51-60 of 81 results

  • Software Infrastructure For Analysis of Infection Propagation Through Air Travel

    PI Sirish Namilae

    This NSF funded  project seeks to develop a novel software that will provide a variety of pedestrian dynamics models, infection spread models, as well as data so that scientists can analyze the effect of different mechanisms on the spread of directly transmitted diseases in crowded areas. The initial focus of this project is on air travel. However, the software can be extended to a broader scope of applications in movement analysis and epidemiology, such as in theme parks and sports venues. Development of the proposed software will involve several innovations. It will include a novel phylogeography model that links fine-scale human movement data with virus genetic information to more accurately model geographic diffusion of viruses. New models for pedestrian movement will enable modeling of complex human movement patterns. A recommendation system for the choice of pedestrian dynamics models and a domain specific language for the input of policies and human behaviors will enhance usability by researchers in diverse fields. Community building initiatives will catalyze inter-disciplinary research to ensures the long-term sustainability of the project through a critical mass of contributors and users.



    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Experimental Testbed for the Validation of Autonomous ISAM/OSAM Systems

    PI Morad Nazari

    CO-I Kadriye Merve Dogan

    CO-I Thomas Lovell

    The ability to validate individual hardware and software components of these technologies on a large scale is still in its early stages. Thus, the goal of this research is to establish an effective experimental testbed for the validation of autonomous in-space servicing and maintenance (ISAM) / on-orbit servicing and maintenance (OSAM) systems.


    A new era of affordable space flight, satellite refueling, on-orbit inspection, orbit transfer and end-of-life servicing has begun as a result of the space industry's continued focus on safe, resilient and adaptable space vehicles. These developments have laid the groundwork for assembly and manufacturing in orbit or space for potential use in active debris removal, reuse and recycling of materials. Advanced navigation and control technologies are required to ensure and lengthen the mission life cycles of these orbital assets, which include launch vehicles, satellites and space stations. Orbit/attitude determination, relative motion, robot manipulator kinematics and spacecraft rendezvous/docking can benefit from new advances in geometric mechanics Udwadia-Kalaba, adaptive control, learning, sensor fusion, computer vision and data communication. These efforts aim to equip future enterprises with the ability to perform in-space servicing and maintenance (ISAM) and on-orbit servicing and maintenance (OSAM) of failed or damaged space assets, as well as in-space manufacturing and platform assembly. However, the ability to validate individual hardware and software components of these technologies on a large scale is still in its early stages. Thus, the goal of this research is to establish an effective experimental testbed for the validation of autonomous ISAM/OSAM systems.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Flexible Body Control Using Fiber Optic Sensors, Florida Space Grant Consortium

    PI Morad Nazari

    CO-I Daewon Kim

    ​This project would build on previous research that developed the dynamics formulation and control of a rigid-flexible system.

    This project would build on previous research that developed the dynamics formulation and control of a rigid-flexible system. A cantilevered beam attached to a rotating central body is considered and analyzed through the finite element method. A set of matrix differential equations are obtained to describe the dynamic behavior of the system, and a control law based on a Lyapunov function is obtained and applied to the system. The development of this dynamics formulation and control also considers the rigid-flexible coupling present in the system. The control law is designed such that the system can achieve and maintain a set of desired states for the central rigid body and flexible structure. The experimental measurements obtained from the implementation of FOS sensors on the flexible body and inertial sensors on the rigid body will be utilized as the input in this control design. The research portion of the project is anticipated to require one or two graduate student research assistants and a part-time academic advisor over a one-year period.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Reconfigurable Guidance and Control Systems for Emerging On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM) Space Vehicles

    PI Morad Nazari

    CO-I Kadriye Merve Dogan

    In this project, the ControlX team with ERAU partnership will develop agile, reconfigurable, and resilient dynamics and G&C algorithms for on-orbit servicing to capture a broad set of OSAM applications such as remediation of resident space object (RSO) (e.g., via de-orbiting, recycle, end-of-life servicing, satellite refueling, etc.) using effective tools and methods involving geometric mechanics, constrained G&C synthesis, and reconfigurable robotic manipulators (RRMs). 

