Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles (RECUV)

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder will share atmospheric science tech, expertise through new grant

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 21:52:16 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder will share atmospheric science tech, expertise through new grant Jeff Zehnder Mon, 10/07/2024 - 15:52

Jeff Zehnder

Above: RAAVEN uncrewed aerial vehicle over the Atlantic Ocean.
Header Image: Meteorological map showing storms during a deployment.

Drone technology and atmospheric science instruments developed by the �鶹��Ѱ�� will be available to researchers nationwide through a new grant.

The National Science Foundation has awarded �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder a three-year, $1 million grant to establish a Community Instruments and Facilities program titled Mobile Uncrewed Systems for Atmospheric Science (MUSAS).

“We have a track record for atmospheric research with the equipment we’ve created and the campaigns we’ve partnered in. Whenever atmospheric scientists need to collect data in environments they can’t get other ways, that’s where we come in,” said Brian Argrow, principal investigator for the grant.

Argrow, a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, is a nationally recognized expert in uncrewed aerial systems. He and �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder colleagues have spent decades developing fixed-wing and quad-copter-style drone systems to study weather and other atmospheric conditions.

Their work has spanned the globe, including in extreme conditions like the North Pole and several campaigns in the United States to analyze supercell thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes.

The new grant will provide the larger scientific community access to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s instrumentation and know-how.

“We’re bringing aerospace to the atmospheric sciences community,” Argrow said. “We have the expertise, the drones, the deployment systems, and regulatory approval to fly in the national airspace system.”

Although the program does not officially begin until Nov. 1, Argrow said they have already been contacted by a university with a partnership proposal.

Inspecting a RAAVEN drone while on deployment.

“By increasing access to small uncrewed aerial systems, we’ll increase the amount of data available to the broader community to help solve some of the toughest problems in atmospheric science. Our technology can sample the physics and chemistry of the lower atmosphere and offer new perspectives on this environment,” Argrow said.

MUSAS joins a network of NSF-supported initiatives across the country that allow universities to share research equipment and expertise.

Through the program, partners will have access to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s personnel as well as the RAAVEN and Super RAAVEN fixed-wing drones and the CopterSonde 3 quad-copter, along with deployment and tracking vehicles.

Argrow anticipates an array of research to come from the partnerships, including into boundary layer processes, coastal circulations, aerosol processes, turbulence and turbulent fluxes, surface-atmosphere exchange, high-latitude environments, and severe weather.

“Building on the initial investment from the �鶹��Ѱ��Grand Challenge Initiative, we have assembled infrastructure which is unique,” Argrow said. “�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder has extensive experience operating and developing these systems, and this gives us the opportunity to expand our impact.”

Drone technology and atmospheric science instruments developed by �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder will be available to researchers nationwide through a new grant. The National Science Foundation has...

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Professor earns two major grants to advance AI for autonomous systems

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 14:24:05 +0000

Professor earns two major grants to advance AI for autonomous systems Jeff Zehnder Tue, 09/03/2024 - 08:24

Jeff Zehnder

Zach Sunberg

Zach Sunberg’s research developing better artificial intelligence systems is getting a major boost from two federal grant awards.

Sunberg is receiving a $599,000, five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and is a partner on a related $4 million multi-university initiative from the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

Both projects focus on advancing game theory algorithms so AI systems can better solve problems in real-time in the field.

“I’m excited to receive the recognition that I’m looking at important problems to solve in both of these areas,” Sunberg said. “ONR shows the relevance for defense applications, and the NSF award focuses on making our nation and our world a better place.”

Sunberg is an assistant professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the �鶹��Ѱ��. His research focuses on autonomous systems and AI, with an emphasis on game theory.

Although game theory has origins in solving tabletop board games and card games, it is a broad field of research that studies problem-solving in complex, real-world situations.

“You might think of a game as a board game, but any situation where multiple agents are interacting and have their own goals can be mathematically represented as a game. Poker has clear rules, but so does driving a car; there are just a lot more variables,” Sunberg said.

AI systems like those used in self-driving cars typically rely on offline reinforcement learning. In such a system, automakers use historical data collected from a fleet of vehicles to optimize an algorithm to react to future situations. Sunberg is seeking to develop online decision-making systems, where an AI can think in real time to interact with situations that do not match historical data.

