Friday, January 24, 2014
217 Perkins Library - 11:00 a.m.
Rick Lind, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida
Abstract:
The ability to gather information is enabling unprecedented levels of situational awareness for complex systems. Mobile sensors are often needed to deploy sensors rapidly and accurately; consequently, advances in vehicle technology must be considered in relation to sensor missions. This talk will consider several tools being developed for a class of aerial robotics that are based on biologically-inspired concepts. The common ability of biological systems to alter their shape and search for both prey and predators presents many challenges. In particular, the incorporation of biological abilities requires evaluation of time-varying stability, stochastic representations of flight dynamics, parametrized design spaces, and trajectories that maximize metrics for sensing.
Biographical Sketch:
Rick Lind is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in 1995 and worked at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center until joining the faculty in 2001. He has published a textbook and several book chapters along with teaching short courses 17 times in several countries. He also has a patent for the flutterometer and another patent pending for a class of morphing aircraft. His novel biologically-inspired designs of morphing aircraft have been featured on the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel. Furthermore, he was invited to demonstrate these technologies at a reception for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007 before the State of the Union address. His research interests include design and analysis of time-varying aeroservoelastic aircraft in stochastic enviroments and optimal planning for sensing missions.
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