Aerospace Controls Laboratory (ACL)

The Aerospace Controls Laboratory (ACL) researches topics related to autonomous systems and control design for aircraft, spacecraft, and ground vehicles. Theoretical research is pursued in areas such as: decision making under uncertainty; path planning, activity and task assignment; estimation and navigation; sensor network design; robust control, adaptive control, and model predictive control. A key part of ACL is RAVEN (Real-time indoor Autonomous Vehicle test ENvironment), a unique experimental facility that uses a Vicon motion capture sensing to enable rapid prototyping of aerobatic flight controllers for helicopters and aircraft; robust coordination algorithms for multiple helicopters; and vision-based sensing algorithms for indoor flight.