Welcome

The Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory (AVL) is a new facility in the Department of Aerospace Engineering focused on the development of autonomous aerospace platforms including MAVs, UAVs, and AUVs. Research emphasis is on biologically inspired sensory and control systems that will enable operation of future microsystems in complex, uncertain environments given the challenges imposed by the physics of small scale flight.

Research Areas

Research areas include all aspects of autonomy, flight mechanics, stability, and control of microsystems. Current projects involve modeling and control of flapping wing actuation and locomotion, bio-inspired extraction and fusion of visual and mechanosensory cues, vehicle localization and gust response, autonomous navigation and path planning, and low-power, lightweight sensors and sensory architectures for MAVs.

Unique Capabilities

Unique capabilities include rapid-prototyping facilities for microsystem fabrication and development, a marker-based visual tracking system that provides direct measurements of 6-DOF vehicle position and orientation for system identification and real-time feedback, a low speed wind tunnel with a specialized high speed camera system for insect tracking and wing kinematics measurement, tethered insect visual flight arenas, and advanced hardware and software tools for visual-based simulation of flight systems.