“This has previously been considered a computationally intractable problem” Sunberg said. “But our lab recently had a breakthrough with single-agent planning where we proved we did not need a lot of computation even in a large state space. What we want to do next is work on more complex multi-agent situations.”

The research focuses on a framework used by scientists and engineers to model possible outcomes when full data is not available, called partially observable Markov stochastic games.

“An application is airborne collision avoidance. In the past, the other pilot’s actions would be modeled as a probability distribution. That wasn’t satisfying to me. The other pilot is a decision maker themselves, so it would be better to model as a multi-agent game, but we don’t know how to solve partially observable games like that using online systems,” Sunberg said.

The research from the NSF grant has applications across an array of autonomous systems, from search and rescue robots, to self-driving cars, to how satellites navigate while orbiting the Earth. The Navy award is focused more on AI deception and counter deception in the military realm.

“An enemy is going to try to deceive you in some way, so we want to focus on how that can happen and how do we make AI resistant to it. We’re also looking at developing AI that can deceive an adversary. If you have a drone that you want to avoid enemy air defenses, how can it use bluffing to help it do that,” Sunberg said.

The ONR award is brings together four universities. The project is being led by the Georgia Institute of Technology with partners at the University of California Santa Barbara, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, and the University of Texas at Austin. Sunberg’s portion of the $4 million grant is worth roughly $1 million.

“The current most widely used methods for AIs, these offline systems, are really a function approximater. It’s kind of an intuitive reaction or instinct. We want an AI that can go further, like people, and think and deliberate about a situation. There’s huge potential with this work,” he said.

Zach Sunberg’s research developing better artificial intelligence systems is getting a major boost from two federal grant awards. Sunberg is receiving a...

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Blockbuster science: Storm-chasing drone appears in ‘Twisters’

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 18:58:46 +0000

Blockbuster science: Storm-chasing drone appears in ‘Twisters’ Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/18/2024 - 12:58

A storm-chasing drone operated by researchers at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder got the blockbuster treatment when a version inspired by it appeared in the summer popcorn flick “Twisters.”

The RAAVEN drone was developed by researchers at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Integrated Remote and In-Situ Sensing (IRISS) program. It’s part of the Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells (TORUS) project, a research effort that uses small drones and remote-sensing instruments to collect data on tornado formation in supercell thunderstorms. TORUS is led by principal investigator Adam Houston of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Brian Argrow and Eric Frew, professors in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, are among the co-principal investigators for the project.

In trailer scenes for “Twisters,” an uncrewed aircraft that matches RAAVEN swoops like a fighter jet toward storm clouds.

The RAAVEN’s appearance in the trailer surprised and delighted Argrow, its lead developer, when he first viewed it during the Super Bowl halftime this past February.

Argrow said he didn’t realize a blockbuster like “Twisters” was underway when a film crew contacted him in April 2023 for permission to create a radio-controlled model of the RAAVEN. He directed the moviemakers to make arrangements with the drone’s airframe manufacturer.

“I don’t usually watch the halftime show, so I was about to go downstairs when the trailer came on,” he recounted. “I was shocked. This really is a big movie! And as I was watching, the RAAVEN appears. I said to my wife: ‘Did you see that? That’s a RAAVEN!’”

However, the RAAVEN already is a star.

Since 2017, the 6-and-a-half-foot wingspan drone has played a leading role in TORUS, which combines drones and tracking vehicles to gather thunderstorm data. TORUS explores how supercell thunderstorms give rise to tornadoes, and the researchers hope to help improve tornado warnings across the country. The project also involves the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, the University of Oklahoma's Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations and Texas Tech University.

The RAAVEN can fly as fast as 90 miles per hour and has a battery life of up to three hours, putting it ahead of standard rotary wing drones, which can’t keep up with storms moving at 30 to 60 miles per hour and often run short of battery life, Argrow said.

“No one else is doing what we do,” he said, adding that it’s the RAAVEN and its mobile ground stations, authorized by the FAA, that make the research unique.

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Designing autonomous robots for use on Mars and closer to home

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:54:08 +0000

Designing autonomous robots for use on Mars and closer to home Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/15/2024 - 08:54

Jeff Zehnder

Preparing to engage the robot during the MDRS mission.

