Christopher R. Laughman

Christopher R. Laughman
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  • Biography

    Christopher's interests lie in the intersection of the modeling of physical systems and the experimental construction and testing of these systems, including simulation, numerical methods, and fault detection. He has worked on a variety of multi-physical systems, such as thermo-fluid systems and electromechanical energy conversion systems.

  • Recent News & Events

    •  NEWS    MERL researchers present 9 papers at ACC 2024
      Date: July 10, 2024 - July 12, 2024
      Where: Toronto, Canada
      MERL Contacts: Karl Berntorp; Ankush Chakrabarty; Vedang M. Deshpande; Stefano Di Cairano; Christopher R. Laughman; Arvind Raghunathan; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang; Avishai Weiss
      Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, Robotics
      Brief
      • MERL researchers presented 9 papers at the recently concluded American Control Conference (ACC) 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The papers covered a wide range of topics including data-driven spatial monitoring using heterogenous robots, aircraft approach management near airports, computation fluid dynamics-based motion planning for drones facing winds, trajectory planning for coordinated monitoring using a team of drones and a ground carrier vehicle, ensemble Kalman smoothing-based model predictive control for motion planning for autonomous vehicles, system identification for Lithium-ion batteries, physics-constrained deep Kalman filters for vapor compression systems, switched reference governors for constrained systems, and distributed road-map monitoring using onboard sensors.

        As a sponsor of the conference, MERL maintained a booth for open discussions with researchers and students, and hosted a special session to discuss highlights of MERL research and work philosophy.

        In addition, Abraham Vinod served as a panelist at the Student Networking Event at the conference. The student networking event provides an opportunity for all interested students to network with professionals working in industry, academia, and national laboratories during a structured event, and encourages their continued participation as the future leaders in the field.
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    •  NEWS    MERL presents 9 papers at 2023 IFAC World Congress
      Date: July 9, 2023 - July 14, 2023
      MERL Contacts: Karl Berntorp; Scott A. Bortoff; Ankush Chakrabarty; Stefano Di Cairano; Christopher R. Laughman; Diego Romeres; Abraham P. Vinod
      Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, Robotics
      Brief
      • MERL researchers presented 9 papers and organized 2 invited/workshop sessions at the 2023 IFAC World Congress held in Yokohama, JP.

        MERL's contributions covered topics including decision-making for autonomous vehicles, statistical and learning-based estimation for GNSS and energy systems, impedance control for delta robots, learning for system identification of rigid body dynamics and time-varying systems, and meta-learning for deep state-space modeling using data from similar systems. The invited session (MERL co-organizer: Ankush Chakrabarty) was on the topic of “Estimation and observer design: theory and applications” and the workshop (MERL co-organizer: Karl Berntorp) was on “Gaussian Process Learning for Systems and Control”.
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  • MERL Publications

    •  Ma, J., Qiao, H., Laughman, C.R., "A Physics-Constrained Data-Driven Modeling Approach for Vapor Compression Systems", International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference at Purdue, July 2024.
      BibTeX TR2024-102 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Ma2024jul,
      • author = {Ma, JiaCheng and Qiao, Hongtao and Laughman, Christopher R.}},
      • title = {A Physics-Constrained Data-Driven Modeling Approach for Vapor Compression Systems},
      • booktitle = {International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference at Purdue},
      • year = 2024,
      • month = jul,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-102}
      • }
    •  Laughman, C.R., Deshpande, V.M., Chakrabarty, A., Qiao, H., "Enhancing Thermodynamic Data Quality for Refrigerant Mixtures: Domain-Informed Anomaly Detection and Removal", nternational Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference at Purdue, July 2024.
      BibTeX TR2024-099 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Laughman2024jul,
      • author = {Laughman, Christopher R. and Deshpande, Vedang M. and Chakrabarty, Ankush and Qiao, Hongtao}},
      • title = {Enhancing Thermodynamic Data Quality for Refrigerant Mixtures: Domain-Informed Anomaly Detection and Removal},
      • booktitle = {nternational Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference at Purdue},
      • year = 2024,
      • month = jul,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-099}
      • }
    •  Xu, W., Jones, C., Svetozarevic, B., Laughman, C.R., Chakrabarty, A., "Violation-Aware Contextual Bayesian Optimization for Controller Performance Optimization with Unmodeled Constraints", Journal of Process Control, DOI: 10.1016/​j.jprocont.2024.103212, Vol. 138, April 2024.
      BibTeX TR2024-046 PDF
      • @article{Xu2024apr,
      • author = {Xu, Wenjie and Jones, Colin and Svetozarevic, Bratislav and Laughman, Christopher R. and Chakrabarty, Ankush},
      • title = {Violation-Aware Contextual Bayesian Optimization for Controller Performance Optimization with Unmodeled Constraints},
      • journal = {Journal of Process Control},
      • year = 2024,
      • volume = 138,
      • month = apr,
      • doi = {10.1016/j.jprocont.2024.103212},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-046}
      • }
    •  Dong, Y., Qiao, H., Laughman, C.R., "Physically-constrained Hybrid Modeling for Vapor Compression Systems", Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference, DOI: 10.1615/​TFEC2024.ml.050269, April 2024, pp. 1259-1268.
      BibTeX TR2024-038 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Dong2024apr,
      • author = {Dong, Yiyun and Qiao, Hongtao and Laughman, Christopher R.},
      • title = {Physically-constrained Hybrid Modeling for Vapor Compression Systems},
      • booktitle = {9th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference},
      • year = 2024,
      • pages = {1259--1268},
      • month = apr,
      • doi = {10.1615/TFEC2024.ml.050269},
      • issn = {2379-1748},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-038}
      • }
    •  Qiao, H., Kobayashi, T., Laughman, C.R., Bortoff, S.A., "On the Characteristics of One-Dimensional Compressible Flow", International Modelica Conference, Dirk Müller, Antonello Monti, and Andrea Benigni, Eds., DOI: 10.3384/​ecp204327, December 2023, pp. 327-336.
      BibTeX TR2024-001 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Qiao2023dec,
      • author = {Qiao, Hongtao and Kobayashi, Takashi and Laughman, Christopher R. and Bortoff, Scott A.},
      • title = {On the Characteristics of One-Dimensional Compressible Flow},
      • booktitle = {Proceedings of the 15th International Modelica Conference 2023},
      • year = 2023,
      • editor = {Dirk Müller, Antonello Monti, and Andrea Benigni},
      • pages = {327--336},
      • month = dec,
      • doi = {10.3384/ecp204327},
      • isbn = {978-91-8075-505-4},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2024-001}
      • }
    See All MERL Publications for Chris

