VSCL Undergraduate researcher Alexander Gross ‘23 is the recipient of the AIAA Foundation Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship for his research contributions on the Aided Threat Recognition from Mobile Cooperative and Autonomous Sensors project and in applications of the Cycle-of-Learning methodology for training of Mars rover vehicles and their interaction with human operators. He is currently working towards his bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Computer Science and Mathematics while in Engineering Honors. He has been conducting research in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory under Dr. Valasek since his sophomore year.
Three VSCL Engineers Co-Inventors on new US Patent for Autonomous Aircraft Taxiing
VSCL alumni Tiffany Williamson and Felix Turcios and current VSCL Ph.D. student Hannah Lehman are co-inventors on newly awarded US Patent 11,037,455, “Autonomous judgmental oversteering determination system for aircraft taxiing”. The system uses reinforcement learning to create a system for an autonomous taxi assistance program. The program is designed to help pilots taxi around airports, especially in situations where oversteer is required and may be difficult for the pilot to properly judge.
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- Tiffany Williamson
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- Felix Turcios
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- Hannah Lehman
Tiffany Williamson and Felix Turcios currently work at Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rapids Iowa as an Engineering Leader and Sr. Systems Engineer respectively. Hannah Lehman is a former Collins Aerospace summer intern with Tiffany and Felix in the Advanced Concepts Group. The team is expecting one more patent for the autonomous taxiing user interface in conjunction with this project.
Click here to view the patent.
VSCL detection and tracking of small uncrewed air systems research featured in Aerospace America’s 2020 Year in Review
VSCL research on detection and tracking of small uncrewed air systems research was featured in Aerospace America’s 2020 Year in Review. To view the full article, please visit the Aerospace America website here.
VSCL graduate student Hannah Lehman inducted into the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee
VSCL Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. student Hannah Lehman has been inducted into the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee (ISTC). The ISTC is a group within AIAA that addresses the application of Intelligent System (IS) technologies and methods to aerospace systems, the verification and validation of these systems, and the education of the AIAA membership in the use of IS technologies in aerospace and other technical disciplines. Lehman was inducted due to her technical experience in IS and involvement with AIAA. She was previously a member of the AIAA Software Technical Committee.
Lehman’s undergraduate research experience and doctoral research aligns with the ISTC’s activities. She is the recipient of the AIAA Foundation Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship for her research contributions in Reinforcement Learning for the intelligent control of Unmanned Air Systems, and a Co-Inventor with Collins Aerospace on two patents for IS applied to airplane ground operations at airports. Lehman researched IS for the 2019 NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, and for a 2020 summer internship with Sandia National Laboratories. Her doctoral dissertation is sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories on the project Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents.
Lehman earned her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering Summa Cum Laude in 2020 from Texas A&M University as a University Scholar, Engineering Honors, and 2019 Gathright Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Junior in the College of Engineering. As a first year graduate student Lehman was awarded the College of Engineering Graduate Merit Doctoral Fellowship for 2020-2023. She has been conducting research in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory with her research Advisor and Chair of dissertation committee, Dr. John Valasek, since her sophomore year.
Two New Graduate Students Join VSCL in Spring 2021
VSCL is proud to welcome two new graduate research assistants:
Esteban Gomez is a MEng student in the aerospace engineering department. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in December 2020. During his time as an undergraduate, Esteban assisted with sensor integration, as well as flight test validation of UAS (unmanned air systems) across multiple VSCL projects. He has been an active member of VSCL since Spring 2019 and will begin working on his masters in January 2021. Esteban’s main interests include flight test engineering, embedded systems, and aircraft dynamics.
Christopher Leshikar is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. Chris has been an active member of VSCL since Spring 2017, working on non-linear multiple-time-scale control theory and system identification. As an undergraduate, he attained internships with the Texas A&M University System Office of Federal Relations and the Defense Intelligence Agency (cancelled due to COVID-19). Chris graduated with a B.S. in aerospace engineering with Engineering Honors in December 2020. As a Graduate Research Assistant, he will be researching control of nonlinear multiple time-scale systems, and online near real-time system identification, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Four New Ph.D. Graduate Students Join VSCL in Fall 2020
VSCL is proud to welcome four new Ph.D. graduate research assistants:
Shelby Hackett is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. She graduated in May 2020 from the University of Florida with B.S. degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering. During her undergraduate studies, she completed an honors thesis on range optimal control for an aircraft, looking at methods for solutions that lie on a singular arc. While in school, she completed internships at Sandia National Laboratories and GE Oil & Gas as a Research & Development intern and a Manufacturing Engineering intern, respectively. Shelby is currently interning at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM as a Research & Development intern. She will be a member of the Guidance, Navigation, and Control II group, working on improving GPS systems for defense vehicles. This is her second summer interning with Sandia. In the fall, Shelby will research Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents, which is sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory.
