The CSE Colloquium Series will host Dr. Ella Atkins, an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on Thursday, November 29 at 4 p.m. in 115 Avery Hall. She will be presenting "Toward Safe and Autonomous Aerospace Systems". The talk will be preceded by a reception at 3:30 p.m. in 348 Avery.
Abstract
Robotic vehicles are now able to plan and autonomously execute task-level actions as well as optimizing and precisely following safe and efficient trajectories. Automation has, however, struggled to effectively manage off-nominal situations, a particularly important capability when such events introduce increased risk of losing a costly vehicle or of introducing harm to people or property. This presentation will describe Dr. Atkins' long-term research in improving safety and robustness through autonomous contingency management with application to manned and unmanned aircraft. Research in emergency flight management is aimed at safely recovering and landing a disabled aircraft. An envelope-adaptive flight planning and guidance algorithm is proposed, including algorithms to select an emergency landing site, plan a feasible trajectory to that site, and execute that plan all in real-time. A case study inspired by US Airways Flight 1549 illustrates the utility of emergency flight planning. Research is underway to develop a flight safety assessment augmentation that will further reduce risk in maned and unmanned aircraft. Such "intelligent automation" algorithms are essential to inform risk analysis and mitigation processes relevant for certification of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Atkins' presentation will conclude with a discussion of her collaborative work in the design, build, and test of small UAS ranging from an autonomous seaplane (Flying Fish) to the most recent efforts toward long-endurance solar energy harvesting flight (Solar Sight).
Dr. Ella Atkins is author of over 60 archival and conference publications and serves as an associate editor for the AIAA Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication (JACIC). She is a technical program chair for the AIAA Infotech@Aerospace conference and has served on several review boards and panels. She is chair-elect of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee, an Associate Fellow of AIAA, a member of AAAI and IEEE, and a private pilot (ASEL).