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GRASP Lab Seminar 2004-2005
October 8, 11:00 AM, Levine Hall 307.
Randy
Beard
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Brigham Young University
Autonomy and Cooperation for Miniature UAVs
Abstract: The focus of this talk will be autonomous control technologies and cooperative control techniques for miniature (1-6 six foot wingspan) UAVs. An overview will be given of autopilot hardware and software developed at BYU, as well as successful flight demonstrations. Real-time path planning, trajectory generation, and tracking algorithms will be discussed. In addition, recent development of PDA and voice controlled interfaces will be discussed. Cooperative control techniques and their applicability to small UAVs, with a focus on application to cooperative forest fire monitoring, persistent surveillance, and multiple vehicle consensus will be presented.
Biography: Randal W. Beard received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in 1991, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1993, the M.S. degree in mathematics in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1995, all from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. Since 1996, he has been with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, where he is currently an associate professor. In 1997 and 1998, he was a Summer Faculty Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. His research interests include nonlinear control, autonomous systems, and multiple vehicle coordination and control with particular emphasis on unmanned air vehicles.
