Professor & Interim Director
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Thomas Alberts

757-683-3736

1313 ENGR & COMP SCI BLDG
NORFOLK, 23529

Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Eng., Dynamics and Controls, Vibrations, Robotics, Georgia Institute of Technology, (1986)

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, (1983)

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, (1982)

Contracts, Grants and Sponsored Research

"Additional patent application funds provided to Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology" $10,000. -
"Graduate Student Support" $38,583. October 10, 2008 - May 15, 2010
Talley, W. K., Alberts, T. E., Britcher, C. P., Bawab, S., Karande, K., Gopinath, M. and Creedon, J. "Demonstrate Maglev M3 on Â鶹´«Ã½ Guideway" $387,010. 2008 - 2009
Alberts, T. E. and Cowen, B. "Demonstrate Maglev M3 on Â鶹´«Ã½ Guideway: Phase I" $387,010. Local. May 1, 2008 - October 31, 2009
Alberts, T. E. " The Urban Maglev Project at Â鶹´«Ã½" $1,990,000. Federal. January 1, 2002 - April 1, 2005
Alberts, T. E. "Electromagnetic Rotational Power Harvester" $44,809. Local. January 1, 2002 - July 31, 2002
Alberts, T. E. " Sensor Assembly Automation" $83,821. Local. March 15, 2001 - February 28, 2002
Alberts, T. E. "Bearing Load Health Monitoring Sensors" $35,455. Local. January 1, 2001 - June 30, 2001
Alberts, T. E. "Verification and Testing of the TrueLock Bolt Device" $2,800. Local. October 26, 2000 - November 30, 2000
Alberts, T. E. "Integrated Sensor System for Load and Condition Assesment" $35,792. Local. January 1, 2000 - June 1, 2000
Alberts, T. E. " Automation of Accelerometer Production Line" $21,905. Local. October 19, 1999 - March 31, 2000
Alberts, T. E. "Smart Sensor Program Software Development; Amendment 1" $7,997. Local. September 6, 1999 - January 28, 2000
Alberts, T. E. " Smart Sensor Program Software Development" $6,504. Local. June 21, 1999 - November 9, 1999
Alberts, T. E. " Automation of Accelerometer Production Line" $46,750. Local. March 16, 1999 - October 18, 1999
Alberts, T. E. "Advanced Combustion Pressure Sensor and Engine Diagnostic/Control Technology for Diesel Engines" $31,500. Local. April 10, 1998 - October 10, 1998
Alberts, T. E. "Low Cost Piston Engine Health Monitoring and Control System for General Aviation" $24,000. Local. April 10, 1998 - October 10, 1998
Alberts, T. E. " Development and Implementation of Boeing 757 Guidance and Control Laws" $74,000. Local. November 25, 1996 - December 31, 1997
Alberts, T. E. "End-Point Control Units for Robot Arms with Flexible Gear Trains " $10,000. Federal. May 27, 1996 - July 27, 1996
Alberts, T. E. " Time Domain Implementations of Generalized Frequency Domain Filters, " $35,815. Federal. March 16, 1995 - March 15, 1996
Alberts, T. E. "Simultaneous Passive and Active Dissipation Mechanisms in a Gantry Crane and Spreader System" $17,125. Federal. January 7, 1994 - August 31, 1995
Alberts, T. E. "Broadband Implementation of Feedforward Control for Dynamic Modification" $19,800. Federal. February 1, 1994 - September 30, 1994
Alberts, T. E. " Active and Passive Control Designs for the FJSRL Flexible Structure Testbeds" $20,000. Federal. January 1, 1992 - December 31, 1993
Alberts, T. E. "Advanced Control Law Designs for Flexible Spacecraft " $69,000. Federal. January 1, 1992 - December 31, 1993
Alberts, T. E. "Active Control Design for the FJSRL Slewing Piezoelectric Laminate Beam, AFOSR Summer Graduate Student Research Program, Conducted at the US Air Force Academy, Frank J. Syler Laboratories. " $7,300. Federal. June 1, 1993 - August 31, 1993
Alberts, T. E. "Graphite Fiber Enhancement of Viscoelastic Damping Polymers" $23,688. Private. January 15, 1992 - March 15, 1993
Alberts, T. E. " Identification and Design of Nonlinear Control Systems Using Real-Time Neural Network" $5,050. Federal. August 6, 1992 - December 31, 1992
Alberts, T. E. "Mathematical Modeling and Control of Flexible Spacecraft Systems" $65,475. Federal. January 1, 1991 - December 31, 1992
Alberts, T. E. "Multivariable Transfer Functions and Optimal Passive Damping for a Slewing Piezoelectric Laminate Beam " $17,000. Federal. June 1, 1992 - October 31, 1992
Alberts, T. E. "Mathematical Modeling and Control of Flexible Spacecraft Systems" $59,996. Federal. November 16, 1990 - December 31, 1991
Alberts, T. E. "Hand Controller Evaluation Experiment Subjects" $5,700. Federal. August 16, 1990 - December 31, 1991
Alberts, T. E. "Piezoelectric Damping of Flexible Structures" $90,000. Federal. January 1, 1989 - December 31, 1991
Alberts, T. E. "Viscoelastic Damping of Torsional Vibrations " $22,000. Federal. July 1, 1990 - June 30, 1991
Alberts, T. E. "Modeling and Control for Articulated Flexible Space Structures " $25,970. Federal. June 1, 1990 - December 30, 1990
Alberts, T. E. "Influence of Joint Non-Linearities on the Control of Manipulators " $15,000. Federal. May 16, 1990 - August 15, 1990
Alberts, T. E. "Viscoelastic Damping of Torsional Vibrations" $18,000. Federal. July 1, 1989 - June 30, 1990
Alberts, T. E. "Passive Damping Augmentation for Space Manipulators " $121,486. Federal. May 16, 1988 - May 15, 1990
Alberts, T. E. "Force Control of Multiple Coordinated Manipulators: Extension and Considerations for Space Applications " $55,170. Federal. January 1, 1989 - December 31, 1989
Alberts, T. E. "Force Control of Multiple Manipulators: Implementation and Refinement " $62,622. Federal. January 1, 1988 - December 31, 1988
Alberts, T. E. "Force Control of Multiple Coordinated Manipulators " $25,354. Federal. May 16, 1987 - December 31, 1987
Alberts, T. E. "Programmable Robot Controller for Laboratory Research " $15,787. Federal. May 16, 1987 - December 31, 1987

