UAS Design

  • Novel designs of miniature flapping wing UAV
  • Adaptation of a JP-8 fueled engine to a commercial UAV
  • Advanced material research for development of new UAV materials for airframes and potential smart material applications

UAS Control Systems

  • UAV control, including fault tolerant control
  • Cooperative UAVs
  • Control and motion planning algorithms for indoor UAVs

UAS Communications Systems

  • Wireless, secure communications for UAS-to-UAS and UAS-to-ground
  • Asymmetric on-board encryption algorithms for communications
  • Compact antenna development
  • Camouflaged communication to UAV with minimal awareness to eavesdroppers
  • Avoidance of signal jamming for UAS applications

UAS Sensor Development

  • Miniature, lightweight sensors for airborne, biological, or nuclear threats

Automatic System Operations Monitoring

  • Modeling, simulation, and in-flight testing, including under harsh conditions

UAS Computational Platforms

  • Development of a high-performance and low-energy consumption, reconfigurable computing platform and software architecture for cooperative UAVs

Intelligent System Health Monitoring

  • Development of a system for self-failure identification and classification as it relates to a UAV’s safety and mission success

Law-Related Research

  • UAS and the Constitution, particularly the Fourth Amendment, and the right to privacy
  • Employment and Agency law
  • National Security
  • Issues of private law, including nuisance, torts, and property rights
  • Aerospace law and federal, state and local airspace regulations
  • UAS and criminal law

Policy Research

  • Current state of laws and policies in relation to domestic use
  • Social, cultural, and political impact
  • Design and administration of surveys to assess public opinion, and a civic and public engagement project to identify public concerns and opportunities