    ​

    Dynamic response to emergent situations is a necessity in the on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing (OSAM) field because traditional on-orbit guidance and control (G&C) cannot respond efficiently and effectively to such dynamic situations (i.e., they are based on either constant mass or diagonal matrix of inertia). In these circumstances, the current challenge is to develop modeling strategies and control systems that exhibit intelligence, robustness and adaptation to the environment changes and disturbances (e.g., uncertainties, constraints and flexible dynamics). Note that the current state-of-the-art methods do not offer a reliable, accurate framework for real-time, optimal accommodation of constraints in the system dynamics that account for orbital-attitude coupling in the motion of the bodies without encountering singularity or non-uniqueness issues. In this project, the ControlX team with ERAU partnership will develop agile, reconfigurable, and resilient dynamics and G&C algorithms for on-orbit servicing to capture a broad set of OSAM applications such as remediation of resident space object (RSO) (e.g., via de-orbiting, recycle, end-of-life servicing, satellite refueling, etc.) using effective tools and methods involving geometric mechanics, constrained G&C synthesis, and reconfigurable robotic manipulators (RRMs). 

    The proposed work in this Phase I includes reconfigurable systems for on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing with learning control methods that minimize tracking error of the end-effector of the RRM in the presence of uncertainties, optimize configuration and accommodate constraint-changing scenarios. Our developments will avoid singularity; not rely on the concept of costates or Lagrange multipliers that are restrictive; handle system uncertainties while enforcing the constraints; use RRMs in different tasks (recycle, debris removing, maintenance, etc.); not need in sensors or exact model knowledge for robotic arms. Specifically, constrained space vehicle control (predicated on Udwadia and Kalaba (UK) formalism) will offer not only accurate and resilient design but also reconfigurability in that G&C algorithms can easily be modified to suit a wide spectrum of OSAM applications. ControlX team will also consider the feasibility of hardware implementation. The selection of sensors, actuators and onboard computers will be an important trade-off between among size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints, reliability, and computing performance. A real-time operating system (RTOS) is planned to meet timing and memory management constraints, partitioning hardware resources to control software application interactions. An analysis suite for the autonomous system implementation, based on system modeling and learning techniques, will provide onboard analysis, enabling decision-making as to whether the system can continue to meet mission requirements.

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    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • NSF REU Site: Cybersecurity Research of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

    PI Laxima Niure Kandel

    CO-I M. Ilhan Akbas

    ​This funding institutes a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). Each year, over the summer, ten highly motivated undergraduates will conduct an intense 10-week Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) cybersecurity research program complemented by professional development activities that prepare them for future cybersecurity careers and graduate schools.

    This funding institutes a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). Each year, over the summer, ten highly motivated undergraduates will conduct an intense 10-week Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) cybersecurity research program complemented by professional development activities that prepare them for future cybersecurity careers and graduate schools. Students will research existing UAV cyber threats and mitigation strategies and explore new techniques and algorithms to safeguard UAV systems. The REU program will focus on providing unparalleled opportunities for undergraduate students, especially those from underrepresented and minority groups and from institutions with limited resources, by engaging them in real-world cybersecurity research of UAVs. Through small-group, high-quality mentoring practices, the REU training will not only aid in enhancing the safety and security of UAVs in personal and commercial applications but will also build research confidence among REU participants.

