People
Director - Hugh H. T. Liu
Hugh H. T. Liu has expertise in the area of aircraft systems and control. He has made significant research contributions in autonomous unmanned systems development with applications in wildfire monitoring and freshwater inspection. He received a patent in motion synchronized formation flight of UAVs.
Associate Director - Angela Schoellig
Angela Schoellig is an expert in autonomous control and coordination of multiple UAVs. Her research contributions include learning-based flight controllers and trajectory generations algorithms for collision-free multi-vehicle flight. Current research efforts are targeted towards extending her work to outdoor flight applications, such as environmental monitoring, a collaboration with the MIT SENSEable City Lab.
Associate Director - Jonathan Kelly
Jonathan Kelly brings expertise in robust multi-sensor algorithms that enable robots, and in particular UAVs, to operate safely and reliably in unstructured environments. He has extensive experience designing vision based and inertial navigation systems for both ground and aerial platforms. His work has also explored methods for improving navigation performance through accurate joint calibration of multiple sensors and sensing modalities.
Co-Investigator - David Zingg
David Zingg has expertise in high-fidelity aerodynamic shape optimization based on computational dynamics applied to the design of ultra-low-drag aircraft. He is among the world leaders in this field, as evidenced by his prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and CRC in Computational Aerodynamics and Environmentally Friendly Aircraft Design. He has led many major collaborative projects with industry, including the UAV industry.
Co-Investigator - Steven Waslander
Steven Waslander works on the development of autonomous capabilities of quadrotor vehicles, on precise and robust simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms for challenging terrain, and on coordinated docking of aerial vehicles with ground vehicles and surface vessels. His outstanding track record of innovation and partnership with industry was recognized in 2012 by the Ontario Centres of Excellence Mind to Market award for the best Industry/Academia collaboration, together with Aeryon Labs Inc., a partner of this program.
Co-Investigator - Philippe Lavoie
Philippe Lavoie works in the areas of flow control and experimental aerodynamics. His current work is focused on the development and implementation of active flow control systems for the purpose of reducing drag in aeronautical applications, for which he has received an ERA. He has also undertaken several industry-sponsored research projects with Brican to investigate low to moderate Reynolds number aerodynamics related to UAVs.
Co-Investigator - Peter R. Grant
Peter Grant has expertise in aircraft flight and pilot-in-the-loop simulation. His current research, funded in part by the US Federal Aviation Administration, is focused on the development of extended flight models that are representative in the post-stall regime and handling qualities of flexible aircraft. He is also the instructor for the capstone aircraft design project whereby undergraduate students design, build, and fly UAVs.
Co-Investigator - Tim Barfoot
Tim Barfoot is internationally recognized for his work in the area of guidance, navigation, and control of mobile robots for space and terrestrial applications. He holds a CRC in Autonomous Space Robotics and an ERA. His research focuses on methods to allow mobile robots to operate in large-scale, unstructured, three-dimensional environments, using rich onboard sensing (e.g. cameras and laser rangefinders), not the global-positioning system.
Co-Investigator - Michael Daly
Michael Daly is currently the lead instrument scientist for the Canadian LIDAR being developed for the NASA OSIRIS-REx Mission, as well as the Deputy PI for the multidisciplinary Canadian Science Team. Prior to joining York, Prof. Daly worked at MDA where he was Chief Engineer for the Canadian meteorology instruments on the Phoenix Mars Lander - Canada’s first instruments on another solar system body.
Co-Investigator - Costas Armenakis
Costas Armenakis has expertise in the areas of photogrammetric engineering and remote sensing focusing on the use of on small unmanned aerial mapping systems (sUAMS) for geomatics applications. His research interests are on the localization and navigation of sUAMS, the generation of 3D high definition mapping products, and on rapid computational methods. He is also interested in exploring collaborative and synergistic approaches between moving mapping platforms. He is a Fellow of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).
Co-Investigator - Glenn Hibbard
Glenn Hibbard works in the field of multifunctional and microarchitectured lightweight structures. He is currently working on the optimisation of functionally graded architectures for aerospace structures which reduce the mass and increase the performance of aircraft, and on the modelling of damage initiation and evolution in microstructures.
Collaborator - Raquel Urtasun
Raquel Urtasun is internationally recognized for her work in the area of computer vision, machine learning and robotics. She holds a CRC in Machine Learning and Computer Vision, an ERA, a Connaught Award, two Google Faculty Awards and an NVIDIA Pioneers of AI Award. Her research focuses on developing new methods for visual perception for autonomous driving, 3D scene understanding, deep learning and graphical models.
Program Coordinator - Cynthia Spadafora
Cynthia Spadafora has been a part of the downtown UofT community for many years. Her breadth of experience includes student services in the Department for the Study of Religion and the School of Continuing Studies, administrative and financial research support in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and most recently as a Financial Administrator within the Office of the Vice-President & Provost.
Advisory Board
The board currently has a total of 12 members. Meetings take place twice a year.
David Black, Crisis Commons, Director
April Blaylock, FLIR Systems Inc. (Previously Aeryon) - Manager of Automony, UIS
Chris Damaren, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Professor & UTIAS Director, Committee Co-Chair
Ernest Earon, PrecisionHawk Inc., Co-Founder & CTO
Eric Frew, University of Colorado, Professor & Site Director for the Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS)
Paul Gilbert, Quanser, CEO, Committee Co-Chair
Illan Kramer, University of Toronto, Director of International Research Partnerships, Committee Institutional Representative
Hugh Liu, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Professor & CARRE Director (non-voting member)
Chris McKinnon, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Graduate Student Representative & Trainees’ Advisory Committee (TAC) Chair
Richard Worsfold, Independent Consultant, Previously of Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), Director Business Development
David Zingg, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Professor
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We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
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