Research

REU on Smart UAVs

I spent the summer of 2017 at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama working at the REU for Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). My research partner and I researched snapshot-based visual homing. We used homography control law to compute the direction vector for the UAV to navigate home and implemented visual path optimization techniques for the return journey. We wrote code in Python and MATLAB for image processing and simulations. Our simulations showed promising results for combining computer vision, sparse-snapshot representation, homography control law, and visual path optimization techniques as a solution to GPS-less visual homing. Our research is explained in our final oral presentation, final poster presentation, and paper draft.

In March 2018, I presented this work at the Tri-Sectional Meeting of the Mathematics Association of America (MAA) and won the Outstanding Undergraduate Research (OUR) Award from the Illinois Section of the MAA (ISMAA) based on our paper draft and my presentation.