Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Lab
“Two hand launches of the UMN AEM Drosophilanator (transitioning into a circle hold pattern.) With augmented reality heads up display and trajectory markers.” - Curtis Olson
The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Lab is directed by Chris Regan with participating faculty members, Demoz Gebre-Egziabher and Peter Seiler.
The goals of the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Laboratory are to
- Use infrastructure to engage and collaborate with the broader research community
- Develop technologies to enable safe and more efficient aircrafts
- Involve students within the AEM Department in flight research and development process
- Support research activities within the department including control, navigation and guidance algorithms, embedded fault detection methods, and system identification tools
“The UAV research group develops and supports a world class, low cost, open-source avionics platform enabling research and education within the department and worldwide. Our infrastructure is used to conduct flight research on navigation, guidance, and flight control systems to enable future commercial aircraft and small UAVs to be significantly safer and more fuel efficient.
The UAV Laboratory supports education by bringing real-world aircraft development and flight testing experiences into undergraduate and graduate level courses. Beyond our department, our infrastructure is used for conducting leading-edge aeronautics research. We work with academia, local businesses, and Minnesota state agencies to explore potential UAV uses and opportunities, such as precision agriculture, surveying and mapping invasive species, as well as developing a framework for safely integrating UAVs into the national airspace.”
Some Projects include
- Developing navigation methods using non-traditional sources
- Improving modeling, sensor selection and control for highly flexible aircraft
- Advancing Safety Critical Information Systems
- Designing new flight control system
- Expanding methods for analyzing aerodynamic models
Students interested in UAV Lab research can contact Director Chris Regan.