The student will adopt biologically-inspired concepts for flight control. Specifically, research will consider morphing, or shape changing, to alter flight dynamics. Projects can consider identification of flight shapes, implementation of mechanisms to mimic those shapes, and computational modeling of the resulting flight dynamics. Research can consider birds, insects, bats, and dinosaur flights as pertaining to micro air vehicles.

Requirements: Student should have a good knowledge of at least one of the following : biology of skeletal and muscular systems, mechanical engineering of design and fabrication of servo mechanisms, or aerospace engineering of flight mechanics. The actual requirements will vary with the type of project to be studied.

Time Commitment: varies

This project will investigate techniques to utilize synthetic vision for control of autonomous robotics. Various approaches, such as optic flow and structure from motion, will be used to learn information about the position and attitude of the vehicle along with distance to objects. Commands can then be generated to maneuver the vehicle and plan a path around obstacles. The tools can be applied to aircraft and spacecraft along with automobiles and underwater vehicles.

Requirements: basic math and dynamics

Time Commitment: