Cooperating autonomous vehicles perform better than uncooperating vehicles for applications such as surveillance, environmental sampling and target tracking. For multiple vehicles to cooperate effectively, the navigation control laws should account for disturbances caused by ocean currents or atmospheric winds. This paper provides dynamic decentralized control algorithms for motion coordination...

In this paper, we discuss a new hand-gesture-based application, FlowField, which explores the use of pressure-sensitive multipoint touchpad (multi-touch) interaction. FlowField allows participants to interact using their whole hand with a flow of circulating particles, providing visual and auditory feedback. Limitations of the raw data mapping used in FlowField motivated work on applying interp...

This study uses the non-intrusive generalized polynomial chaos method to investigate the effects of uncertainties in the gas-surface interaction model on the hypersonic boundary layer flow over a flat plate. In particular, the polynomial chaos method is applied to assess uncertainties in the surface shear, normal stress, heat flux, flowfield temperature and density resulting from uncertain surf...

Neurons sensitive to optic flow patterns have been recorded in the the olivo-vestibulocerebellar pathway and extrastriate visual cortical areas in vertebrates, and in the visual neuropile of invertebrates. The complex spike activity (CSA) of Purkinje cells in the vestibulocerebellum (VbC) responds best to patterns of optic flow that result from either self-rotation or self-translation. Previous...

Ignition of an ethylene fueled cavity in a supersonic flow was achieved through the application of two energy deposition techniques: a spark discharge and pulse detonator (PD). High-frequency shadowgraph and chemiluminescence imaging showed that the spark discharge ignition was passive with the ignition kernel and ensuing flame propagation following the cavity flowfield. The PD produced a high-...

Computational fluid dynamics plays a key role in the design process across many industries. Recently, there has been increasing interest data-driven methods order to exploit large volume of data generated by such computations. This paper introduces idea using spatially correlated polynomial ridge functions for rapid flowfield estimation. Dimension reducing are obtained numerous points within tr...

This paper describes a new method for computing the flowfield and acoustic signature of arbitrary rotors in forward flight. The overall scheme uses a finite-difference Navier-Stokes solver to compute the aerodynamic flowfield near the rotor blades. The equations are solved on a system of overset grids that allow for prescribed cyclic and flapping blade motions and capture the interactions betwe...

Autonomous vehicles are effective environmental sampling platforms whose sampling performance can be optimized by path-planning algorithms that drive vehicles to specific regions of the operational domain containing the most informative data. In this paper, we apply tools from nonlinear observability, nonlinear control, and Bayesian estimation to derive a multi-vehicle control algorithm that st...

We have integrated carbon felt, a traditional fuel cell gas diffusion layer, with silicon micro fuel cells. To this end we used two silicon microfabrication procedures using reactive ion etching: formation of black silicon and sinking of flowfield. The former decreases electrical contact resistance to the diffusion layer, the latter serves to contain the reactant gases. The micro fuel cells, wh...

An understanding of the vortical structures which comprise the vortical flowfield around slender bodies is essential for the development of highly maneuverable and high angle of attack flight. This is primarily due to the physical limits these phenomena impose on aircraft and missile s at extreme flight conditions. Demands for more maneuverable air vehicles have pushed the limits of current CFD...