    The overall objective of this project is to immerse undergraduate students in research-intensive training in the cybersecurity field and encourage them to think creatively and independently through hands-on project activities. REU participants will be engaged in faculty-led projects such as UAV cyber-attacks, UAV cyber defense mechanisms, privacy protection methods for UAV communications, and Physical Layer-based cybersecurity. They will participate in activities that range from literature reviews, technical seminars, and workshops to the preparation, presentation, and dissemination of research findings. The three major goals of the REU Site are: (1) to expose undergraduate students to a variety of cybersecurity projects that are bound to build the interest, skills, and knowledge necessary to pursue cybersecurity careers; (2) to increase the number of underrepresented undergraduates in cybersecurity and STEM fields through diversity recruitment emphasis, and (3) to provide undergraduate students with strong professional skills for their future careers and graduate schools. The REU Site will leverage ERAUs? state-of-the-art facilities, research labs, and faculty expertise to promote interest in cybersecurity and develop research skills of the undergraduate students which, in turn, will contribute towards cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • CyberCorps Scholarship for Service: High-skilled Workforce Development for the Aviation and Aerospace Cybersecurity Domains

    PI Omar Ochoa

    CO-I Keith Garfield

    CO-I Laxima Niure Kandel

    CO-I Krishna Sampigethaya

    This project promotes workforce development in this vital sector by building on undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity programs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), where both ERAU campuses (Daytona Beach, FL and Prescott, AZ) have a history of collaborative education and research activities within the aviation and aerospace cybersecurity domain. 



    Aviation and aerospace cybersecurity is of critical importance to the Nation. As a key component of the overall U.S. transportation infrastructure, it protects people and contributes to American prosperity and leadership. This project promotes workforce development in this vital sector by building on undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity programs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), where both ERAU campuses (Daytona Beach, FL and Prescott, AZ) have a history of collaborative education and research activities within the aviation and aerospace cybersecurity domain. Known locally as "Cyber Eagles," the project will advance the collaboration ecosystem across education programs and research centers to prepare students for productive cybersecurity careers and leadership roles in federal and state agencies. The program will recruit diverse scholars and create a supportive environment through effective mentorship, a well-developed curriculum, student involvement activities, and research experiences. These project components will help establish a pathway that enables students to participate in an environment where they can excel and enter a rewarding career in government aviation and aerospace administration agencies.

    The project aims to develop a high-skilled workforce to cover the Nation’s needs in the area of aviation and aerospace cybersecurity, focusing on the safety-criticality aspects of airborne systems and the protection of associated hardware and software assets. The project will fund 20 scholarships to students over a five-year period. Student scholars will benefit from the strong ties that ERAU has with Federal and state aviation and transportation administration agencies and the aviation and aerospace industry. Scholars will have the opportunity to meet and learn from top cybersecurity engineers and managers from government and industry through aviation and aerospace-themed projects, events, and symposia hosted by ERAU. Furthermore, the project will take advantage of on-site expertise at ERAU in all computation and communication services related to flight operations, including airborne hardware and software, avionics equipment, and network and communication data links among aircraft, ground stations, radar systems, and satellite systems. This expertise places the scholarship students in a unique position to contribute to cybersecurity protection during the design, development, and operation stages of systems specific for the aviation and aerospace domain.

    This project is supported by the CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program, which funds proposals establishing or continuing scholarship programs in cybersecurity and aligns with the U.S. National Cyber Strategy to develop a superior cybersecurity workforce. Following graduation, scholarship recipients are required to work in cybersecurity for a Federal, state, local, or tribal Government organization for the same duration as their scholarship support.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Expanding the Nation’s STEM Talent Pool by Accelerating Graduate Degree Completion in Computer, Software, and Cybersecurity Engineering

    PI Omar Ochoa

    CO-I Massood Towhidnejad

    CO-I Debarati Basu

    ​The project will increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with a newly created effective ecosystem that combines evidence-based practices such as faculty mentoring, academic advising, participation in the learning community, professional development activities, guidance in acquiring internships and research opportunities.

