Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dalhousie University
The Advanced Control and Mechatronics Laboratory (ACM Lab) conducts research in advanced control theory, mechatronic system design, cyber physical systems, and intelligent robotics. Our work integrates modeling, control, sensing, and experimentation to develop high-performance, intelligent, and adaptive mechatronic and robotic systems. The applications include industrial automation for manufacturing – smart factories, intelligent systems for aerial, land, and ocean deployment, assistive robotics for health care services, and intelligent mechatronics.
Nonlinear Systems and Control: Robust nonlinear control of systems with constraints; passivity-based control; robust adaptive control; and robust optimal control.
Cyber Physical Systems: Time-delay systems; bilateral and multilateral teleoperation; distributed control systems; collaborative multi-agent systems and COBOTs; human–robot interactions; and cyber security.
Intelligent Autonomous Systems: UAVs, UGVs, USVs, AUVs, and automatic sailboats.
Model Predictive Control
Deep Reinforcement Learning
Haptics and Human–Machine Interfaces
Dexterous Manipulation
Assistive Robotics: Rehabilitation, exoskeletons, and prosthetics.
Dr. Ya-Jun Pan is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Dalhousie University, Canada. She received the B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yanshan University, P.R. China, in 1996, the M.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Zhejiang University, P.R. China, in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2003.
After receiving the Ph.D. degree, she was a post-doctoral fellow of CNRS in the Laboratoire d'Automatique de Grenoble, France from 2003 to 2004. In 2004, she held a post-doctoral position in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Dr. Pan’s research interests are mainly in robust nonlinear control, cyber physical systems, intelligent mechatronics, and robotics, with over 200 authored journal and conference papers published. She has been recognized as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE, 2023), Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC, 2021), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (FASME, 2017), and Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (FCSME, 2023). Her awards include the Dalhousie University Research Excellence Award (2008-2009), the CSME Mechatronics Medal (2025), and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship (2016).
Currently, she serves as Senior Editor of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, and Transactions of the CSME, and as Vice President for Membership Activities of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.
She has served on numerous conference organizing committees and editorial boards, including as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics (2016–2023), IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (2023–2025), IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (2019–2021), and IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (2015–2020). She also served as Chair of the IEEE IES Distinguished Lecturer Program and Women in IES (2023–2024), and as a member of the IEEE Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board (2023–2025).
Dr. Pan has served as an evaluation group member for the NSERC Discovery Grant (2017–2020) and as a selection committee member for the NSERC RTI Grant (2016–2017). She also served as Vice-President (Atlantic Region) of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (CSME) from 2018 to 2020.