ICON Seminar in Robotics by Prof. Ningshi Yao (George Mason University)
| Event Date: | September 26, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Speaker: | Prof. Ningshi Yao |
| Priority: | No |
| College Calendar: | Show |
Time: 3-4 pm Eastern Time, Sep 26 (Friday), 2025
Location: MSEE 112
Zoom Link: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/98798335169
Coffee and snacks will be provide.
Dynamics and Control of Lighter Than Air Autonomous Blimps: Design, Development, and Deployment
Abstract:
Recent advances in unmanned aerial vehicles highlight the need for safe and convenient platforms for indoor experiments. Quadrotors and multi-copters are popular but limited by short flight durations and safety concerns, restricting their use in indoor applications. Safety nets or cages can provide protection, but they reduce opportunities for interactions with humans.
To address these limitations, we develop lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicles as safe and effective flying platforms for indoor use. LTA vehicles achieve relatively long flight durations of up to two hours per battery charge. Furthermore, their buoyant envelopes act as natural cushions, ensuring collisions with humans cause no pain or injury. Recent advances in vision-based feedback control and agile flight dynamics further enhance LTA agents’ capabilities, positioning them as powerful platforms for human–robot interaction, swarm experiments, and robotics competitions. In this talk, I will present our work exploring two directions: (1) propeller-driven LTA vehicles, including a fully autonomous competition agent capable of onboard perception, decision-making, and control without external localization; and (2) bio-inspired flapping-wing LTA vehicles that generate thrust through mechanisms inspired by swimming animals, enabling slow, neutrally buoyant flight. Both approaches have been validated in autonomous blimp competitions, revealing distinct successes, challenges, and research opportunities.
Speaker:
Ningshi Yao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at George Mason University. She received her PhD from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2020, and her BS in Automatic Control from Zhejiang University, China, in 2014. Prior to joining Mason, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology from November 2020 to July 2021. Her research interests include control theory, real-time scheduling, cyber-physical systems, and human-robot interaction.
Organizers: Ziran Wang (ziran@purdue.edu), Yan Gu (yangu@purdue.edu), Yu She (shey@purdue.edu)
2025-09-26 08:00:00 2025-09-26 17:00:00 America/Indiana/Indianapolis ICON Seminar in Robotics by Prof. Ningshi Yao (George Mason University) Purdue University