Control challenges in micro fluidic systems and nanoscale transport phenomena

Over the last three decades, the number of available micro devices, actuators, and sensors has grown in leaps and bounds. Moreover, newly emerging nano-technology and nano-sized patterning techniques are enabling even more capabilities in micro fluidic systems. The micro community is now moving from component creation to system design, optimization, and control. Hence there is a real opportunity for control researchers, who are well versed in system dynamics and control, to contribute to the maturing field of micro systems, and also to the emerging field of nano systems. This paper presents some brief examples of our research efforts in this direction, and outlines our perspective on the available control opportunities and emerging system integration and control challenges.