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The aerospace domain has historically been at the forefront of cutting-edge control theory. Due to the potential consequences of aircraft or spacecraft failure, one of the main research challenges in this area of applications is to improve certain performance objectives (e.g. manuverability, speed, efficiency) while simultaneously providing formal safety guarantees.

Spacecraft Attitude Control

The  Jason-2 satellite orbiting earth.

Spacecraft carry a variety of sensors and auxiliary systems that must be oriented correctly to ensure proper functionality (e.g. photo-sensitive sensors should never be pointed towards the sun, antennas need to point towards the source of their target signal, etc.). This project develops optimal control strategies for re-orienting spacecraft while enforcing safety constraints and mission objectives.

Collaborators:Xudong Chen¹, John Hauser¹, ²
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2. Air Force Research Lab

Students: Thomas Dearing

Funding:  (Awarded to Thomas Dearing)

Formation Control of Multi-Agent Systems

Award-winning photo of a flock of starlings by .

This project investigates the control of multi-agent systems that must achieve an emerging behavior while being subject to local interactions and constraints. Application areas include swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles as well as small satellite formations, both of which share the similarity of being underactuated systems.

Collaborators:Xudong Chen¹, ², ³
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2. Air Force Research Lab
3. Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Students: Thomas Dearing, Bryan Convens

Funding:  (Travel grant)

Control of Tilt-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Canadair CL-84 Tilt-wing aircraft.

Tilt-wing aircraft combine the maneuverability of vertical take-off and landing vehicles with the endurance of fixed-wing aircraft. As opposed to more traditional tilt-rotor designs, the rotor and the wing perform a rigid rotation while transitioning from hover mode to forward flight. Due to the aerodynamic interactions between the wing and the propellers, the aircraft is subject to a wide array of forces and torques, which can be used to perform maneuvers that would otherwise be impossible.

Collaborators: John Hauser¹, ²
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2. Università di Bologna

Students: Jacob Cook, Andrea Mengozzi