New Course Announcement for Fall 2006!

 

AE 740, Sec 002.

Special Topics in Flight Dynamics and Control.

T Th 10:30-12:00,  2160 GGB 3 credit hours

 

Autonomous Aerial Vehicles: Cooperation and Control

 

Instructor: Anouck Girard

 

 

Basic theme:  Introduction to problems of cooperation and control of autonomous flight vehicles, emphasizing basic techniques and methodologies, and the underlying mathematical structures and computational/software tools (for design, analysis, simulation, verification and code generation).

 

Topics covered:

1)      Review of vehicle dynamics, stability and control

a.       Vehicle dynamics, equations of motion

b.       Disturbances and environmental models

c.       Stability

d.       Strategies for nonlinear vehicle control

2)      Formation control

a.       Basic formation control laws

b.       String/mesh stability

3)      Cooperation frameworks

a.       Control architectures

b.       Hybrid systems and associated software tools

c.       Supervisory control

d.       Switching and blending of control modes

e.       Dynamic teams (merge, split etc…)

f.        Wireless communications and effect on control

 

Organization: The intended audience includes (but is not restricted to) graduate students in engineering or computer science, with interests in dynamics and controls, and networks of collaborative autonomous vehicle systems. The class will be entirely homework and project-oriented (no exams!) and the students are strongly encouraged to choose a project that is relevant to their own area of research.

 

Projects: The following two types of projects are possible in this course:

1.      Solution of a research problem relevant to the student’s area of research

2.      Independent study of a topic not covered in class (e.g., reading a paper or book chapter).

 

Prerequisites: Graduate standing or permission of instructor. Aero 550/EECS 560/ME 564. (Linear Systems Theory) or equivalent is highly recommended.

 

Textbooks: No textbook will be required. An extensive bibliography of papers will be provided.