liao, Z. Sun, and Y. D. Song, “Chattering-Free Variable Structure Control with Application to Flight Vehicles,” IEEE 38th Southeastern Symposium on Systems Theory (SSST  06), March 2006, Cookeville, TN, pp.406-410.