Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory

Time 2020-07-13 13:05:11

Web Name: Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory

WebSite: http://vscl.tamu.edu

ID:24243

Keywords:

Systems,Vehicle,Laboratory,

Description:

MenuFour New Ph.D. Graduate Students Join VSCL in Fall 2020Posted on June 15, 2020 by Hannah LehmanVSCL is proud to welcome four new Ph.D. graduate research assistants:Shelby Hackett is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. She graduated in May 2020 from the University of Florida with B.S. degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering. During her undergraduate studies, she completed an honors thesis on range optimal control for an aircraft, looking at methods for solutions that lie on a singular arc. While in school, she completed internships at Sandia National Laboratories and GE Oil Gas as a Research Development intern and a Manufacturing Engineering intern, respectively.  Shelby is currently interning at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM as a Research Development intern. She will be a member of the Guidance, Navigation, and Control II group, working on improving GPS systems for defense vehicles. This is her second summer interning with Sandia. In the fall, Shelby will research Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents, which is sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory.Hannah Lehman  is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department.  Hannah has been an active member of VSCL since Fall 2017, focusing on human-machine interaction and the control of UAS with Machine Learning. As an undergraduate, she participated in internships with Rockwell Collins, Collins Aerospace, and the REU program. She graduated with the B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A M University as a University Scholar, University Honors, and Engineering Honors in May 2020. As a Graduate Research Assistant Hannah researches Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents, which is sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory. She is also participating in a remote 2020 summer internship at Sandia National Laboratory with a focus on machine learning.Nidhin Ninan is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering. During his undergraduate studies, Nidhin worked on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) based navigation using depth sense camera and edge detection using reinforcement learning for a Mars rover prototype being built at KU for the Mars Society’s University Rover Challenge. AT VSCL, Nidhin will be working on the Agile Technology Development (ATD)  – Air-Ground Coordinated Teaming, which is sponsored by the Army Futures Command.Ravi Kumar Thakur is a Ph.D. student in the aerospace engineering department.  His interest is in the field of aerospace robotics and autonomy. He graduated with an MS(Research) degree in Electronics and Communication from the Indian Institute of Information Technology Sri City, Chittoor in 2019. For his thesis, he worked on developing machine learning-based models for estimating scene flow from stereo images. He earned his BS in Engineering Physics from National Institute of Technology Calicut in 2014. In the past, he was a machine learning engineer at Ford Motor Company,  where he worked on driver assistant technology with a focus on visual odometry and object tracking. Before that, he worked at the Indian Institute of science working on the development of an endoscopy simulator. At VSCL, Ravi will be working on the project Enhancing the Cycle-of-Learning for Autonomous Systems to Facilitate Human-Agent Teaming which is sponsored by Army Research Laboratory.Filed Under: New Items VSCL Alumnus Dr. Dipanjan Saha Joins Northeastern University as a PostdocPosted on July 8, 2020 by Hannah LehmanDr. Dipanjan Saha, a December 2018 Ph.D. graduate of VSCL, has started a new position as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, effective 01 July 2020. Dipanjan has been selected to be part of Northeastern s newly launched Experiential Artificial Intelligence (EAI) postdoc program. This program is meant to prepare the postdoctoral fellows towards a future career in Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) through courses and research. Dipanjan is mentored by Prof. Taskin Padir, and his research will develop novel AI techniques targeted at specific applications including robotics and healthcare. His Ph.D. dissertation investigated novel theories of control design for nonlinear, nonstandard multiple-time-scale systems with uncertainties and output feedback. Prior to his current position, he has pursued postdoctoral research at Texas A M University on tensegrity systems and uncertainty quantification. He has also been the instructor of record for AERO 321 (Dynamics of Aerospace Vehicles) for three semesters, and a member of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Technical Committee.Filed Under: Uncategorized VSCL Alumni Vinicius G. Goecks Receives Best Student Paper AwardPosted on June 15, 2020 by Hannah LehmanVSCL paper Combining Visible and Infrared Spectrum Imagery using Machine Learning for Small Unmanned Aerial System Detection , by Vinicius G. Goecks, Grayson Woods, and John Valasek, has been selected as the winner of the 2020 SPIE Automatic Target Recognition Best Student Paper Award. This paper presented a novel approach to combine data from RGB and long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras to detect drones through previously difficult environments such as flying above and below the treeline/horizon, in the presence of birds, and glare from the sun. The paper is available at the SPIE Digital Library and the preprint version is available at arXiv.Filed Under: Awards VSCL Student Vinicius G. Goecks Graduates with Doctor of PhilosophyPosted on June 15, 2020 by Hannah LehmanVSCL alumni Vinicius G. Goecks, who graduated with his Doctor of Philosophy degree in May 2020, has started his postdoctoral position at the US Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.  