Glenn Heppler, PEng

Glenn Heppler is a Professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering and cross-appointed to the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering department at the University of Waterloo.

Professor Heppler’s research interests include the dynamics of structures, and multilink and single link systems. He is pursuing several research projects that involve the dynamics and control of a wide range of flexible structures. These structures range from flexible robotic manipulators, to bridges, and to structures with significant gyroscopic elements.

The study of structurally flexible robotic arms is also being pursued by Professor Heppler in the context of dynamic mass capture. Dynamic mass capture is the acquisition of a payload by the robot when there is a significant nonzero relative velocity between the robot end effector and the payload. Both the modelling of the dynamics of this class of systems and the control of the system behaviour is being examined in his research.

Additionally, Professor Heppler has several publications on subjects such as natural frequencies and large-stroke electrostatic micro-actuators.

• dynamics and control of structures, structural dynamics, modeling & simulation, flexible robot dynamics and control, dynamics of multibody and mechatronic systems, multilink and single link systems

• 1985, Doctorate Aerospace, University of Toronto, Institute for Aerospace Studies, Canada

• 1979, Master's Aerospace, University of Toronto, Institute for Aerospace Studies, Canada

• 1977, Bachelor's Engineering Science (Aerospace), University of Toronto, Canada

• SYDE 181 - Physics 1: Statics
  • Taught in 2020
• SYDE 553 - Advanced Dynamics
  • Taught in 2020

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Hassanpour, Soroosh and Heppler, GR, Comprehensive and easy-to-use torsion and bending theories for micropolar beams, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, 71, 2016

• Hassanpour, Soroosh and Heppler, GR, Approximation of Infinitesimal Rotations in Calculus of Variations, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 705, 2016

• Hassanpour, Soroosh and Heppler, GR, Dynamics of 3D Timoshenko gyroelastic beams with large attitude changes for the gyros, Acta Astronautica, 33, 2016

• Hassanpour, Soroosh and Heppler, GR, Theory of micropolar gyroelastic continua, Acta Mechanica, 1469, 2016

• Lajimi, SAM and Heppler, GR and Abdel-Rahman, EM, A mechanical--thermal noise analysis of a nonlinear microgyroscope, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, , 2016