Dr Ross Drummond

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Lecturer in Control and Systems Engineering

ross.drummond@sheffield.ac.uk

Amy Johnson Building

Full contact details

Dr Ross Drummond
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Amy Johnson Building
Portobello Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD

Profile: Ross Drummond received an MEng degree from the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College London (2009-2013). He then moved to the Control Group at the University of Oxford (2013-2017) to complete his DPhil degree. After some time as a research assistant (2017-2020) working on battery modelling, he was awarded a UK Intelligence Community research fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is set to begin a lectureship in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield upon completion of his fellowship.

Research interests

My research focuses on the use of modelling, control theory and optimisation to improve the performance of energy storage devices, notably lithium ion batteries. By using ideas from control theory to make our energy storage devices smarter, the goal of this research is to enable better batteries through more efficient management and control.

Understanding lithium ion batteries requires understanding the dynamics of nonlinear systems. For that reason, another aspect of my research is on developing tools to characterise stability properties of nonlinear systems. A particular focus is on the absolute stability problem where my collaborators and I have developed several results including on the search for Zames-Falb multipliers and Lyapunov functions.

Using these methods on the stability analysis of nonlinear systems, I have been motivated to address the problem of the lack of robustness of machine learning algorithms, particularly those driven by neural networks. As well as quantifying neural network robustness, I am also interested in drawing connections between model-based and datadriven control. The goal of this research is to exploit control theory’s understanding of nonlinear system dynamics to facilitate the deployment of data-driven control to safety-critical systems.

Publications

Journal articles

Tredenick EC, Wheeler S, Drummond R, Sun Y, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2024) A Multilayer Doyle-Fuller-Newman Model to Optimise the Rate Performance of Bilayer Cathodes in Li Ion Batteries. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 171(6), 060531-060531.
Lekas S, Drummond R, Grant PS & Duncan SR (2024) Control of Additive Manufacturing for Radio Frequency Devices With Spatially Varying Dielectric Properties. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, PP(99), 1-11.
Drummond R, Turner MC & Duncan SR (2024) Reduced-Order Neural Network Synthesis With Robustness Guarantees. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 35(1), 1182-1191.
Drummond R & Tucker G (2023) Optimal Fast Charging of Lithium Ion Batteries: Between Model-Based and Data-Driven Methods. Journal of the Electrochemical Society.
Drummond R & Turner MC (2023) Externally Positive Linear Systems From Transfer Function Properties. IEEE Control Systems Letters, 7, 3908-3913.
Taghavian H, Drummond R & Johansson M (2023) Logarithmically completely monotonic rational functions. Automatica, 155, 111122-111122.
Drummond R & Valmorbida G (2023) Generalised Lyapunov functions for discrete-time Lurie systems with slope-restricted nonlinearities. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 1-12.
Drummond R, Guiver C & Turner MC (2022) Aizerman Conjectures for a class of multivariate positive systems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 1-8.
Cheng C, Drummond R, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2022) Extending the energy-power balance of Li-ion batteries using graded electrodes with precise spatial control of local composition. Journal of Power Sources, 542, 231758-231758.
Grant PS, Greenwood D, Pardikar K, Smith R, Entwistle T, Middlemiss LA, Murray G, Cussen SA, Lain MJ, Capener MJ , Copley M et al (2022) Roadmap on Li-ion battery manufacturing research. Journal of Physics: Energy.
Drummond R, Cheng C, Grant PS & Duncan SR (2022) Modelling the Impedance Response of Graded LiFePO₄ Cathodes for Li-Ion Batteries. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 169(1), 010528-010528.
Toso LF, Drummond R & Duncan SR (2022) Regional Stability Analysis of Transitional Fluid Flows. IEEE Control Systems Letters, 6, 2287-2292.
Drummond R, Couto LD & Zhang D (2022) Resolving Kirchhoff’s Laws for Parallel Li-Ion Battery Pack State-Estimators. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 30(5), 2220-2227.
Cheng C, Drummond R, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2020) Combining composition graded positive and negative electrodes for higher performance Li-ion batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 448, 227376-227376.
Turner MC & Drummond R (2020) Analysis of Systems With Slope Restricted Nonlinearities Using Externally Positive Zames–Falb Multipliers. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 65(4), 1660-1667.
Drummond R, Bizeray AM, Howey DA & Duncan SR (2020) A Feedback Interpretation of the Doyle–Fuller–Newman Lithium-Ion Battery Model. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 28(4), 1284-1295.
Cheng C, Drummond R, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2019) Micro-scale graded electrodes for improved dynamic and cycling performance of Li-ion batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 413, 59-67.
Valmorbida G, Drummond R & Duncan SR (2019) Regional Analysis of Slope-Restricted Lurie Systems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 64(3), 1201-1208.
Drummond R, Zhao S & Duncan SR (2019) Design Tools for Electrochemical Supercapacitors Using Local Absolute Stability Theory. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 27(3), 1071-1083.
Drummond R, Valmorbida G & Duncan SR (2018) Generalized Absolute Stability Using Lyapunov Functions With Relaxed Positivity Conditions. IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2(2), 207-212.
Drummond R, Zhao S, Howey DA & Duncan SR (2017) Circuit synthesis of electrochemical supercapacitor models. Journal of Energy Storage, 10, 48-55.
Drummond R, Howey DA & Duncan SR (2015) Low-order mathematical modelling of electric double layer supercapacitors using spectral methods. Journal of Power Sources, 277, 317-328.
Drummond R, Guiver C & Turner MC () Exponential input-to-state stability for Lur’e systems via Integral Quadratic Constraints and Zames–Falb multipliers. IMA Journal of Mathematical Control and Information, dnae003.

