Faculty Profile
Name: Rick Lind
Homepage: http://www.mae.ufl.edu/~rick
Research Interests:
controls, robotics, flight dynamics, computer vision, morphing, micro air vehicles

Current Running Projects:
Engineering - Morphing aircraft
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
Independent Study: Available
Work Study: Not Available
Salary: Not Available
Volunteer: Available
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Engineering - Vision-Based Control of Autonomous Robotics
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:
Independent Study: Available
Work Study: Not Available
Salary: Not Available
Volunteer: Available
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