At the US Army Research Laboratory, Vinicius will be developing novel algorithms on human-in-the-loop reinforcement learning assisted by eye gaze and natural language commands applied to tasks where unmanned robotic agents are teamed with humans.  He had joined VSCL in 2016 and had previously participated in Summer internships at the US Army Research Laboratory in 2017, 2018, and 2019.Filed Under: New Items VSCL graduate student Garrett Jares Awarded NSF Graduate Research FellowshipPosted on April 20, 2020 by Garrett JaresGarrett Jares, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A M University and Graduate Research Assistant in the Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory, has been awarded a 2020 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.  The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.  NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering.Garrett earned the BS degree in Computer Science from Texas A M University with a minor in Cybersecurity and a minor in Mathematics, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 2017. He has been working in the Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory (VSCL) with his advisor, Dr. John Valasek, since his undergraduate senior capstone project in 2017. During his undergraduate education, Garrett studied extensively in cybersecurity including research in cryptography topics. Garrett’s work with VSCL has been developing embedded systems for Unmanned Air Systems (UAS), and overseeing the operation of the Engineering Flight Simulator Laboratory.  Garrett is combining his undergraduate knowledge with his experience in VSCL to investigate Cybersecurity for air and space vehicles.Garrett’s doctoral dissertation will investigate cyber-attacks designed that are designed to take control of an aircraft by targeting the vehicle’s sensor data.  This research will help identify and better understand the vulnerabilities in current systems and develop safeguards against such attacks.  Garrett is a recipient of the Crawford Hattie Jackson Foundation Scholarship, the Edward C. Clay 47 Memorial Scholarship, and the 2018 Lechner Graduate Fellowship.Filed Under: Awards, New Items Bera to Present PODNet Paper at AAAI-MAKE 2020 on March 23Posted on February 25, 2020 by Garrett JaresVSCL Graduate Research Assistant Ritwik Bera will present a paper titled PODNet: A Neural Network for Discovery of Plannable Options at the AAAI-MAKE: Combining Machine Learning and Knowledge Engineering in Practice, AAAI Spring Symposium on March 23, 2020. Co-authored by researchers from the US Army Research Laboratory’s Human Research and Engineering Directorate, this continuing project investigates how to segment an unstructured set of demonstrated trajectories for option discovery. This enables learning from demonstration to perform multiple tasks and plan high-level trajectories based on the discovered option labels. This method is composed of several constituent networks that not only segment demonstrated trajectories into options, but concurrently trains an option dynamics model that can be used for downstream planning tasks and training on simulated rollouts to minimize interaction with the environment while the policy is maturing. The paper documenting this work is “PODNet: A Neural Network for Discovery of Plannable Options,” currently available at https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.00171.Filed Under: New Items, Presentations Goecks to Present Cycle-of-Learning Paper at AAMAS 2020 on May 11Posted on February 25, 2020 by Garrett JaresVSCL Graduate Research Assistant Vinicius Goecks will present a paper on Integrating Behavior Cloning and Reinforcement Learning for Improved Performance in Dense and Sparse Reward Environments at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems on May 11, 2020. Co-authored by researchers from the US Army Research Laboratory’s Human Research and Engineering Directorate, this continuing project investigates how to efficiently transition and update policies, trained initially with demonstrations,  using off-policy actor-critic reinforcement learning. This method outperforms state-of-the-art techniques for combining behavior cloning and reinforcement learning for both dense and sparse reward scenarios. Results also suggest that directly including the behavior cloning loss on demonstration data helps to ensure stable learning and ground future policy updates. The paper documenting this work is “Integrating Behavior Cloning and Reinforcement Learning for Improved Performance in Dense and Sparse Reward Environments,” currently available at https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.04281.Filed Under: New Items, Presentations Valasek Editor of new AIAA book on computational intelligence and autonomy for aerospace systemsPosted on February 17, 2020 by Garrett JaresDr. John Valasek, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A M University and director of the Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory, has edited a new book titled Advances in Computational Intelligence and Autonomy for Aerospace Systems (AIAA Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics Series, 2018).  