Advanced Control & Evolvable Systems Group

Overview

The main focus of the NASA Ames Advanced Control and Evolvable Systems (ACES) group is to research, develop, implement, test, and deliver next generation control architectures and avionics hardware. The core competency within the group spans across various intelligent guidance, navigation, and control technologies as well as avionics hardware and software system disciplines. ACES conducts foundational and applied research in adaptive, robust, and optimal control, trajectory guidance and planning, avionics architectures and processes, and evolvable systems towards automated design.

Selected research executed within ACES group include: Adaptive control for safety of flight; Intelligent flight planning and guidance; Intelligent control for improved performance as applied to next generation vehicle designs such as the Hybrid Wing Body and Cruise-efficient Short Take-off and Landing vehicles; Sensor-directed navigation and guidance; Predictive and stochastic optimal controllers for hypersonic vehicles; Lunar common bus architectures; Lunar Orbiter GN&C; Polymorphic Control; Automated design using evolutionary algorithms;

ACES maintains and operates a flight simulation lab, an unmanned aerial vehicle lab, and an evolutionary design lab. ACES researchers also work closely with the Carnegie Mellon innovations laboratory situated in the Carnegie Mellon West Campus.

Team

Group Lead
Nhan Nguyen

Deputy Group Lead
Sean Swei

Group Members
Diana Acosta
Jonathan Barlow
Jose Benavides
Alfredo Bencomo
Anjan Chakrabarty
Daniel Chaparro
Michael Drew
Kelley Hashemi
Sebastian Hening
Corey Ippolito
Daeseong Jang
Kalmanje Krishnakumar
Thomas Lombaerts
Donald Soloway
Mietek Steglinski
Vahram Stepanyan
Sean Swei
Eric Ting
Khanh Trinh
Kevin Wheeler