Nisar Ahmed - US grants

This award will develop foundations for autonomous airborne robotics, ultimately to be based on the cloud. This work has the potential to develop new frameworks and theories for distributed autonomy in networked vehicular networks/systems. The development of novel solutions for robust decision making in vehicular networks in conjunction with airborne autonomous systems has the potential to greatly improve the safety and quality of life of human users.

Three research directions will be investigated over the duration of this project: (i) co-optimization of cyber-physical elements, (ii) autonomy tasks and (iii) cloud platform. The fundamental research will focus on the concrete example of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), whereby including all three research thrusts. This project aims to study airborne cloud-based autonomy in networked road surveillance networks, i.e., to perform complex tasks relating to perception, planning, and learning.

The Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) addresses the issues common to the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) industry that limit widespread application across national security, scientific, civil, and commercial domains. Research within the UAS industry is driven by both technical gaps existing for specific high-value applications and the current under-developed regulatory framework that is needed for integration of UAS into the national airspace. The full value of unmanned aircraft systems, especially for a broad range of scientific and civil applications, cannot be realized without significant multidisciplinary research efforts such as those proposed here. Toward that goal, C-UAS investigates and develops new algorithms, architectures, and operational procedures for unmanned aircraft systems. The center contributes to the advancement of the state of the art for UAS through its research at the center's universities and by training graduate students in areas supporting the advancement of UAS.

The research pursued in C-UAS has potential application to unmanned aircraft of all sizes. The primary focus of research activities, however, is on small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS), which feature aircraft with wingspans in the 1 ft to 8 ft range. C-UAS university sites have distinguished themselves with their experimental flight test demonstrations on these smaller platforms. The research interests and needs of industry in the area of UAS align well with the skills, knowledge, and background of the university participants in the center. Research focus areas for the University of Colorado Boulder site can be described in terms of (1) technical areas and (2) application areas. Technical topic areas in which the University of Colorado has particular strength and interest include: (i) Airborne communication networks and network-enabled autonomy (e.g., methods for routing data through mobile ad-hoc networks and for accessing dispersed computing), (ii) environmental sensing (e.g., novel sensor development and planning algorithms for targeted observation of environmental phenomena), (iii) human-autonomy interaction (e.g., natural language interfaces and humans-as-sensor models for communication of spatial information), (iv) assured autonomy and user trust (e.g., measures of machine self-confidence and assessment of their impact on user trust), (v) UAS traffic management (e.g., investigating the impact of weather on small UAS operations), and (vi) guidance and control with in complex winds (e.g., implementing control algorithms for wind gust disturbance rejection or for energy harvesting). Application topic areas in which the University of Colorado has particular strength and interest include: (i) Atmospheric science with emphasis on severe weather, (ii) Cooperative distributed sensor fusion and target tracking, and (iii) Search and rescue. Specific research projects proposed by University of Colorado faculty members in these technical and application areas are selected annually by the Industry Advisory Board (IAB).