Niklas Schmid
Ph.D. Student
Automatic Control Laboratory (IfA), ETH Zürich
Supervisors: Prof. John Lygeros, Prof. Tobias Sutter
Contact: nikschmid@ethz.ch
Physikstrasse 3, ETL K12, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Summary
I am a Ph.D. student at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zürich under the supervision of Professor John Lygeros and Professor Tobias Sutter. My research focuses on the control of stochastic systems under safety constraints, which includes the analysis of reachability, invariance, and chance-constrained optimal control problems. Therefore, I utilize tools from dynamic programming and convex optimization.
News
03.07.2024: Exciting, interdisciplinary collaboration on "Stopping Power and Range Estimations in Proton Therapy based on Promp Gamma Timing". Results can be found here.
13.05.2024: Our paper "Joint Chance Constrained Optimal Control via Linear Programming" has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Control Systems Letters (LCSS)! Publisher Link
11.04.2024: Our new paper "Peak Time-Windowed Risk Estimation of Stochastic Processes" is now available on Arxiv!
02.03.2024: Our new paper "Joint Chance Constrained Optimal Control via Linear Programming" is now available on Arxiv!
19.12.2023: Our new paper "Computing Optimal Joint Chance Constrained Control Policies" is now available on Arxiv!
25.09.2023: Our new paper "Parallel Rollout for Deterministic Optimal Control" is now available on Arxiv!
Biography
Since Nov 2021
Ph.D. at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland); Supervisors: Prof. John Lygeros, Prof. Tobias Sutter
2020 - 2021
Internship at Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe (Berlin, Germany); Control of electrosurgical generators and modelling of tissue impedance
2019 - 2021
M.Sc. in Medical Engineering Science at University of Lübeck, (Lübeck, Germany); Thesis: Gaussian Process based MPC of Tethered Quadcopters
2016 - 2019
B.Sc. in Medical Engineering Science at University of Lübeck, (Lübeck, Germany); Thesis: Cooperative Localization of Quadcopters using Factor Graphs
Publications
All of my publications are available as open-access on Arxiv!
Preprint: J. Miller, N. Schmid, M. Tacchi, D. Henrion, R. S. Smith, "Peak Time-Windowed Risk Estimation of Stochastic Processes", Arxiv, 2024, Arxiv-Link.
Preprint: N. Schmid, M. Fochesato, S.H.Q. Li, T. Sutter and J. Lygeros, "Computing Optimal Joint Chance Constrained Control Policies", Arxiv, 2023, Arxiv-Link.
Preprint: Y. Li, A. Karapetyan, N. Schmid, J. Lygeros, K. H. Johansson and J. Martensson, "Parallel Rollout for Deterministic Optimal Control", Arxiv, 2023, Arxiv-Link.
J. F. Werner, F. Pennazio, Niklas Schmid, E. Fiorina, D. Bersani, P. Cerello, J. Kasprzak, N. Mosco, S. Ranjbar, R. Sacchi, V. Ferrero and M. Rafecas, "Stopping Power and Range Estimations in Proton Therapy based on Prompt Gamma Timing: Motion Models and Automated Parameter Optimization", Physics in Medicine & Biology, 2024. Publisher-Link.
N. Schmid, M. Fochesato, T. Sutter and J. Lygeros, "Joint Chance Constrained Optimal Control via Linear Programming", IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2024. Arxiv-Link, Publisher-Link.
N. Schmid and J. Lygeros, "Probabilistic Reachability and Invariance Computation of Stochastic Systems using Linear Programming", 22nd IFAC World Congress, Yokohama, Japan, 2023. Arxiv-Link, Publisher-Link.
J. Gruner, N. Schmid, G. Männel, J. Grasshof, H. S. Abbas and P. Rostalski, "Recursively Feasible Model Predictive Control using Latent Force Models Applied to Disturbed Quadcopters", 2022 IEEE 61st Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Cancun, Mexico, 2022. Publisher-Link.
N. Schmid, J. Gruner, H. S. Abbas and P. Rostalski, "A real-time GP based MPC for quadcopters with unknown disturbances", 2022 American Control Conference (ACC), Atlanta, USA, 2022. Arxiv-Link, Publisher-Link.
Teaching
Teaching has a high priority for me. I believe that it is our responsibility to share our fascination and knowledge to inspire future generations of students in the same way that it has been shared with us.
Courses
A brief summary of my teaching experience:
Spring 2024: Assisting the Nonlinear Systems and Control Lecture lecture by Dr. Eduardo Gallestey and Dr. Raffaele Soloperto.
Fall 2023: Assisting the Control Systems lecture by Prof. Florian Dörfler.
Spring 2022 - Fall 2023: Organization of our lab’s General Laboratory (hands-on course for students to explore control theory in a learning-by-doing fashion on actual physical systems).
Fall 2018 - Spring 2021: Design and presentation of practical and theoretical exercise sessions for an electronics lecture by Prof. Philipp Rostalski at the University of Lübeck.
Fall 2018: Supervision of students in practical exercise sessions on radioactivity.