Articles

Alberts, T. E. and Hanasoge, O. (2011). On the Influence of Structural Flexibility on Feedback Control Stability for Magnetically Suspended Vehicles. J. Dyn. Sys., Meas., Control 133 (5) , pp. 7 pages.
Alberts, T. E., Hanasoge, A. M. . and Omran, A. M.. On the Influence of Structural Flexibility on Feedback Control Stability for Magnetically Suspended Vehicles. ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control.
Pota, H. R. and Alberts, T. E. (1998). Teaching Vibration Analysis using Symbolic Computation Software. The International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education 26 (2).
Alberts, T. E. and Pota, H. R. (1997). Broadband Dynamic Modification Using Feedforward Contro;. ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control 119 (4) , pp. 700-706.
Cartmell, M. P., Morrish, L., Alberts, T. E. and Taylor, A. J. (1996). Controlling the Nonlinear Dynamics of Gantry Cranes. Machine Vibration 5 , pp. 197-210.
Alberts, T. E. and Xia, h. (1995). Design and Analysis of Fiber Enhanced Viscoelastic Damping Polymers. Journal of Vibration and Acoustics 117 (4) , pp. 398-404.
Kelkar, A. G., Joshi, S. M. and Alberts, T. E. (1995). Dissipative Controllers for Nonlinear Multibody Flexible Space Systems. AIAA Journal of Guidance Control Dynamics 18 (5) , pp. 1044-1052.
Kelkar, A. G., Joshi, S. M. and Alberts, T. E. (1995). Dynamic Dissipative Compensators for Multibody Flexible Space Structures. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 31 (4) , pp. 1325-1330.
Alberts, T. E., Dubois, T. V. and Pota, H. R. (1995). Experimental Verification of Transfer Functions for a Slewing Piezoelectric Laminate Beam. IFAC Journal of Control Engineering Practice 3 (2) , pp. 163-170.
Kelkar, A. G., Joshi, S. M. and Alberts, T. E. (1995). Passivity-Based Controllers for Flexible Multibody Systems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 40 (5) , pp. 910-914.
Alberts, T. E., Xia, H. and Chen, Y. (1992). Dynamic Analysis to Evaluate Viscoelastic Passive Damping Augmentation for the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System. ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control 114 (3) , pp. 468-475.
Alberts, T. E., Xia, H. and Chen, Y. (1992). Dynamic Scaling of Flexible Structures with Viscoelastic Components. ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics 114 (4) , pp. 449-453.
Alberts, T. E. and Colvin, J. A . (1991). Observations on the Nature of Transfer Functions for Control of Piezoelectric Laminates. Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 2 (4) , pp. 528-541.
Book, W. J., Alberts, T. E. and Hastings, G. G. (1986). Design Strategies for High Speed, Lightweight Robots. Computers in Mechanical Engineering 5 (2) , pp. 26-33.
Alberts, T. E., Book, W. J. and Dickerson, S. L. (1986). Modeling and Control of Flexible Manipulators. SME Transactions - Manufacturing Technology Review 1 , pp. 134-144.

Book Chapters

Silwa, N. E., Harrison, F. W., Soloway, D. I., McKinney, W. S., Cornils, K., Doggett, W. R., Cooper, E. G. and Alberts, T. E. (1992). Automation and Robotics Considerations for a Lunar Base (pp. 603-608) Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century.

