Event Information

Techno-Sciences Inc. Robotics Seminar Series: Vijay Kumar, Autonomous 3-D Flight Friday, February 25, 2011 10:00 a.m. 1146 AV Williams Building For More Information: Nikhil Chopra 301 405 7011 nchopra@umd.edu Techno-Sciences Inc. Robotics Seminar Series Autonomous 3-D Flight and Cooperative Control of Multiple Micro Aerial Vehicles | View the video online | Vijay Kumar University of Pennsylvania Host Nikhil Chopra Abstract There are now tens of thousands of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in operation but most UAVs are not autonomous. There are very few micro UAVs capable of navigating indoor or urban environments. I will describe our recent work on control and planning for multi-rotor micro UAVs in complex environments. I will also describe approaches to cooperative control enabling such tasks as persistent surveillance, cooperative manipulation and transport of large payloads. Biography Vijay Kumar is the UPS Foundation Professor and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1985 and 1987 respectively. He has been on the Faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania since 1987. Dr. Kumar served as the Deputy Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2000-2004. He directed the GRASP Laboratory, a multidisciplinary robotics and perception laboratory, from 1998-2004. He was the Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from 2005-2008. Dr. Kumar's research interests lie in the area of robotics and networked multi-agent systems. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has served on the editorial boards of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Journal of Franklin Institute, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics. He is the recipient of the 1991 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator award, the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the 1997 Freudenstein Award for significant accomplishments in mechanisms and robotics and the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Kawamori Best Paper Award. He is also a Distinguished Lecturer in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and an elected member of the Robotics and Automation Society Administrative Committee. This Event is For: Graduate • Undergraduate • Faculty • Post-Docs • Alumni • Corporate