Pawel Sawicki (BioMedEngr MS’22, AeroEngr PhD’23) is exploring the barren landscape of Mars and testing out critical new technologies through a one-of-a-kind experience here on Earth.

Welcome to the Mars Desert Research Station, an “analog” astronaut research facility in the remote Utah desert. Operated by the Mars Society, the center gives scientists and engineers the opportunity to test out future space experiments without a long space journey.

Sawicki, a �鶹��Ѱ�� master’s and PhD alumnus, recently returned from the base, where he spent two weeks as a mission commander with a six-member crew. The team lived and worked under conditions remarkably similar to what NASA astronauts will face on the red planet.

“It was pretty exciting. We lived in the station and to go outside we had to wear EVA suits,” Sawicki said. “We’re simulating life on Mars so we can learn how to design experiments, equipment, and operations for when astronauts really go and face that challenge.”

Along with a series of geological and nuclear experiments was a 30 lb., four-wheel, ground robot provided by Nisar Ahmed, an associate professor of aerospace at the �鶹��Ѱ��.

Robots will be important on future Mars missions, but only if users can easily understand their capabilities and limitations, said Nick Conlon, one of Ahmed’s PhD students in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.

Ahmed’s lab is focused on developing methods so a robot can accurately tell operators how well it will be able to do a task. Called Factorized Machine Self-Confidence, the system will give users an easy way to grasp how competent the robot is.

“The objective was to use the robot to take video autonomously in different areas to create a 360 view of the environment, like Google Maps Street View,” Conlon said. “Before the robot starts as task, it analyzes its internal models to report if it can achieve the goal. Can it drive to a certain area, does it have enough battery to get back, can it avoid obstacles? Things like that.”

Conlon delivered the robot to MDRS and demonstrated the technology prior to the analog mission beginning.

While astronauts are likely to be highly trained on their equipment, the goal of this robotics research is to make it possible for regular users to utilize the technology with little trouble.

“People have different ideas of what a robot might be capable of,” Conlon said. “We don’t want them to over trust a piece of equipment and break it or get hurt or drive off a cliff. We also don’t want people to under trust and have it sit and collect dust in a corner. We want people to use it within its limits and want to use it.”

Conlon said much of the research with the robot thus far has been in controlled environments, making Sawicki’s MDRS mission a unique deployment opportunity.

“We’ll be writing a paper from all we’ve learned from this experience,” Sawicki said. “One of the key findings is just how to make the system super robust for a field study, taking it on an EVA, and wearing a spacesuit in the process.”

Although there were some early diagnostic issues, the robot was able to complete all of the requested site surveys, and both Conlon and Sawicki are hopeful the data will be helpful for subsequent MDRS missions.

One unique challenge that will face future Mars astronauts is communicating with home. Due to the massive distance between the red planet and Earth, one way transmissions have a minimum delay of 8-10 minutes. That makes any live calls impossible. The same restrictions are imposed on the analogue astronauts.

“The isolation was definitely a mental challenge. Nick was back in Colorado and when I had to work with him on an issue with the robot, there are no phone calls and you can’t exchange messages quickly. You send an email and wait,” Sawicki said.

Participating in an MDRS mission fulfilled a goal Sawicki had held since his time as a grad student. �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder offers a course called Medicine in Space and Surface Environments that takes students to MDRS, but during his PhD program Sawicki was unable to make it work with his schedule.

He reached out to MDRS after graduating to sign up for a mission on his own and they offered the opportunity to be mission commander.

“My PhD was in hypersonics but I had taken all of these bioastronautics classes and they said you’re a great fit for this mission,” Sawicki said. “I learned the trials and tribulations of what goes into an isolated mission like this, maintaining crew stability, scheduling. It was a great learning experience for me, and a unique opportunity for Ahmed and Conlon to learn about how future astronauts may one day work with, and alongside, autonomous robots.”

The MDRS 297 mission patch, with the team member names and the robot in lower left.

Pawel Sawicki is exploring the barren landscape of Mars and testing out critical new technologies through a one-of-a-kind experience here on Earth. Welcome to the Mars Desert Research Station, an...