Conference Proceeding

Alberts, T. E. (2011). , De-Centralized and Centralized Control for EMS MAGLEV System Levitation and Guidance Arlington VA: Paper WeAT3.3, DSCC 2011.
Alberts, T. E., Aly, M. and Omran, A. (2010). Maglev-Girder Interaction for Centralized and De-Centralized Controllers 2010 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference.
Hanasoge, A. M., Omran, A. M. and Alberts, T. E. (2008). Model Validation of a Magnetic Ball Levitation System Ann Arbor, MI: 2008 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division Conference.
Alberts, T. E. and Hanasoge, A. M. (2008). Modeling and Experimental Validation of an EMS Demonstration Vehicle (pp. 105-110) SanDiego.
Alberts, T. E., Oleszuk, G. and Hanasoge, A. M. (2008). Stable Levitation Control of Magnetically Suspended Vehicles with Structural Flexibility (pp. 4035-4040) Seatle, WA: Proceedings of the 2008 American Control Conference.
Alberts, T. E. and Oleszuk, G. (2006). On the influence of structural flexibility on feedback control system stability for EMS Maglev vehicles (pp. 331-336) Dresden: Maglev’ 2006.
Alberts, T. E., Liu, S. and Lally, R. (2006). Investigation of an Inexpensive Piezoelectric Pressure Sensor for Internal Combustion Engine Spark Timing Control (pp. Paper Number : 2006-01-0183) SAE World Congress 2006.
Hanasoge, A. M., Hans, S. A., Desetty, S., Bawab, S., Hou, G. J.W.. and Alberts, T. E. (2005). Effects of Track Irregularities on Dynamic Responses of a Moving Maglev Train (pp. Paper Number : 2005-01-0504) SAE World Congress 2005.
Rybak, J., Alberts, T. E. and Gibbs, G. P. (2002). Considerations for Integral Bearing Health Monitoring Solutions MFPT.
Alberts, T. E., Gibbs, G. P., Galie, T. and Kennamer, D. E. (2002). Load Measurements for Event Based Prognostication of Rolling Element Bearing Life Marcon.
Zhu, X. and Alberts, T. E. (1998). A Comparison of Placement Choice for Piezoelectric Actuator in Active Vibration Control (pp. 155-159) 1998 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition.
Zhu, X. and Alberts, T. E. (1998). Appending a Synthetic Mode to Compensate for Truncated Modes in Colocated Control (pp. 1976-1980) Boston, MA: 1998 AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference.
Abdel-Motegaly, K. and Alberts, T. E. (1998). Robust Control for a Flexible Manipulator Using H Synthesis (pp. 365-372) Boston, MA: 1998 AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference.
Alberts, T. E. and Pota, H. R. (1998). Review and Implementation Considerations for Broadband Dynamic Modification Using Feedforward Control (pp. 547-550) Florianopolis-SC: FIA I Congresso Iberamericano de Ac'ustica.
Pota, H. R. and Alberts, T. E. (1997). Teaching Vibration Analysis using Symbolic Computation Software (pp. 1400-1401) 1997 American Control Conference.
Alberts, T. E. and Pota, H. R . (1995). Broadband Dynamic Modification Using Feedforward Control (pp. 735-744) Boston, MA: 1995 Design Engineering Technical Conferences.
Alberts, T. E., Dubois, T. V. and Pota, H. R. (1993). Experimental Verification of Multivariable Transfer Functions for a Slewing Piezoelectric Laminate Beam (pp. 515-518) Sydney: IFAC 12th World Congress.
Kelkar, A. G., Joshi, S. M. and Alberts, T. E. (1993). Global Asymptotic Stability of Dynamic Dissipative Compensators for Multibody Flexible Space Structures (pp. 1277-1281) San Francisco, CA: 1993 American Control Conference.
Alberts, T. E., Dubois, T. V. and Pota, H. R. (1993). Development and Experimental Verification of Multivariable Transfer Functions for a Slewing Piezoelectric Laminate Beam Ninth VPI\&SU Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Large Structures.
