Guest Speaker

Title:

Enabling Persistent Autonomy in Challenging Environments

Speaker:

Dr. Nina Mahmoudian

Affiliation:

Purdue University, Mechanical Engineering

When:

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 11:00:00 AM   

Where:

Host:

Shin Ae Cho
shinae.cho@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

A variety of applications such as physical oceanography, Arctic observation, coastal surveillance, and target detection/classification depend on the persistent operation of unmanned systems. Current and future missions can benefit from the widened scope and scale of missions that utilize collaborative fleets of heterogeneous unmanned systems operating without human intervention. The main challenge to overcome in persistent, autonomous fleet operation is how to effectively respond to energy needs in the presence of dynamic conditions and substantial environmental uncertainty. In this talk, I will describe recent progress towards persistent autonomy of maritime systems. Our approach integrates design of mission planning and navigational strategies with adaptable docking and low-infrastructure systems. The goal is to develop practical solutions that will lower deployment and operating costs, increase efficiency, and boost endurance. I will present how our work creates an architecture for deployment of heterogeneous unmanned systems that can stay in station indefinitely.


Biography

Dr. Nina Mahmoudian is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. Previously, she was the Lou and Herbert Wacker Associate Professor in Autonomous Mobile Systems with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Tech. She received her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech. Dr. Mahmoudian is a recipient of the 2015 NSF-CAREER and 2015 ONR-YIP awards. Her research interests include robotics, energy autonomy, system design, dynamics and controls.

Notes

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