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Atmospheric research in the most extreme place on Earth: Antarctica

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 15:10:10 +0000

Atmospheric research in the most extreme place on Earth: Antarctica Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/24/2024 - 09:10

Jeff Zehnder

Above: Doddi aboard the Shirase amid the Antarctic icepack.
Header Video: Adelie penguins traveling across the frozen tundra.

Abhi Doddi (PhDAeroEngr’21) is collecting scientific data outdoors in a 70 mph whiteout blizzard. It is just another day of life in Antarctica.

Doddi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the �鶹��Ѱ��, is leading a major study involving high-altitude balloons to improve weather forecasting on the Antarctic continent.

He endured years of planning and an ocean voyage aboard an icebreaker ship to reach this remote and dangerous corner of the Earth, and despite the weather, he is excited to be here.

“This sort of data has never been collected before,” Doddi said. “We want to gather small-scale turbulence data over the polar vortex using complimentary observations from radar and balloon-based instruments. This data is very important to improve the representation of turbulence due to the atmospheric gravity waves and the polar jet stream in the current numerical weather prediction models.”

Ship Journey

Most U.S.-based researchers who study the Antarctic weather do so from McMurdo Station, a United States-run base that is surprisingly accessible, with daily flights aboard military cargo planes during the Antarctic summer.

Doddi’s research required a much more arduous journey. He needed access to a specialized mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar, and there is just one on the continent – at Syowa Station, a Japanese base only accessible by ship. Japan’s naval icebreaker Shirase makes one trip there each year. Doddi boarded in Australia. From there, it took 20 days to reach Syowa and 38 to return.

“I don’t get seasick, but it gets uncomfortable when swells are 7-8 meters tall, and you’re being tossed in all directions, even while you sleep,” Doddi said.

Breaking the Ice

The ship could travel at 30 knots on the open ocean, but when they reached the Antarctic ice pack, travel slowed considerably as the vessel needed to repeatedly back up and accelerate forward to break through the ice.

The Shirase carried roughly 180 crew plus 100 scientists and engineers. Doddi and his research partner, Tyler Mixa (MAeroEngr’14, PhD’19), were the first non-Japanese researchers to visit Syowa station.

Timelapse video of the Shirase reversing and accelerating forward to break through the Antarctic icepack.

“The language barrier was the hardest thing. Of the entire crew, there were only about 10 people who spoke conversational English,” Doddi said.

With no option for quick departure in the event of a medical emergency, every person on the trip needed to be in perfect health.

“They want you to be bulletproof. If you get a cavity before the trip, until your dentist provides proof that it’s been filled, and your doctor has signed off on your health, and the Japanese medical team has reviewed the records, you’re not getting on the ship,” he said.

Research Variety

Doddi’s work focused on Antarctic atmospheric conditions, but there were a litany of other teams conducting studies across scientific disciplines. There were multiple oceanographers and aquatic life experts, as well as people doing bird studies, ice core samples, and geological surveys.

“One of the teams discovered 3-4 new species of microorganisms on the trip, which was fascinating. No one had ever laid eyes on those organisms before,” he said.

Even after reaching Antarctica, there was more travel – by air. Due to shallow water, the Shirase must anchor 10 miles off shore and ferry the crew and supplies to the base via helicopter.

Blizzard Balloon Launches

Once they landed at Syowa, Doddi’s research got underway in earnest – readying dozens of balloon payloads that would fly to 20 km in altitude while drifting up to 100 km laterally and relay turbulence measurements back in real time.

The work paired broad measurements from the MST radar with precision instruments aboard the balloon-borne instrument systems developed at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. As a major goal is improving weather forecasting, Doddi spent plenty of time outdoors in less-than-ideal weather.

“We experienced three different blizzards, each lasting up to three days, with winds in excess of 60-70 mph,” he said. “Those conditions were hands down some of the best experiences of my life. That’s the data we want, even if it meant we were staying up for 48 hours. My sleep cycle was totally messed up,” he said.

It did not help that during the Antarctic summer, the sun never sets.

When it was not snowing, the temperature typically hovered just below freezing – practically balmy for an Antarctic summer – with the warmest days topping out at 5°C (41°F).

