VSCL Graduate Research Assistant Han-Hsun “Jack” Lu (M.S. National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.) was invited to speak at the GEOSAT seminar series. Lu discussed the different challenges facing engineering and vehicle support for data science collection missions. Talking points included information about the recently concluded precision agriculture missions conducted by VSCL from 2015-2017. A seminar recap was written by GEOSAT and may be found here.
Joshua Harris (B.S. Texas A&M University) successfully defended his Master of Science Thesis titled “Nonlinear Adaptive Dynamic Inversion Control for Variable Stability Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems”. Harris’s work provides a unique resource to the aerospace community and serves as a holistic review of aircraft modeling and its applications to flight control research. However, the main contributions of his work comes in the form of introducing nonlinear adaptive control laws which are then applied to a Command Augmentation System (CAS) and simulating a variety of variable stability in-flight controller designs. Harris has already accepted a position as a Software Engineer with the Flight Control/VMS Group at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, TX. Congratulations Josh! We are all extremely proud of you and your accomplishments and we look forward to seeing all the great work you will do in the future.
Douglas Famularo (B.S., M.S. Cornell University) successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled “Observer-Based Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion Adaptive Control with State Constraints”. This work is supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, and is focused on the flight control and the prevention of inlet unstart on hypersonic UAS. Doug spent three consecutive summer internships in the Control Science Center at AFRL working on it. Douglas has accepted a controls research position at Aurora Flight Sciences Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA. Congratulations Doug, all of VSCL is very proud of you and your accomplishments!
Joshua Harris (B.S. Aerospace Engineering ‘14, Texas A&M University) was selected by the College of Engineering as the recipient of the 2017-2018 Outstanding Engineering Master of Science Graduate Student Award, out of a total of 1,134 currently enrolled MS students in the College of Engineering.
This award was created to recognize current graduate students who have demonstrated excellence above and beyond usual levels of achievement for their field. Candidates are evaluated by faculty in the College of Engineering on the basis of scholastic achievements, leadership, service and character. Recipients receive a commemorative memento of recognition and a monetary award of $5,000 as a one-time scholarship.
Joshua is a graduate research assistant in VSCL since his freshman year and has contributed to essentially every research program since that time. He has been working with his advisor, Dr. John Valasek, for six years. Harris earned bachelor’s in aerospace engineering Summa Cum Laude from Texas A&M in 2014. He is a recipient of the National Defense Science Engineering Graduate Fellowship, the NASA Aeronautics Scholarship, the FAA PEGASAS Center of Excellence Outstanding Student Researcher Award, and the Sigma Gamma Tau Outstanding Texas A&M University Aerospace Engineering Senior for 2014. Harris is currently a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Intelligent Systems Technical Committee. This semester he will be defending his master’s thesis “Nonlinear Adaptive Inversion Control for Variable Stability Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems”. He has accepted a position as a Software Engineer with the Flight Control/VMS Group at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, TX.
The Texas A&M University VSCL and Land Air Space Robotics Laboratory (LASR) have been subcontracted through Barron Associates to support a new Air Force Research Laboratory program on autonomous aerial refueling of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV). VSCL has 15 years of experience and a patent on Autonomous Aerial Refueling of UAVs, and together with LASR will provide the UAV simulations, control laws, and sensor selection and modeling. The Texas A&M University personnel are PI Dr. John Valasek and Co-PI Dr. Majji Manoranjan, both of the Texas A&M University Aerospace Engineering Department. Working on this project is Master of Engineering student Ezekiel Bowden (B. S. Aerospace Engineering ‘17, Texas A&M University).
The Texas A&M University VSCL has been awarded Phase I of a two year project from the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) to research human performance impacts of head-worn displays for general aviation. The technical objective of the project is to develop a means for evaluating human factors aspects for Head Mounted Displays (HMD) for Enhanced Vision System technologies. A Human Factors suitability study of the technology for enhancing Cat I landings of General Aviation pilots will be conducted using the Engineering Flight Simulator in 2018. The PI of this project is Dr. John Valasek of the Texas A&M University Department of Aerospace Engineering, and the Co-PI of this project is Dr. Thomas Ferris of the Texas A&M University Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. VSCL students working on this project are Master of Engineering student Emily Fojtik (B. S. Aerospace Engineering ‘17, Texas A&M University), and undergraduate research assistants Allison Daveid, Alexandra Heinimann, and Mia Brown.
The Texas A&M University Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory has had eight papers selected for presentation at the 2018 AIAA SciTech Conference in Kissimmee, Florida. Once paper numbers have been assigned, this post will be updated to reflect the assigned paper numbers.
VSCL Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. candidate Vinicius Goecks was one of 32 students selected from a pool over 800 applicants to participate in the prestigious Caltech Space Challenge. The Caltech Space Challenge is a 5-day international student space mission design competition where students interface with experts from industry and receive direct feedback from the NASA JPL Architecture Team. This year’s challenge was to propose a mission design for a mining base at the Lunar pole which would support deep-space missions. Resulting from his involvement, Vinicius coauthored two papers, listed below:
Goecks at CalTech Space Challenge
Dr. John Valasek
Dr. John Valasek, a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been selected by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) as a 2017 AIAA Fellow. The AIAA confers the distinction of Fellow upon 1 percent of its members in recognition of their notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics and astronautics. Valasek is being cited for “Pioneering contributions and outstanding leadership in flight mechanics and control leading to new capabilities in autonomous air refueling, morphing flight, and flight safety.”
The induction ceremony will take place at the AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on May 3 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
