• Dr. Goetz Bramesfeld
  • Saint Louis University
  • 118C Surge Building
  • 4:00 p.m.
  • Faculty Host: Dr. Rakesh Kapania

The fact that UAVs can fly missions otherwise not feasible for manned aircraft, for example because of long durations or risky environments, has made such vehicles very popular among the U.S. Armed Forces.  Although a missing regulatory body hampers the civilian/commercial application of UAVs, this is about to change with very recent legislative developments.  It is for certain that by the end of this decade, we will see the wide application of UAVs for civilian and commercial purposes, often with missions that we can barely imagine right now.  Small and micro aerial vehicles will clearly be an important part of this future development, primarily due to their low kinetic energy, thus less damage to others in cases of accidents, and the continuation of miniaturization of electronics, which enables even smaller and more powerful sensors.  Nevertheless, in order to augment the performance of small UAVs and MAVs innovative approaches are needed to increase the utility of such vehicles.  For the past ten years, Dr. Bramesfeld has been working on improving the aerodynamics and flight performance of small UAVs.  This work includes the design and testing of a "foam-it-up" small UAV that is a highly portable, testing of passive high-lift enhancement devices, optimizing MAVs for indoor flight, and modeling the interaction of structures and aerodynamics.