Alberts, T. E., Harrell, J. V. and Xia, H. (1993). Simultaneously Optimal Active and Passive Control Design for a Slewing Piezoelectric and Viscoelastic Laminate Beam (pp. 693-704) Blacksburg, VA: Recent Advances in Active Control of Sound and Vibration.
Pota, H. R. and Alberts, T. E. (1993). Control of a Flexible Slewing Link with Active Damping SPIE International Symposium Smart Structures and Materials '93.
Alberts, T. E. and Xia, H. (1993). Investigation of Damping Properties for Fiber Enhanced Viscoelastic Damping Polymers Damping 1993.
Alberts, T. E., Dubois, T. V. and Pota, H. R. (1993). Experimental Verification of Slewing Piezoelectric Laminate Beam Transfer Functions, with Both Minimum Phase and Non-minimum Phase Zeros (pp. 349-359) Bangalore: Intelligent Robotics, Proceedings of International Symposium on Intelligent Robotics.
Kelkar, A. G., Joshi, S. M. and Alberts, T. E. (1992). Globally Stabilizing Controllers for Flexible Multibody Systems (pp. 2856-2859) Tucson, AZ: 1992 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.
Kelkar, A. G., Joshi, S. M. and Alberts, T. E. (1992). Asymptotic Stability of Dissipative Compensators for Multibody Systems in the Presence of Actuator/Sensor Nonlinearities (pp. 35-38) Dynamics of Flexible Systems: Theory and Experiment, 1992 ASME Winter Annual Meeting.
Pota, H. R. and Alberts, T. E. (1992). Multivariable Transfer Functions for a Slewing Piezoelectric Laminate Beam Kobe: IEEE Int. Conf. on Systems Engineering.
Kelkar, A. G., Koganti, G., Alberts, T. E. and Hou, G. (1992). CSI Design of Articulated Space Structures (pp. 307-315) Hilton Head,SC: AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Conference.
Alberts, T. E. (1992). An Approach to Teaching Control System Design and Application (pp. 468-472) Chicago, IL: 1992 American Control Conference.
Pota, H. R. and Alberts, T. E. (1992). Experiments in Control of Flexible Beam with Modified Outputs (pp. 222-230) Orlando, FL: SPIE Int. Symposium on Optical Engineering and Photonics in Aerospace Sensing Conf \# 1696 on Control for Optical Systems.
Alberts, T. E., Xia, H. and Chen, Y. (1991). Dynamic Analysis to Evaluate Viscoelastic Passive Damping Augmentation for the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (pp. 35-41) Advances in Dynamics and Control of Flexible Spacecraft and Space-Based Manipulators.
Alberts, T. E. and Colvin, J. A. (1991). Transfer Function Analysis for a Flexible Beam with Piezoelectric Film Actuators and Sensors (pp. 64-77) Blacksburg, VA: Recent Advances in Active Control of Sound and Vibration.
Alberts, T. E., Kelkar, A. and Siciliano, B. (1991). Two-Time Scale Control for an Arm with Joint and Link Compliance (pp. 136-146) Bangalore: Intelligent Robotics, proceedings of International Symposium on Intelligent Robotics.
Alberts, T. E. and Colvin, J. A. (1990). Transfer Functions for Piezoelectric Control of a Flexible Beam (pp. 381-391) SPIE Aerospace Sensing Conference.
Alberts, T. E., Xia, H. and Chen, Y. (1990). Dynamic Analysis and Evaluation of the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System Kobe: International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space.
Alberts, T. E. and Love, L. J. (1990). A Versatile Robot Control Architecture using Off-the- Shelf General Purpose Components Boston, MA: 1990 ASME Computers in Engineering Conference.
Kelkar, A. and Alberts, T. E. (1990). Computing Maximum Tracking Error Due to Payload Dynamics (pp. 851-855) 1990 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
