• Dr. Craig Woolsey
  • Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
  • Holden Auditorium (Room 112)
  • 4:00 p.m.
  • Faculty Host: Dr. Rakesh Kapania

Interest in biomimetic flight has been motivated by the “pull” from security applications, such as unobtrusive mobile surveillance, and the “push” from scholars seeking new multiphysics research challenges. Consider the variety of prefixes which signify the unqualified governing principles: unsteady fluid/structure interaction; nonlinear, nonautonomous dynamics; underactuated control.  The presentation will describe ongoing efforts to optimize the morphology and gait of biologically inspired aquatic and atmospheric vehicles. Although system models are typically time-varying and high-dimensional, geometric control and averaging theory can provide simplified models that are amenable to design optimization and control.

Biography:

Craig Woolsey is a Professor in Virginia Tech’s Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department.  The principal aim of Prof. Woolsey’s research is to improve performance and robustness of autonomous vehicles, particularly ocean and atmospheric vehicles.  The theoretical focus is nonlinear control, particularly energy-based methods for mechanical control systems.  Prof. Woolsey is a past recipient of the NSF Career Award and the ONR Young Investigator Program Award and served as the founding Director of the Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems (www.unmanned.vt.edu), an interdisciplinary research center within Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering.