You are invited to hear

Dr. Ping Lu
Chair, Department of Aerospace Engineering
San Diego State University

Montgomery Knight 31
October 27 @ 3:30 p.m.

Abstract

An emerging trend in the field of aerospace guidance and control is what we call “Computational Guidance and Control” (CG&C). In CG&C, traditional guidance and control laws and controllers of fixed structures are replaced by algorithms. CG&C allows much more complex guidance and control tasks to be performed than ever before, offering great potential for significant increase in capability and performance, and reduction in recurring operational costs associated with the G&C systems. With the continued advent in onboard computational capability and customization of algorithms, CG&C is expected to become an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in Guidance and Control, and a key part of the foundational technologies for aerospace system autonomy and autonomous operations. In this presentation, we will offer our perspective on what CG&C entails, what are the characteristics of CG&C in contrast to traditional G&C and other branches of computational sciences and engineering. The requirements of onboard computational efficiency, reliability, and robustness of CG&C demand up-front investment in modeling and analyzing the problem, and novel design of the algorithm. An application in human Mars missions will be provided to demonstrate how this philosophy and CG&C can be practiced in realistic problems to significantly outperform the state-of-the-art technology. 

About Dr. Lu

Ping Lu received his Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. He was on the faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University from 1990-2016. Currently he is a Professor and Chair of the Aerospace Engineering Department at San Diego State University. His research interests and expertise are in the area of Guidance and Control, specifically, advanced guidance of space transportation systems, computational control, and autonomous trajectory planning of flying vehicles. Prof. Lu was the recipient of the prestigious Mechanics and Control of Flight Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in 2008, “for contributions in advanced guidance algorithms for entry and ascent flight”. Prof. Lu is the Editor-in-Chief of AIAA Journal Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, and a Fellow of AIAA.