Abhi Doddi and Tyler Mixa launching a balloon payload on a very windy day at Syowa Station

Syowa Station, which is spread across 60 buildings, offered few comforts during down time.

“The bunks on the ship were larger and more comfortable than those on the base. It was four people to a room, with no doors on any room, just curtains, and communal baths, like a gym locker room,” Doddi said.

What's a Vegetarian?

He also faced a unique obstacle with food. Doddi is a life-long vegetarian, but base meals were via a single Navy cafeteria cooking everyone the same food.

“I’m a vegetarian from birth, and the concept of vegetarianism doesn’t exist in Japanese culture. They don’t even have a word for it. So I brought 240 shelf-stable meals as part of my personal supplies,” he said.

Although Antarctica is frozen year round, there is still plenty of local wildlife. Doddi saw hundreds of emperor penguins and over 1,000 adelie penguins, in addition to seals, petrel seabirds, and albatross. He was able to do some hiking, but safety precautions were necessary.

“If you were going beyond the perimeter of the base or to access a restricted portion, one of the Navy personnel had to go ahead of you to assess the conditions of the ice for cracks and crevasses,” he said.

Analysis Back Home

With the Antarctic field campaign complete and Doddi back in Colorado, phase two of the project begins – complex and lengthy analysis.

“This was a two-month data collection project followed by a three-year modeling program,” Doddi said. “We need massive super computers to do this modeling. The overarching goal is to provide guidance to improve the weather forecasts for people in Antarctica, so this will help researchers for years to come.”

In addition to Doddi, collaborators on the project are Dale Lawrence, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and director of the Research & Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles; Mixa from Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences (GATS) in Boulder; the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo; and Kyoto University.

Map of the Shirase's 20 day journey from Australia, to Syowa Station.
On the 38 day trip back, the ship hugged the Antarctic coast for additional research and to stop at an automated ionospheric measuring station that needed service.

Abhi Doddi (PhDAeroEngr’21) is collecting scientific data outdoors in a 70 mph whiteout blizzard. It is just another day of life in Antarctica. Doddi, a postdoctoral researcher at the �鶹��Ѱ��, is leading a major study involving high-altitude balloons to improve weather forecasting on the Antarctic continent.

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Testing AI-enabled drones for search and rescue

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 19:38:44 +0000

Testing AI-enabled drones for search and rescue Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 13:38

The University of Colorado Aerospace Engineering department is partnering with the Boulder Emergency Squad to evaluate the use of AI-enabled drones in search and rescue operations. The research allows rescuers to feed information to drones, which can then independently help teams scout locations or find individuals.

"What we're doing with this research is giving tools to rescuers to control drones to get that initial perspective and then allowing them to also do other things at the same time," said Hunter Ray, a doctoral student at Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

Ray and first responders explain what the drones are capable of, what they work on during field tests and how they hope to implement the drones in the future. The project is still in the development phase.

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Ahmed discusses artificial intelligence systems with Aerospace America

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 21:06:28 +0000

Ahmed discusses artificial intelligence systems with Aerospace America Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/02/2024 - 14:06

Nisar Ahmed was interviewed for a new feature in Aerospace America magazine.

A publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Q&A article discusses challenges and opportunities in artificial intelligence and machine learning for aerospace systems.

Ahmed is an associate professor of aerospace and Smead Faculty Fellow at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder and an expert in collaborative human and autonomous robot vehicle systems. He is also the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder director for the Center for Autonomous Air Mobility and Sensing, a multi-university National Science Foundation Initiative.

In the article, he outlined difficulties faced by researchers as they seek to design AI systems that can understand situations that come easily to human operators.

"When we talk about autonomy, we mean the ability to make your own decisions, usually under uncertainty or without complete information, and being able to intelligently respond to the circumstances and situations around you. The problem is that these meanings are very fuzzy and flexible to us as people, and we know what we mean when we say that, but when you tell the computer, you have to tell it exactly what to do in those situations," Ahmed said.

Read the full piece at Aerospace America...

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Building next generation autonomous robots to serve humanity

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 23:11:12 +0000

Building next generation autonomous robots to serve humanity Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/17/2023 - 16:11

Jeff Zehnder

One thousand feet underground, a four-legged creature scavenges through tunnels in pitch darkness. With vision that cuts through the blackness, it explores a spider web of paths, remembering its every step and navigating with precision. The sound of its movements echo eerily off the walls, but it is not to be feared – this is no wild animal; it is an autonomous rescue robot.

