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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 112 - Annapolis, Maryland - October 2013
Agenda Location	10 SUBCOMMITTEE A – AERONAUTIC AND SURFACE VEHICLES 10.1 Vehicles and Research at the Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems
Title	Vehicles and Research at the Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems
Presenter	Craig Woolsey
Affiliation	VaCAS
Available Downloads*	presentation1 presentation2
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Abstract	Virginia Tech Presentation Abstracts by Craig Woolsey Part 1: UAS Activities within VaCAS Since 2006, the Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems (VaCAS) has promoted learning, discovery, and engagement in the area of autonomous systems. True to Virginia Tech’s mandate to “Invent the Future,” the Center’s members pride themselves on rigor in application. Autonomous systems technology advances when principled scholarship is implemented with effective results. The breadth of application domains which motivate VaCAS research serves as a reminder to consider the larger problems, to carefully examine assumptions, and to seek solution methods rather than solutions. VaCAS includes 14 Core Faculty members in three Virginia Tech engineering departments: Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. Core Faculty research interests include decision and control theory, intelligent perception, and vehicle dynamic modeling and design. Nearly two dozen Affiliate Faculty members, representing three Colleges, contribute to autonomous systems research through the development of new supporting technologies or new applications, such as life and environmental science. Part 2: The Scale-Model, Joined Wing SensorCraft Flight Test Program The Boeing Joined Wing SensorCraft is a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE), Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform. Boeings' approach in utilizing a joined-wing configuration offers potential aerodynamic and structural benefits including unmatched ISR capabilities complementing the overall mission. However, associated with these advantages is the potential for nonlinear aeroelastic response. To complement computational studies, the design, construction and flight testing of a 1/9th scale, aeroelastically tailored model of the Joined-Wing SensorCraft has been the subject of an ongoing international collaboration aimed at experimentally demonstrating the nonlinear aeroelastic response. Sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), researchers at AFRL, the University of Victoria, Quaternion Engineering, and Virginia Tech have demonstrated airworthiness through the successful flight of a geometrically scaled remotely piloted vehicle, but its capability to demonstrate geometric nonlinearities in flight has yet to be determined. Based on recent experimental and computational analysis, current efforts are focused on modifying one of several existing Joined-Wing SensorCraft test articles to demonstrate geometric nonlinearities in flight.