Outline 00:00 - Intro 01:31 - Mexico City to Leningrad: a communist girlfriend, and a year of Russian 05:40 - Sliding modes at the source 10:38 - France: Ioan Landau, Laurent Praly, and dynamic normalization 16:25 - Continuity, robustness, and the Rohrs counterexamples 24:18 - On Gerhard Kreisselmeier 28:04 - Illinois and Mexico 35:31 - Mark Spong, Twente, and passivity-based control 46:32 - Energy shaping, damping injection, and total energy shaping 49:50 - IDA-PBC, written on a napkin in a Paris café 58:09 - Putting Energy Back in Control, Slotine, and the dissipation obstacle 1:02:50 - Where good problems come from: knock on the practitioners' door 1:06:23 - Immersion and invariance 1:13:40 - Power shaping, Brayton and Moser, and shifted passivity 1:19:29 - Power systems and going back to Russia 1:27:23 - DREM: the adjugate trick that decouples parameter estimation 1:31:11 - Sensorless observers 1:34:44 - A seminar in Yakubovich's flat and on data-driven control 1:41:47 - Advice to the next generation 1:44:43 - Outro Links Romeo Ortega's website: https://facultad.itam.mx/facultad/romeo-ortega-martinez Utkin, "Variable structure systems with sliding modes": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1977.1101446 Variable structure systems with chattering reduction: https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-1098(84)90076-1 Robustness of discrete-time direct adaptive controllers (dynamic normalization): https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1985.1103890 Robustness of adaptive controllers, a survey: https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-1098(89)90023-X Comments on the robust stability analysis of adaptive controllers using normalizations: https://doi.org/10.1109/9.28033 Feuer & Morse, "Adaptive control of single-input single-output linear systems": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1978.1101822 Rohrs, Valavani, Athans & Stein, "Robustness of continuous-time adaptive control algorithms in the presence of unmodeled dynamics": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1985.1104070 Åström's commentary on the Rohrs et al. paper: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1985.1104066 Hsu & Costa, "Bursting phenomena in continuous-time adaptive systems with a sigma-modification": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1987.1104440 Karafyllis & Krstić, "Robust Adaptive Control: Deadzone-Adapted Disturbance Suppression": https://doi.org/10.1137/1.9781611978438 Discrete-time model reference adaptive control using generalized sampled-data hold functions: https://doi.org/10.1109/9.50351 Kreisselmeier, "The generation of adaptive law structures for globally convergent adaptive observers": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.1979.1102066 Gao, Bosso, Wang, Saussié & Yi, "Input-output data-driven stabilization of continuous-time linear MIMO systems": https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.06524 Adaptive motion control of rigid robots, a tutorial (where "passivity-based control" is coined): https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-1098(89)90054-X Takegaki & Arimoto, "A new feedback method for dynamic control of manipulators": https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3139651 Torque regulation of induction motors: https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-1098(93)90059-3 Passivity-based Control of Euler-Lagrange Systems: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3603-3 PID Passivity-Based Control of Nonlinear Systems with Applications: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119694199 PID passivity-based control of port-Hamiltonian systems (all passive outputs): https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2017.2732283 Energy-shaping of port-controlled Hamiltonian systems by interconnection: https://doi.org/10.1109/CDC.1999.830260 Interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control of port-controlled Hamiltonian systems (IFAC High Impact Paper Award 2026): https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-1098(01)00278-3 Putting energy back in control: https://doi.org/10.1109/37.915398 Slotine, "Putting physics in control": https://doi.org/10.1109/37.9164 Chang, Bloch, Leonard, Marsden & Woolsey, "The equivalence of controlled Lagrangian and controlled Hamiltonian systems": https://doi.org/10.1051/cocv:2002045 The matching conditions of controlled Lagrangians and IDA-passivity based control: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207170210135939 Control by interconnection and standard passivity-based control of port-Hamiltonian systems: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2008.2006930 Ferguson & Borja, "Control-by-interconnection beyond Casimirs and connections to IDA-PBC": https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2026.3661486 Immersion and invariance, a new tool for stabilization and adaptive control of nonlinear systems: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2003.809820 Nonlinear and Adaptive Control with Applications: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-066-7 Brayton & Moser, "A theory of nonlinear networks I": https://doi.org/10.1090/qam/169746 Power shaping, a new paradigm for stabilization of nonlinear RLC circuits: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2003.817918 Passivity of nonlinear incremental systems: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sysconle.2007.03.011 Interconnection and damping assignment approach to control of PM synchronous motors: https://doi.org/10.1109/87.960344 An energy-shaping approach to the design of excitation control of synchronous generators: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-1098(02)00177-2 Transient stabilization of multimachine power systems with nontrivial transfer conductances: https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2004.840477 Conditions for stability of droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2014.08.009 A parameter estimation approach to state observation of nonlinear systems (PEBO): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sysconle.2015.09.008 Performance enhancement of parameter estimators via dynamic regressor extension and mixing (DREM): https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2016.2614889 On modified parameter estimators for identification and adaptive control: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arcontrol.2020.06.002 Generalized parameter estimation-based observers (GPEBO): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2021.109635 Sensorless control of surface-mount permanent-magnet synchronous motors: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2009.2025276 A globally exponentially convergent sensorless observer for the IPMSM: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2025.112138 Willems, "The behavioral approach to open and interconnected systems": https://doi.org/10.1109/MCS.2007.906923 Abramovich, Kuznetsov & Leonov, "V. A. Yakubovich, mathematician, father of the field": https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.09.150 Support the show Podcast info Podcast website: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/ Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5n84j85j Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4rwztj3c RSS: https://tinyurl.com/yc2fcv4y Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/bdbvhsj6 Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/3z24yr43 Twitter: https://twitter.com/IncontrolP Instagram: https://tinyurl.com/35cu4kr4 Acknowledgments and sponsors This episode was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research on «Dependable, ubiquitous automation» and the IFAC Activity fund. The podcast benefits from the help of an incredibly talented and passionate team. Special thanks to L. Seward, E. Cahard, F. Banis, F. Dörfler, J. Lygeros, ETH studio and mirrorlake . Music was composed by A New Element.