Alberts, T. E., Love, L. J. and Bayo, E. (1990). Experiments with Endpoint Control of a Flexible Link Using the Inverse Dynamics Approach and Passive Damping (pp. 350-355) San Diego, CA: 1990 American Control Conference.
Kelkar and Alberts, T. E. (1990). Computing Maximum Tracking Error Due to Payload Dynamics (pp. 851-855) Proceedings of the 1990 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
Alberts, T. E., Chen, Y. and Xia, H. (1990). On the Effectiveness of Section Length Optimization for Constrained Viscoelastic Layer Damping Treatments (pp. 274-286) SPIE volume: Advances in Optical Structures.
Alberts, T. E. and Colvin, J. A. (1990). Transfer Functions for Piezoelectric Control of a Flexible Beam (pp. 381-391) SPIE Volume: Advances in Optical Structures.
Soloway, D. I . and Alberts, T. E. (1989). Comparison of Joint Space Versus Task Space Load Distribution Optimization for a Multi-Arm Manipulator System (pp. 431-443) NASA Conference on Space Telerobotics.
Sliwa, N. E., Harrison, F. W., Soloway, D. I., McKinney, W. I., Cornils, K., Doggett, W. R., Cooper, E. G. and Alberts, T. E. (1988). Automation and Robotics Considerations for a Lunar Base Houstan, TX: Symposium on Lunar Bases & Space Activities for the 21st Century.
Alberts, T. E. and Soloway, D. I. (1988). Force Control of a Multi-Arm Robot System (pp. 1490-1496) Proceedings of the 1988 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
Alberts, T. E. (1987). Progress in High-Speed Light-Weight Motion Control Atlanta, GA: 1987 Annual Material Handling Research Forum.
Alberts, T. E. (1987). Progress in High-Speed Light-Weight Motion Control (Invited Paper) Atlanta, GA: Proceedings 1987 Annual Material Handling Research Forum, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Alberts, T. E. (1987). Reducing Model Uncertainty Effects in Flexible Manipulators Through the Addition of Passive Damping (pp. 307-316) Proceedings of the NASA/JPL Workshop on Space Telerobotics.
Alberts, T. E., Book, W. J. and Dickerson, S. L. (1986). On the Transfer Function Modeling of Flexible Structures with Distributed Damping 1986 ASME Winter Annual Meeting, published in bound volume Robotics: Theory and Applications.
Alberts, T. E., Book, W. J. and Dickerson, S. L. (1986). On the Transfer Function Modeling of Flexible Structures with Distributed Damping (Invited Paper) Published in bound volume Robotics: Theory and Applications,.
Alberts, T. E., Book, W. J. and Dickerson, S. L. (1986). Experiments in Augmenting Active Control of a Flexible Structure with Passive Damping AIAA 24th Aerospace Sciences Meeting.
Lane, J. S., Alberts, T. E. and Dickerson, S. L. (1985). Flexible Manipulator Arms Using Active and Passive Control (pp. 68) MHRC Technical Report.
Book, W. J., Dickerson, S. L., Hastings, G. G., Cetinkunt, S. and Alberts, T. E. (1985). Combined Approaches to Lightweight Arm Utilization (pp. 97-108) Published in bound volume Robotics and Manufacturing Automation.
Alberts, T. E., Hastings, G. G., Book, W. J. and Dickerson, S. L. (1985). Experiments in Optimal Control of a Flexible Arm with Passive Damping (pp. 423-435) Blacksburg, VA: Proceedings of the VPI\&SU/AIAA Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Large Structures.
Neusen, K. F., Chan, S. H. and Alberts, T. E. (1984). The Effects of Elevated Temperature and Pressure upon Erosion and Scale Removal by Submerged Cavitating Jets (pp. 589-600) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Jet Cutting Technology.

