Related papers: Automated Flight Test and System Identification fo…
This paper investigates stability analysis of flapping flight. Due to time-varying aerodynamic forces, such systems do not display fixed points of equilibrium. The problem is therefore approached via a limit cycle analysis based on Floquet…
This paper introduces a novel, small form-factor, aerial vehicle research platform for agile object detection, classification, tracking, and interaction tasks. General-purpose hardware components were designed to augment a given aerial…
Safety-critical failures often have fatal consequences in aerospace control. Control systems on aircraft, therefore, must ensure the strict satisfaction of safety constraints, preferably with formal guarantees of safe behavior. This paper…
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research requires the integration of cutting-edge technology into existing autopilot frameworks. This process can be arduous, requiring extensive resources, time, and detailed knowledge of the existing system.…
This paper proposes a frequency-domain system identification method for learning low-order systems. The identification problem is formulated as the minimization of the l2 norm between the identified and measured frequency responses, with…
This paper investigates the frequency control of multi-machine power systems subject to uncertain and dynamic net loads. We propose distributed internal model controllers that coordinate synchronous generators and demand response to tackle…
Control tasks with safety requirements under high levels of model uncertainty are increasingly common. Machine learning techniques are frequently used to address such tasks, typically by leveraging model error bounds to specify robust…
Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer endurance and efficiency but lack low-speed agility due to highly coupled dynamics. We present an end-to-end sensing-to-control pipeline that combines bio-inspired hardware, physics-informed…
The application of autonomous robotics to close-contact healthcare tasks has a clear role for the future due to its potential to reduce infection risks to staff and improve clinical efficiency. Nasopharyngeal (NP) swab sample collection for…
This paper presents a new prescribed performance control scheme for the attitude tracking of the three degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) helicopter system with lumped disturbances under mechanical constraints. First, a novel prescribed performance…
In this work, a novel data-based stochastic global identification framework is introduced for air vehicles operating under varying flight states and uncertainty. In this context, the term global refers to the identification of a model that…
Simulation is essential to validate autonomous driving systems. However, a simple simulation, even for an extremely high number of simulated miles or hours, is not sufficient. We need well-founded criteria showing that simulation does…
Wing flexibility governs the flying performance of flapping wing flyers. Here, we use a self-propelled flapping-wing model mounted on a ``merry go round'' to investigate the effect of wing compliance on the propulsive efficiency of the…
Runtime assurance (RTA) addresses the problem of keeping an autonomous system safe while using an untrusted (or experimental) controller. This can be done via logic that explicitly switches between the untrusted controller and a safety…
This paper presents a new control approach for guaranteed safety (remaining in a safe set) subject to actuator constraints (the control is in a convex polytope). The control signals are computed using real-time optimization, including…
In order to further develop and implement novel drift scan imaging experiments to undertake wide field, high time resolution surveys for millisecond optical transients, an appropriate telescope drive system is required. This paper describes…
This paper describes a set of experiments involving small helicopters landing automated landing at unusual attitudes. By leveraging the increased agility of small air vehicles, we show that it is possible to automatically land a small…
This paper highlights the significance of the rotor dynamics in control design for small-scale aerobatic helicopters, and proposes two singularity free robust attitude tracking controllers based on the available states for feedback. 1. The…
We propose a novel adaptive reinforcement learning control approach for fault tolerant control of degrading systems that is not preceded by a fault detection and diagnosis step. Therefore, \textit{a priori} knowledge of faults that may…
The Automated Contact Angle Tester (ACAT) is a fully integrated robotic work cell developed to automate the measurement of surface wettability on 3D-printed materials. Designed for precision, repeatability, and safety, ACAT addresses the…