Dr
J Anthony
Rossiter
MA, DPhil, MIEE, CEng, FHEA
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Reader
School Director of Education
Full contact details
Amy Johnson Building
- Profile
-
After studying his 1st degree in Engineering Science and DPhil (both at Oxford), Dr. Rossiter has been an academic at Loughborough (1992-2001) and since 2001 at Sheffield. He has always maintained strong interests in both technical research and education and currently has a high profile in both domains.
His technical research has predominantly been based around the area of model predictive control (MPC) and more specifically with a focus on modifying the basic algorithm to optimise computational efficiency and/or simplicity with minimal sacrifice to the expected performance. Within education his interests are varied. He has played a major role in improving mathematics support for engineers and also the adoption of new technology to improve educational resources and practices. His current focus is the development of the Control101 toolbox which is being used internationally.
He has held many roles such as School Director of Education, admissions tutor, schools liaison, faculty director of learning and teaching, MSc tutor, year tutor and also plays a role in numerous Faculty and University committees.
- Research interests
-
Dr. Rossiter has made numerous contributions within the MPC literature, most notably the closed-loop paradigm and how to exploit this concept which is now widely adopted in the community. He also made seminal and foundational contributions in an area now known as ‘tube MPC’ for effective constraint handling in uncertain environments. His keenest interest is to properly understand the different elements within a predictive control law and hence to exploit this insight to design modifications with particular objectives which also retain simplicity of concept and implementation.
Within education he has led a large number of national and international collaborative projects on the development of educational resources and practices to enable effective education of students in the modern age.
- Publications
-
Journal articles
- Disturbance observer-based tracking control for roll-to-roll slot die coating systems under gap and pump rate disturbances.. CoRR, abs/2601.08488.
- Recent developments in automatic control and systems engineering. Processes, 13(8). View this article in WRRO
- Robust model predictive sliding mode control of linear parameter varying systems. IEEE Access, 13, 64291-64304. View this article in WRRO
- Efficient dual loop PFC for challenging dynamic processes. Processes, 13(3). View this article in WRRO
- Modernising the control curriculum and delivery to meet 21st century
needs. Processes, 13(2). View this article in WRRO
- MATLAB files to support learning of simple frequency response design. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 58(26), 1-6. View this article in WRRO
- A novel MATLAB toolbox for Control101 courses. European Journal of Control, 80(A). View this article in WRRO
- Improving the feedforward component for recent variants of Predictive Functional Control. Processes, 12(1). View this article in WRRO
- Performance comparison between centralized and hierarchical predictive functional control for adaptive cruise control application. International Journal of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, 20(4), 10808-10820. View this article in WRRO
- A suite of MATLAB livescript files to support learning of elementary control and feedback concepts. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 56(2), 7555-7560. View this article in WRRO
- In-situ process control strategies for selective laser melting. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 56(2), 6594-6599. View this article in WRRO
- A review of parameterised MPC algorithms. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 56(2), 7692-7697. View this article in WRRO
- Innovations in control education resources. IFAC-PapersOnLine.
- Supporting nonlinear control studies within university education. IFAC-PapersOnLine.
- AMATLAB-Based Simulation Tool for Fast
and Efficient Control System Investigation
for Laser-Powder Bed Fusion Process. IFAC-PapersOnLine.
- Art and Control Engineering: Developing a 2D Animated Cartoon on System Modeling for Students by Students. IFAC papers online.
Book chapters
- Classical Frequency Response Design Methods, Encyclopedia of Systems and Control Engineering (pp. 1-18). Elsevier
Conference proceedings
- Art and control engineering: developing animated cartoons for Control Education. IFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 59(11) (pp 228-233). Gif-sur-Yvette, France, 30 June 2025 - 30 June 2025. View this article in WRRO
- State space files for the control101 toolbox. IFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 59(7) (pp 54-59). Budapest, Hungary, 17 June 2025 - 17 June 2025. View this article in WRRO
- Hand-drawn animated cartoons for control education: insights from the ∞sCaR project. IFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 59(7) (pp 165-170). Budapest, Hungary, 17 June 2025 - 17 June 2025. View this article in WRRO
- The control101 toolbox and a modern delivery of an introductory control course. Proceedings of UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network Annual Symposium (pp 287-291). Manchester, United Kingdom, 3 July 2025 - 3 July 2025. View this article in WRRO
- Discrete control algorithms for systems with big dead time for control101 MATLAB toolbox. 2025 Cybernetics & Informatics (K&I) Proceedings. Mikulov, Czechia, 2 February 2025 - 2 February 2025. View this article in WRRO
- Output Tracking for Uncertain Time-Delay Systems via Robust Reinforcement Learning Control. 2024 43rd Chinese Control Conference (CCC) (pp 2219-2226), 28 July 2024 - 31 July 2024.