    This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by fostering student success and supporting the retention and graduation of domestic, high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a non-profit private institution. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to 25 undergraduate students to pursue four-year bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Computer Engineering. Subsequently the scholars will pursue a one-year accelerated master’s degree in one of the following areas: Software Engineering, Electrical, and Computer Engineering, or Cybersecurity Engineering. First-year students will receive up to five years of scholarship support. The project will increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with a newly created effective ecosystem that combines evidence-based practices such as faculty mentoring, academic advising, participation in the learning community, professional development activities, guidance in acquiring internships and research opportunities. With the help of mentors, the scholars will create individual development plans outlining their career goals and steps toward achieving those goals. The project will also include the evaluation of the impact of the ecosystem on supporting the academic success of scholars and the identification of best practices and lessons learned. This project will significantly contribute towards creating a model that actively engages students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields of study, broadens participation in STEM, and infuses 25 talented and diverse engineers with advanced degrees in engineering into the American workforce.

    The overall goal of this project is to increase undergraduate and graduate STEM degree completion of domestic, low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need in STEM field. Three specific aims guide the project. First is to deliver financial support to domestic, low-income, high-achieving students who will pursue an undergraduate and accelerated master’s degree in engineering. Second is to leverage evidence-based practices to foster student success, increase retention and degree attainment. Third, and finally, is to evaluate the impact of the newly created ecosystem in supporting the academic success of scholars in engineering, and disseminate best practices and lessons learned. Little is known about the factors that affect the academic success of domestic, low-income, high-achieving undergraduate students in engineering fields at a private institution, and how factors such as gender, ethnic background and discipline impact their success, which is the focus of this project. Two research questions will be investigated in this project: (a) Does the academic success of scholars improve across the years by being part of this project? (b) What were the factors effecting the academic success of the scholars, and what are the accomplishments, best practices, and lessons learned from implementing the ecosystem for the scholars? This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Machine Learning Engineering: Infusing Software Engineering through the Semantic Web

    PI Omar Ochoa

    ​The Semantic Web provides a wealth of high-quality, structured, and contextual data, which can be used to train machine learning models.

    The Semantic Web provides a wealth of high-quality, structured, and contextual data, which can be used to train machine learning models. This can lead to the creation of models, i.e., the engineering of Machine Learning, that adhere to non-functional requirements, which include considerations such as safety, security, and reliability, which are key elements of Software Engineering. These requirements do not concern a system's functionality, but rather its quality attributes. By incorporating these concepts into the engineering of machine learning models, one can strive to create models that are secure, reliable, and exhibit the desired quality attributes. Furthermore, Verification and Validation, or V&V, is integral to successful software engineering, by ensuring that a system is implemented correctly and meets specified requirements. In engineering Machine Learning, it's equally important to define processes and methods to thoroughly test and validate models to ensure they're performing as expected and providing accurate results. Together, the fusion of Software Engineering principles into Machine Learning Engineering, aided by the Semantic Web's capabilities, can bolster trustworthiness in machine learning systems. This trustworthiness ensures that the systems can be relied upon to behave as expected. In essence, by combining these fields, one can develop machine learning systems that are reliable, secure, interpretable, and trustworthy, upholding the core principles of Software Engineering. Our research group focuses on the most recent developments in these areas, i.e., Knowledge Graphs and Large Language Models, to accomplish these goals.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Investigation of Bio-Inspired Cylinders for Enhanced Heat Transfer

    PI Anish Prasad

    CO-I Yogesh Pai

    CO-I Royce Fernandes

    CO-I Mark Ricklick

    This project investigates a novel cylinder design inspired from the Harbor Seal whisker, with the goal of reducing coolant pumping power requirements while maintaining heat transfer rates in pin-fin arrays. 

