Building 59, room 1257
Speaker: Professor Chris Richards, University of Louisville, USA
Title: Deployment of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for remote sensing of the Arctic
Abstract: This seminar is on solutions to practical problems that limit the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for remote sensing of the Arctic. Propellers used to control UAV flight are limited in the forces they can produce. If the vehicle’s flight control system requests forces that exceed such limits, undesirable flight performance that jeopardizes the mission may occur.
Therefore, deployment of UAVs in the Arctic is currently restricted to infrequent periods when mild winds exist. Likewise, remote sensing by UAV is limited by finite battery life and the need for consistent illumination periods. To increase periods for remote sensing, methods are developed that provide stable UAV flight during stronger wind conditions and enable UAVs to collect plant species data autonomously and efficiently. These methods include:
(a) design of novel anti-windup compensators that mitigate the effects of propeller saturation enabling UAV operation in challenging wind conditions, and
(b) development of autonomous guidance methods that search for specific plant species located in heterogeneous vegetation terrains.
Bio: Chris Richards is a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1992 and 1993. He received his PhD degree in mechanical engineering from the Ohio State University in 1998.
He worked as a Senior Research Engineer for Caterpillar, Inc., Peoria, IL (1998 – 2001), and was a NASA Faculty Fellow in the Aeroelastic Branch of Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA (2003 – 2004).
His research interests include control of aerial and space vehicles, nonlinear system identification, and noise and vibration control.