Initially designed to find survivors in collapsed mines, caves, and damaged buildings, that is only part of what it can do.

Created by a team of �鶹��Ѱ�� researchers and students, the robots placed third as the top US entry and earned $500,000 in prize money at a Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency Subterranean Challenge competition in 2021.

Going Futher

Two years later, they are pushing the technology even further, earning new research grants to expand the technology and create new applications in the rapidly growing world of autonomous systems.

“Ideally you don’t want to put humans in harm’s way in disaster situations like mines or buildings after earthquakes; the walls or ceilings could collapse and maybe some already have,” said Sean Humbert, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Robotics Program at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. “These robots can be disposable while still providing situational awareness.”

The team developed an advanced system of sensors and algorithms to allow the robots to function on their own – once given an assignment, they make decisions autonomously on how to best complete it.

Advanced Communication

A major goal is to get them from engineers directly into the hands of first responders. Success requires simplifying the way the robots transmit data into something approximating plain English, according to Kyle Harlow, a computer science PhD student.

“The robots communicate in pure math. We do a lot of work on top of that to interpret the data right now, but a firefighter doesn’t have that kind of time,” Harlow said.

To make that happen Humbert is collaborating with Chris Heckman, an associate professor of computer science, to change both how the robots communicate and how they represent the world. The robots’ eyes – a LiDAR sensor – creates highly detailed 3D maps of an environment, 15 cm at a time. That’s a problem when they try to relay information – the sheer amount of data clogs up the network.

“Humans don’t interpret the environment in 15 cm blocks,” Humbert said. “We’re now working on what’s called semantic mapping, which is a way to combine contextual and spatial information. This is closer to how the human brain represents the world and is much less memory intensive.”

High Tech Mapping

The team is also integrating new sensors to make the robots more effective in challenging environments. The robots excel in clear conditions but struggle with visual obstacles like dust, fog, and snow. Harlow is leading an effort to incorporate millimeter wave radar to change that.

“We have all these sensors that work well in the lab and in clean environments, but we need to be able to go out in places such as Colorado where it snows sometimes,” Harlow said.

Where some researchers are forced to suspend work when a grant ends, members of the subterranean robotics team keep finding new partners to push the technology further.

Autonomous Flight

Eric Frew, a professor of aerospace at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, is using the technology for a new National Institute of Standards and Technology competition to develop aerial robots – drones – instead of ground robots, to autonomously map disaster areas indoors and outside.

“Our entry is based directly on the Subterranean Challenge experience and the systems developed there,” Frew said.

Some teams in the competition will be relying on drones navigated by human operators, but Frew said �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s project is aiming for an autonomous solution that allows humans to focus on more critical tasks.

Although numerous universities and private businesses are advancing autonomous robotic systems, Humbert said other organizations often focus on individual aspects of the technology. The students and faculty at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder are working on all avenues of the systems and for uses in environments that present extreme challenges.

“We’ve built world-class platforms that incorporate mapping, localization, planning, coordination – all the high level stuff, the autonomy, that’s all us,” Humbert said. “There are only a handful of teams across the world that can do that. It’s a huge advantage that �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder has.”

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�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder honored for drone research

Anonymous — Tue, 23 May 2023 15:05:20 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder honored for drone research Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/23/2023 - 09:05

Above: �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder RAAVEN (Robust Autonomous Airborne Vehicle - Endurant and Nimble) uncrewed aerial vehicle flying over a wind farm.
Headline Photo: Showcasing a large uncrewed aerial vehicle east of Boulder.

The �鶹��Ѱ�� has been named 1st place winner in Academic Research category of the XCELLENCE Awards by the Association for Uncrewed Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI).

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder was selected from a pool of applicants for their work in uncrewed systems technology. Winners were publicly congratulated during the XCELLENCE awards ceremony during AUVSI XPONENTIAL on May 9.

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles (RECUV), and Integrated Remote and In Situ Sensing Program (IRISS) have led small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS) research for more than 20 years. With increasingly autonomous operations, this research supports applications from military communications to severe convective storms over the Great Plains to ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Arctic and the tropics.