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    Arrays of constant cross-section cylinders have been employed in many heat exchange applications. Increases in heat transfer rates characteristically result in an increase in the coolant pumping power requirements, which can be quite high for a circular cylinder array. Pin fin channels are often used at the trailing edge of the blades where they also serve an additional purpose of providing structural support. It has been found that the behavior of the flow around a wall-mounted cylinder significantly impacts the heat transfer. The boundary layer becomes broken up by the presence of the pin, creating a horseshoe vortex. This horseshoe vortex produces high wall shear stress beneath it, resulting in high heat transfer from the wall in this region. The resulting flow separation around the pin, however, results in large pressure losses. The pin fin channel has been heavily studied in the literature, in an effort to describe the heat transfer and flow behavior and improve prediction abilities. The circular cylindrical pins are relatively easy to manufacture and hence, this configuration is often found in commercial applications. However, the need to reduce pressure drop and maintain the heat transfer rates are a much needed requirement for a variety of industries to improve the cooling efficiency.

    One such prominent line of research is conducted on optimizing the design of the circular cylindrical pins to increase their cooling performance. In this line of research, it was found that bio-mimicked harbor seal whisker geometry leads to the reduction in the cooling system pumping power requirements, while maintaining or improving heat transfer rates. The seal whisker geometry consists of stream-wise and span-wise undulations which reduce the size of the wake and coherent structures shed from the body as a result of an added component of stream-wise vorticity along the pin surface. Also, the vortex shedding frequency becomes less pronounced, leading to significantly reduced lateral loading on the modified cylinder. Preliminary computational studies have shown that the modified wake and vortex shedding structures resulting from the geometry tend to reduce the total pressure loss throughout the system without degrading the cooling levels.

    Seal whisker and proposed bio-inspired cylinder:

    Three different cross-section types, one elliptical, one of circular cross section and a 0.25X axially scaled type of the bio inspired pin were created for further investigation along with two baseline circular cylindrical and elliptical pins. Computational analysis for an array of the above three shapes and a standard elliptical cross-section pin array was undertaken. The results obtained were compared with the baseline circular cylindrical pin array. The main purpose of this research is to describe the heat transfer and flow characteristics of 3 novel bio inspired pin designs using steady and unsteady Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) based simulations, in an effort to better understand their performance. These findings are important to the gas turbine community as reduced penalties associated with cooling flows directly translate to improved thermodynamic and propulsive efficiencies.

    Pin-fin geometries analyzed:

    Further computational research is being conducted in these geometries, and later will be compared with the experimental results, which will be carried out in Embry-Riddle's Gas Turbine Laboratory.

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    Categories: Graduate

  • Investigate Detect and Avoid Track Classification and Filtering

    PI Richard Prazenica

    CO-I Troy Henderson

    CO-I Morad Nazari

    CO-I Tyler Spence

    This research will identify key sources of uncertainty in representative detect and avoid architectures and assess the downstream risks and effects of spurious information on downstream system performance

    In this project, which is funded by the FAA ASSURE program, the research team consisting of The Ohio State University, Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, Mississippi State University, University of North Dakota and Cal Analytics will work together to:

    • Identify the key sources of misleading surveillance information produced by airborne and ground-based detect and avoid (DAA) systems. Develop risk modeling and analysis tools to assess the system-wide effects of false or misleading information on alerting and separation, as well as impacts on pilots in command (PIC) and air traffic operators.
    • Provide guidance and recommendations for track classification and filter performance and safety requirements to standards bodies, including Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) DAA working groups, and inform Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rulemaking on DAA operations.

    Current guidance provided by the Federal Aviation Administration has made beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions an executive priority. Key to the success of these missions is the development of DAA systems capable of providing accurate pilot in the loop, or autonomous deconfliction guidance. Current standards for DAA services provided by RTCA and ASTM do not address the requirements for system performance with respect to generation of false or misleading information to the PIC or autonomous response services of the unmanned aircraft system. This research will identify key sources of uncertainty in representative DAA architectures and assess the downstream risks and effects of spurious information on downstream system performance. Additionally, recommendations will be developed for track classification accuracy requirements that provide sufficient safety margins for enabling DAA services in support of BVLOS missions.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

51-60 of 81 results