Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Seminar Series

Title: Hardware / controls co-design to overcome challenges for aerial robots

Abstract: Aerial robotics have become ubiquitous, but (like most robots) they still struggle to operate at high speed in unstructured, cramped environments. By considering a vehicle's mechanical design simultaneously with the design of controls and automation algorithms, we have more degrees of freedom to find creative solutions to problems. In this talk I will present some of my group's work on enhancing aerial robots, including purely algorithmic approaches ("how can I do more with the hardware I already have?") and with hardware co-design ("how can I change the vehicle so that the hard problem is actually easy?"). I will discuss two exemplary challenges for aerial robots: first: flight through narrow, unstructured environments, and second: long duration and range flight within the constraints of battery-electric power. Lastly, I will discuss some work on adaptive and learning control, specifically for robustness to parametric uncertainty.

For flight through narrow environments, I will present an algorithmic approach for high-speed path planning that incorporates perception uncertainty, and can be used on a standard drone. We will then present two alternative approaches that modify the system design: one a vehicle that can change its shape to fit through narrower spaces, and a second that is highly collision resilient, and for whom collisions are therefore neither mission- nor safety-critical.

For overcoming energetic challenges, we will present a strategy for real-time optimization of flight characteristics for a vehicle, specifically using extremum seeking control to modify the system airspeed and yaw angle; an algorithm that can be applied to any aerial robot. We then again show two design modifications to work around the problem -- first, a morphing system that can reduce its drag area at speed, and secondly a system capable of mid-air battery replacement for indefinite flight.

Bio: Mark W. Mueller joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at Berkeley in August 2016. He received a bachelors degree from the University of Pretoria; followed by a masters (2011) and doctorate (2015) from the ETH Zurich, all in Mechanical Engineering. Mark heads the High Performance Robotics Laboratory, with a research focus on the design, dynamics, and control of autonomous aerial systems.

Mark received the 2016 George Giralt PhD award for the best robotics-related PhD thesis defended during the year 2015 at a European PhD-awarding institution; the 2011 Jacob Ackeret prize from the Swiss Association of Aeronautical Sciences for his Masters Thesis; and an award for the best final year project for his bachelors thesis in 2008.

NOTE: At this time, in-person Mechanical and Civil Engineering Lectures are open to all Caltech students/staff/faculty/visitors.