“On behalf of my colleagues in the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles, the Integrated Remote and In Situ Sensing Program, and our collaborators around the world, I thank AUVSI for recognizing our UAS research with the 2023 XCELLENCE Award for Academic Research. We look forward to this recognition encouraging even more partnerships and collaborations," said Brian Argrow, a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and director of IRISS.

Major achievements from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder UAS programs include:

Design and demonstration of the US Air Force Ad-Hoc UAS Ground Network (AUGNet), the first meshed-radio, mobile ad-hoc network supported by multi-sUAS teams
FAA certificates of authorization for severe-weather research now covering more than 500,000 sq-mi of the Great Plains
The first sUAS meteorological measurements in a tornadic supercell thunderstorm, part of the NSF/NOAA Second Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Supercells Experiment (VORTEX2)
Multi-sUAS measurements of turbulence in the nocturnal boundary layer in the month-long NSF Instabilities, Dynamics, and Energetics Accompanying Layering (IDEAL) campaign in Utah
sUAS measurements in 15 supercells (seven with tornadoes) during the 2019 NSF/NOAA Targeted Observations with Radar and UAS of Supercells (TORUS) campaign
Monthlong measurement campaign from Barbados for NOAA’s Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC) in 2020
6-month sUAS measurement campaign to study sea-ice-atmosphere interactions from the Polarstern icebreaker near the North Pole for the international MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition
4-month campaign supporting the US DOE’s Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) near Houston, TX

Other sUAS campaigns include the North Slope of Alaska, Antarctica, Peru, Japan, and Norway.

The AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators with a demonstrated commitment to advancing autonomy, leading, and promoting safe adoption of uncrewed systems and developing programs that use these technologies to save lives and improve the human condition.

For more information about AUVSI visit AUVSI.org. For more information about the AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards and XPONENTIAL 2023, visit xponential.org.

The �鶹��Ѱ�� has been named 1st place winner in Academic Research category of the XCELLENCE Awards by the Association for Uncrewed Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI). �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder was selected from a...

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Epic year for aerospace research funding at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 17:14:36 +0000

Epic year for aerospace research funding at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/22/2022 - 11:14

Jeff Zehnder

Year	Research Income	# of Research Awards
2022	$47,834,766	229
2021	$53,101,624	224
2020	$33,482,927	220
2019	$20,925,397	189
2018	$21,693,350	173
2017	$15,776,823	174
2016	$15,298,323	163
2015	$15,233,210	156
2014	$12,880,920	142
2013	$16,737,155	139
2012	$21,820,850	147

The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the �鶹��Ѱ�� had another big year for research funding, bringing in nearly $48 million in awards.

The fiscal year 2022 number totals $47,834,766. It is the second highest year ever for funding in the department, behind only FY 2021, which topped $53 million.

“We have excellent faculty in our department who are being recognized for their expertise and it shows,” said Hanspeter Schaub, aerospace professor and department chair. “Space is a topic of interest again and the Air Force and Space Force are beginning to invest heavily into related research. Bioastronautics is also growing, with more access for humans to visit and work in space. Finally, remote sensing of and from space has been a strongly funded research area and fits out department expertise well.”

Over the last five years, the department’s research revenue has more than tripled, with significant growth in traditional aeronautics and aerospace fields and a push into newer areas like hypersonics.

The largest single grant during the most recent fiscal year was $15 million for the establishment of a new NASA hypersonics research center. The department also saw grants of over $1 million each in radio frequency research, orbital medicine, space domain awareness, virtual reality for space mission training, and artificial intelligence for drones.

Schaub expects the strong research funding totals to continue into the future.

“This is not a bubble in funding. There are several developments in progress that should keep this momentum going and it appears that this roughly $50 million a year funding level is here to stay,” Schaub said.

Research funding from FY 2022 spans 229 unique grants from organizations and government agencies including NASA, the National Science Foundation, private businesses, and other universities.

U.S. News and World Report ranks Smead Aerospace as the #6 public undergraduate program and #5 public graduate program among all universities.

The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the �鶹��Ѱ�� had another big year for research funding, bringing in nearly $48 million in awards. The fiscal year 2022 number totals $47,834,766. It is the...

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