Presentations

( ). Numerous presentations regarding Maglev, Controls, Sensing, Robotics, etc. .
Alberts, T. E. and Abdelkhalik, O. (February , 2004). Interval Control of Formations in Eccentric Orbits 14th Annual AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference .
McKinney, W. S., Alberts, T. E. and Soloway, D. I. (August , 1988). A Computer Architecture for Laboratory Experiments in Robot Control 1988 ASME International Computers in Engineering Conference .
Alberts, T. E. and Soloway, D. I. (June , 1988). Force Control of a Multi-Arm Robot System - Load Distribution Strategies 1988 American Control Conference .
  • 2010: Excellence in Industrial Partering Award, Batten College of Engineering and and Technology
  • 1999: Listed Lexingtons Who's Who,
  • 1996: Listed Marquis in Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Maquis Who's Who
  • 1996: Listed Marquis in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Maquis Who's Who
  • 1995: SERC Visiting Fellowship, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • 1994: SERC Visiting Fellowship, University College of Swansea, Wales UK
  • 1993: Visiting Scholar, University of California Berkeley
  • 1993: Visiting Fellow , University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy
  • 1992: Summer Faculty Research Program, US Air Force Academy, Frank J. Syler Laboratories
  • 1990: Research Collaboration wih Prof. Bruno Sicilano, Universita' Delgi Studi Di Napoli
  • 1988: Outstanding Faculty Award, Mechanical Engineering Department, Â鶹´«Ã½
  • 1986: Ph.D. Dissertation selected as outstanding, Mechanical Engineering Department, Georgia Tech
  • 1984: Induction to Sigma Xi Honor Society, Sigma Xi
  • 1983: Georgia Tech Industrial Fellowship, Georgia Tech
  • 1978: SAE Outstanding Student Service Award, Society of Automotive Engineering

Organizational Chart