Research Areas

The primary purpose of the Virginia Center for Autonomous Systems (VaCAS) is to advocate and support a broad range of basic and applied interdisciplinary research activities realted to autonomous system technology. VaCAS hosts research activities spanning every application domain: water, land, air, and space.  Member research activities range from fundamental control theory to vehicle development to applications for science, security, and commerce.

Research focus areas include:

• Advanced guidance, navigation, and control

  • Path planning and following

  • Flow field estimation to improve navigation

  • Nonlinear control to extend operating envelopes

  • Adaptive control to increase robustness

• Advanced sensing

  • Machine vision

  • Machine hearing

  • Data fusion from distributed sensors

• Alternative mobility

• Embedded, real-time systems

• Vehicle networking

  • Decentralized control of vehicle platoons

  • Coordinated sampling with minimal communication