Conference proceedings papers

Drummond R, Taghavian H & Baldivieso-Monasterios PR (2024) Learning-to-control relaxation systems with the step response. 2024 American Control Conference (ACC) (pp 3584-3589), 10 July 2024 - 12 July 2024.
Nie Y, Ko P & Drummond R (2024) Optimal Flight Trajectories of Hybrid Electric Aircraft with In-Flight Charging. 2024 European Control Conference (ECC), 25 June 2024 - 28 June 2024.
Su L, Drummond R & Khong SZ (2024) Incremental Stability Analysis of Lurie Systems. 2024 European Control Conference (ECC), 25 June 2024 - 28 June 2024.
Liang W, Baldivieso PR, Drummond R & Shin D (2024) Tuning the Feedback Controller Gains is a Simple Way to Improve Autonomous Driving Performance. 2024 UKACC 14th International Conference on Control (CONTROL), 10 April 2024 - 12 April 2024.
Richardson CR, Turner MC, Gunn SR & Drummond R (2024) Strengthened stability analysis of discrete-time Lurie systems involving ReLU neural networks. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 242 (pp 209-221)
Drummond R, Guiver C & Turner MC (2024) Convex neural network synthesis for robustness in the 1-norm. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 242 (pp 1388-1399)
Drummond R, Baldivieso-Monasterios PR & Valmorbida G (2024) Mapping back and forth between model predictive control and neural networks. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, Vol. 242 (pp 1228-1240)
Courtier NE, Drummond R, Ascencio P, Couto LD & Howey DA (2022) Discretisation-free battery fast-charging optimisation using the measure-moment approach. 2022 European Control Conference (ECC), 12 July 2022 - 15 July 2022.
Drummond R, Valmorbida G & Duncan SR (2017) Equivalent Circuits for Electrochemical Supercapacitor Models * *This work was supported in part by funding from the EPSRC.. IFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 50(1) (pp 2671-2676)
Lekas S, Drummond R, Grant P & Duncan S () Closed-loop control of dielectric permittivity for 3D-printed radio-frequency devices. Procs. of the IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA)

Preprints

Tredenick EC, Wheeler S, Drummond R, Sun Y, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2024) A multilayer Doyle-Fuller-Newman model to optimise the rate performance of bilayer cathodes in Li ion batteries, Research Square Platform LLC.
Tredenick EC, Wheeler S, Drummond R, Sun Y, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2024) A multilayer Doyle-Fuller-Newman model to optimise the rate performance of bilayer cathodes in Li ion batteries, Research Square Platform LLC.
Liang W, Baldivieso PR, Drummond R & Shin D (2024) Tuning the feedback controller gains is a simple way to improve autonomous driving performance, arXiv.
Tredenick EC, Wheeler S, Drummond R, Sun Y, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2024) A multilayer Doyle-Fuller-Newman model to optimise the rate performance of bilayer cathodes in Li ion batteries, Research Square Platform LLC.
Tredenick EC, Wheeler S, Drummond R, Sun Y, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2024) A multilayer Doyle-Fuller-Newman model to optimise the rate performance of bilayer cathodes in Li ion batteries, Research Square Platform LLC.
Tredenick EC, Wheeler S, Drummond R, Sun Y, Duncan SR & Grant PS (2024) A multilayer Doyle-Fuller-Newman model to optimise the rate performance of bilayer cathodes in Li ion batteries, Research Square Platform LLC.
Tredenick EC, Boyce AM, Wheeler S, Li J, Sun Y, Drummond R, Duncan SR, Grant PS & Shearing PR (2023) Bridging the Gap Between Microstructurally Resolved Computed Tomography-Based and Homogenised Doyle-Fuller-Newman Models for Lithium-Ion Batteries, Research Square Platform LLC.
Lambert P, Tredenick E, Duncan S & Drummond R (2023) Detecting faulty lithium-ion cells in large-scale parallel battery packs using current distributions, Research Square Platform LLC.

Grants

Research Grants

High energy density battery pack design without compromising on safety, Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Intelligence Community Research Fellowship, 10/2020 - 11/2023, £200,000 as PI

Teaching activities: ACS133 Physical Systems