- A novel MATLAB toolbox for Control101 courses. European Control Conference (ECC24) (pp 2641-2646). Stockholm, Sweden, 25 June 2024 - 25 June 2024. View this article in WRRO
- Developing a novel MATLAB control toolbox for encouraging student engagement. 2023 6th Experiment@ International Conference (exp.at'23) Proceedings (pp 187-192). Évora, Portugal, 5 June 2023 - 5 June 2023. View this article in WRRO
- Reinforcement learning-based output stabilization control for nonlinear systems with generalized disturbances. 2024 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT) (pp 1-6). Bristol, United Kingdom, 25 March 2024 - 25 March 2024. View this article in WRRO
- Initial investigation of online control system for selective laser melting process: multi-layer level. 2024 UKACC 14th International Conference on Control (CONTROL). Winchester, UK, 10 April 2024 - 10 April 2024. View this article in WRRO
- Disturbance observer-based optimal tracking control for slot coating process with mismatched input disturbances. 2024 UKACC 14th International Conference on Control (CONTROL). Winchester, UK, 10 April 2024 - 10 April 2024. View this article in WRRO
- A reinforcement learning-based approach for optimal output tracking in uncertain nonlinear systems with mismatched disturbances. 2024 UKACC 14th International Conference on Control (CONTROL) (pp 169-174). Winchester, United Kingdom, 10 April 2024 - 10 April 2024. View this article in WRRO
- Review of the control101 toolbox. ACE & UKACC Control Conference 2026
- Developing a student-centred and employment-orientated degree. UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network Symposium 2026
- PSO-tuned fixed-time sliding mode voltage and current controllers for grid-forming inverters. 2025 IEEE International Conference on Energy Technologies for Future Grids (ETFG). Wollongong, Australia, 7 December 2025 - 7 December 2025. View this article in WRRO
- Developing files for the control101 toolbox to support the learning of non-linear system behaviour and control. IFAC-PapersOnLine. Reykjavik, Iceland, 23 July 2025 - 23 July 2025. View this article in WRRO
- A MATLAB virtual laboratory to support learning of auto-tuning PID approaches. IFAC Conference onAdvances in Proportional-Integral-Derivative Control
- Creating whole story virtual laboratories for a first course in control. TBC
Preprints
- Disturbance observer-based tracking control for roll-to-roll slot die coating systems under gap and pump rate disturbances, arXiv.
- Disturbance observer-based tracking control for roll-to-roll slot die coating systems under gap and pump rate disturbances.. CoRR, abs/2601.08488.
- Grants
-
In recent years the main grants he has worked on have been application focussed with his role to advise and support on the potential and development of feedback control strategies to improve performance.
- RAIN focussed on technological and robotic solutions for the nuclear industry.
- Responsive Manufacturing of High Value Films focussed on technological solutions to improve productivity and quality of thin film production.
- He also has received small amounts of funding to support numerous educational projects.
- Teaching interests
-
Engineering education in the UK is undergoing rapid change to keep up with the changes in school curriculum and large increases in numbers which is introducing a larger variability of backgrounds. One issue of particular importance is how to change teaching styles, content and support mechanisms to help these students both to progress and enjoy their time at university. Dr. Rossiter plays a role in a number of University and departmental administrative structures supporting both strategy and implementation.
His roles as external examiner for Reading University (2009-12), Portsmouth University (2010-15), Strathclyde University (2013-17) and Glasgow Caledonian (2015- ) allow him both to learn from and share with colleagues from other institutions. He acts as a reviewer for the higher education academy for many of their schemes such as national teaching fellowships and has organised and led several workshops on their behalf.
His fundamental belief is that we improve what we do by a combination of factors, for example: good ideas, good technology to make these ideas work, good evidence of efficacy and the ability to convince colleagues that it is in their interest to adopt new practices. Consequently his major contributions in education are mostly dissemination based, that is observing what works elsewhere and then tailoring this into an engineering scenario and showing that it works, for students and staff. Part of this desire to disseminate is behind his popular text book on predictive control (published in 2003, 2nd edition due in 2018).
He played the lead in bringing maths learning support to sheffield (www.shef.ac.uk/mash), was a lead in encouraging widespread adoption of virtual learning environments to his department along with many of the associated tools, has led several projects investigating the potential of new technologies such as podcasting/vodcasting and remote access laboratories and has produced a series of online resources for the world wide community to use freely:
Videos on modelling, control and analysis.Dr. Rossiter has several prizes in recognition of his teaching contributions:
University of Sheffield Senate award for sustained excellence in learning and teaching, 2009
(See: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/lets/cpd/reward/fellows)The Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre Teaching Award 2008.
(See: http://www.engsc.ac.uk/an/teaching_awards/awards07_08.asp)Engineering Teaching prize from Royal academy of Engineering, 2005.
(See: http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/news-releases/2005/December/academy-awards-its-first-ever-teaching-prizes)
- Teaching activities
-
- ELE131 Engineering System Modelling and Analysis
- ELE474 Systems and Control I
- ELE437 Engineering Research and Design Project
- Professional activities and memberships
-
- Vice chair of IFAC coordinating committee and member of IFAC conference board. Also member (and previous chair) of several IFAC technical committees.
- Member of UKACC council
- Chartered Engineer with IET
- Fellow of HEA
- Editorship roles for several journals and membership and chair of numerous International programme committees for conferences.