  • Videos

  • MERL Issued Patents

    • Title: "System and Method for Calculation of Thermofluid Properties using Saturation Curve-Aligned Coordinates"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.; Qiao, Hongtao
      Patent No.: 11,739,996
      Issue Date: Aug 29, 2023
    • Title: "Method and System for Circuiting in Heat Exchangers"
      Inventors: Raghunathan, Arvind U; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 11,704,447
      Issue Date: Jul 18, 2023
    • Title: "Controlling Vapor Compression System Using Probabilistic Surrogate Model"
      Inventors: Chakrabarty, Ankush; Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 11,573,023
      Issue Date: Feb 7, 2023
    • Title: "Extremum Seeking Control with Stochastic Gradient Estimation"
      Inventors: Chakrabarty, Ankush; Danielson, Claus; Bortoff, Scott A.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 11,467,544
      Issue Date: Oct 11, 2022
    • Title: "System and Method for Power Optimizing Control of Multi-Zone Heat Pumps"
      Inventors: Bortoff, Scott A.; Burns, Daniel J; Laughman, Christopher; Qiao, Hongtao
      Patent No.: 10,895,412
      Issue Date: Jan 19, 2021
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Refrigerant in Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Qiao, Hongtao; Burns, Daniel J; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 10,830,515
      Issue Date: Nov 10, 2020
    • Title: "System and Method for Thermal Comfort Control"
      Inventors: Bortoff, Scott A.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 10,767,887
      Issue Date: Sep 8, 2020
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Vapor Compression Systems"
      Inventors: Burns, Daniel J; Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 10,495,364
      Issue Date: Dec 3, 2019
    • Title: "Coordinated Operation of Multiple Space-Conditioning Systems"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Qiao, Hongtao; Burns, Daniel J; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 10,234,158
      Issue Date: Mar 19, 2019
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Multi-Zone Vapor Compression Systems"
      Inventors: Burns, Daniel J; Di Cairano, Stefano; Bortoff, Scott A.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 10,174,957
      Issue Date: Jan 8, 2019
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling of Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Burns, Dan; Jain, Neera; Laughman, Christopher; Di Cairano, Stefano; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 9,625,196
      Issue Date: Apr 18, 2017
    • Title: "Method For Reconstructing 3D Scenes From 2D Images"
      Inventors: Ramalingam, Srikumar; Taguchi, Yuichi; Pillai, Jaishanker K; Burns, Dan; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 9,595,134
      Issue Date: Mar 14, 2017
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Vapor Compression Systems"
      Inventors: Burns, Dan; Laughman, Christopher; Bortoff, Scott A.
      Patent No.: 9,534,820
      Issue Date: Jan 3, 2017
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Temperature and Humidity in Multiple Spaces using Liquid Desiccant"
      Inventors: Laughman, Christopher; Burns, Daniel J; Bortoff, Scott A.; Waters, Richard C.
      Patent No.: 9,518,765
      Issue Date: Dec 13, 2016
    • Title: "Adaptive Control of Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Burns, Dan J.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 9,182,154
      Issue Date: Nov 10, 2015
    • Title: "Controlling Operation of Vapor Compression System"
      Inventors: Nikovski, Daniel N.; Laughman, Christopher; Burns, Dan J.
      Patent No.: 8,793,003
      Issue Date: Jul 29, 2014
    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling Operations of Vapor Compression"
      Inventors: Bortoff, Scott A.; Burns, Dan J.; Laughman, Christopher
      Patent No.: 8,694,131
      Issue Date: Apr 8, 2014
    See All Patents for MERL