Hannah Lehman is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. Hannah has been an active member of VSCL since Fall 2017, focusing on human-machine interaction and the control of UAS with Machine Learning. As an undergraduate, she participated in internships with Rockwell Collins, Collins Aerospace, and the REU program. She graduated with the B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University as a University Scholar, University Honors, and Engineering Honors in May 2020. As a Graduate Research Assistant Hannah researches Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents, which is sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory. She is also participating in a remote 2020 summer internship at Sandia National Laboratory with a focus on machine learning.
Nidhin Ninan is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering. During his undergraduate studies, Nidhin worked on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) based navigation using depth sense camera and edge detection using reinforcement learning for a Mars rover prototype being built at KU for the Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge. AT VSCL, Nidhin will be working on the Agile Technology Development (ATD) – Air-Ground Coordinated Teaming, which is sponsored by the Army Futures Command.
Ravi Kumar Thakur is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. His interest is in the field of aerospace robotics and autonomy. He graduated with an MS(Research) degree in Electronics and Communication from the Indian Institute of Information Technology Sri City, Chittoor in 2019. For his thesis, he worked on developing machine learning-based models for estimating scene flow from stereo images. He earned his BS in Engineering Physics from National Institute of Technology Calicut in 2014. In the past, he was a machine learning engineer at Ford Motor Company, where he worked on driver assistant technology with a focus on visual odometry and object tracking. Before that, he worked at the Indian Institute of science working on the development of an endoscopy simulator. At VSCL, Ravi will be working on the project Enhancing the Cycle-of-Learning for Autonomous Systems to Facilitate Human-Agent Teaming which is sponsored by Army Research Laboratory.
VSCL Alumnus Dr. Dipanjan Saha Joins Northeastern University as a Postdoc
Dr. Dipanjan Saha, a December 2018 Ph.D. graduate of VSCL, has started a new position as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, effective 01 July 2020. Dipanjan has been selected to be part of Northeastern’s newly launched Experiential Artificial Intelligence (EAI) postdoc program. This program is meant to prepare the postdoctoral fellows towards a future career in Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) through courses and research. Dipanjan is mentored by Prof. Taskin Padir, and his research will develop novel AI techniques targeted at specific applications including robotics and healthcare. His Ph.D. dissertation investigated novel theories of control design for nonlinear, nonstandard multiple-time-scale systems with uncertainties and output feedback. Prior to his current position, he has pursued postdoctoral research at Texas A&M University on tensegrity systems and uncertainty quantification. He has also been the instructor of record for AERO 321 (Dynamics of Aerospace Vehicles) for three semesters, and a member of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Technical Committee.
VSCL Alumni Vinicius G. Goecks Receives Best Student Paper Award
VSCL paper “Combining Visible and Infrared Spectrum Imagery using Machine Learning for Small Unmanned Aerial System Detection”, by Vinicius G. Goecks, Grayson Woods, and John Valasek, has been selected as the winner of the 2020 SPIE Automatic Target Recognition Best Student Paper Award. This paper presented a novel approach to combine data from RGB and long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras to detect drones through previously difficult environments such as flying above and below the treeline/horizon, in the presence of birds, and glare from the sun.
“The main insight of our approach is that it enables detection and tracking of vehicles at any time of the day, around-the-clock, and in real-time.” says Dr. Goecks. “It also can be built on top of any existing camera system with minimal computation overhead.”
A summary video of the system can be found here, along with videos with all predictions for the single-vehicle case and multiple-vehicle case.
The paper was presented at the 2020 SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing Conference Digital Forum held 27 April – 8 May 2020. The paper is available at the SPIE Digital Library and the preprint version is available at arXiv.
Long-wave Infrared and Visible Spectrum sensors
VSCL Student Vinicius G. Goecks Graduates with Doctor of Philosophy
VSCL alumni Vinicius G. Goecks, who graduated with his Doctor of Philosophy degree in May 2020, has started his postdoctoral position at the US Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. At the US Army Research Laboratory, Vinicius will be developing novel algorithms on human-in-the-loop reinforcement learning assisted by eye gaze and natural language commands applied to tasks where unmanned robotic agents are teamed with humans. He had joined VSCL in 2016 and had previously participated in Summer internships at the US Army Research Laboratory in 2017, 2018, and 2019.