The book seeks to provide both the aerospace researcher and the practicing aerospace engineer with further insight into the latest innovative methods and approaches regarding intelligent and autonomous aerospace systems. Written by leading researchers in the field, it focuses on:Intelligent Space SystemsIntelligent Validation and Verification MethodsIntelligent Health MonitoringIntelligent Flight ControlResearch advances in embedded computational intelligence, communication, control, and new mechanisms for sensing, actuation, and adaptation hold the promise to transform aerospace. The result will be air and space vehicles, propulsion systems, exploration systems, and vehicle management systems that respond more quickly, provide large-scale distributed coordination, work in dangerous or inaccessible environments, and augment human capabilities.Filed Under: New Items, Books VSCL Students selected for Summer 2020 InternshipsPosted on February 17, 2020 by Garrett JaresMany students of the Texas A M Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory have been selected for offsite internships for the Summer of 2020. These internships show VSCL student representation at a variety of companies and institutions across the United States. Students which have been selected for internships in the Summer of 2020 include:VSCL Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. Student Ritwik Bera has been selected for a Summer 2020 internship at US Army Research Lab ’s Human Research and Engineering Directorate in Aberdeen, MD. Ritwik will be working as a Research Associate on the ARL-HRED initiative to investigate how humans can shape the behavior of autonomous machines driven by learning algorithms.VSCL Graduate Research Assistant and M.S. student Blake Krpec has been selected for a Summer 2020 internship at US Army Research Lab in Aberdeen, MD.  Blake will be working as a Journeyman Research Fellow on the US Army initiative to investigate a potential target tracking /following system involving one UAS being able to detect another UAS, and navigate relative to said target. Blake has been a member of VSCL since Fall of 2016, where he supported flight test projects, sensor and hardware integration, aircraft performance, and other target tracking efforts.Incoming VSCL Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D Student Hannah Lehman has been selected for a Summer 2020 research internship at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, NM. Hannah will be working as a Research Development Intern, with a principal focus of applying machine learning to defense vehicles. Hannah started working with VSCL as an undergraduate in the Spring of 2017, with her major roles including managing the flight simulator lab and performing research into reinforcement learning for use onboard aircraft. Hannah will graduate with her BS in Aerospace Engineering in May 2020 and will be returning in the fall to pursue her Ph.D.VSCL Graduate Research Assistant and Master of Science Student Morgan Wood has been selected for a Summer 2020 internship at  VectorNav Technologies, Dallas, TX. Morgan will be working as a Navigation Engineer Intern.  Morgan started working with VSCL in the Fall of 2019, with his major roles including research for Army Futures Command on coordinated maneuvering of air and ground vehicles.Filed Under: Uncategorized VSCL undergraduate Hannah Lehman awarded Texas A M University College of Engineering Graduate Merit Fellowship for 2020- 2023Posted on February 9, 2020 by Garrett JaresHannah Lehman ‘20, a senior in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A M University and an undergraduate research assistant of the Texas A M Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory, has been awarded the Texas A M University College of Engineering Graduate Merit Fellowship for 2020- 2023.  This highly competitive fellowship funds $30,000 per year for 3-4 years (Ph.D.) in addition to health insurance costs, and tuition and fees.  All competitive domestic applicants who applied for a fall semester matriculation are considered for this prestigious fellowship. One student is awarded for each participating department. Dr. John Valasek will serve as her research Advisor and Chair of dissertation committee.  As a Graduate Research Assistant Hannah will research Tightly Integrated Navigation and Guidance for Multiple Autonomous Agents, which is sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory.  She will also do a 2020 summer internship at Sandia National Laboratory.Hannah has been an active member of VSCL since Fall 2017, focusing on human-machine interaction and the control of UAS with Machine Learning.  She will graduate with the B.S. degree in aerospace engineering as a University Scholar, University Honors, and Engineering Honors in May 2020.  She has been awarded the 2019/2020 AIAA Foundation Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship, the 2019 Gathright Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Junior in the College of Engineering, and placed 1st in the 2018 AIAA Region IV Student Paper Conference. Filed Under: Awards, New Items Next Page 2016 2020 Vehicle Systems Control Laboratory Log in

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