Abstract
Robotic swarm management is a complex problem involving the command and control of autonomous mobile agents in a manner to achieve some top-level mission objective, such as wide-area environmental monitoring. This talk will share thoughts on future capabilities of such systems, discuss technical challenges yet to be overcome, and show some published results related to system-of-systems control and rapid prototyping research activities.
Biography
John Vian is a Boeing Technical Fellow with 27 years experience in flight control and prognostic health management. He has performed flight control design for the Boeing KC-135, Boeing Robotic Air Vehicles, Boeing 777, and DARPA STOVL Demonstrator. He currently leads an Intelligent Health-adaptive Systems research area that includes the Self-aware Autonomous Swarms project. John also serves as Principal Investigator for the Navy Active Network Guidance and Emergency Logic, FAA Engine Damage Detection and Crew Response, and AFRL Sentient Adaptive Systems Technology programs. Dr. Vian holds PhD Electrical Engineering and MS Aeronautical Engineering degrees from Wichita State University and a BS Mechanical Engineering degree from Purdue University. He has over 50 technical publications and is an inventor on over 20 patents. He is a Lifetime Senior Member AIAA, Senior Member IEEE, and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology evaluator. His part-time affiliations include Industry Graduate Faculty at University of Missouri Rolla, and former Lecturer Cogswell College, Assistant Professor Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Adjunct Graduate Faculty Texas Tech University. John also serves as an Angel Flight pilot and International Science & Engineering Fair judge.
