Research revolutionizing aerospace industry
“The sky is the limit” is a cliché, but Luis Rodrigues really means it. The associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is setting his goals high as he revolutionizes the aerospace industry through his unprecedented work in control and automation.
“This might surprise you, but more than 75 per cent of commercial flight time worldwide is performed on autopilot,” says the affable professor. “That may sound dangerous but the reaction time of an autopilot and its ability to perform fine-tuned manoeuvres are significantly better than what a human can do – provided the disturbances from wind and turbulence are not larger than the ones the autopilots were designed for.”
Improved flight performance is just one potential benefit arising from the use of autopilots on commercial airliners. Through computer-based analysis of data such as wind speed, trajectory, velocity, and roll and pitch angles, autopilots can be programmed to make tiny adjustments that add up to significant energy savings.
His research is taking autopilot technology beyond merely giving pilots a bit of “time off” to significantly reducing the currently enormous carbon footprint of commercial airliners.
“If you multiply the amount of flight time by the number of flights per year, there is a lot you could to save in terms of emissions – even if it’s only a reduction of one per cent,” says Rodrigues. “Aerospace corporations are currently focused on producing the next generation of aircraft, but those won’t be commercially available for another10, 20 or 30 years. My research looks at what we can do in the short term to make the aerospace industry more environmentally friendly.”
Rodrigues has the perfect facility to test his newly developed autopilots: a flight simulator in the Henry F. Hall Building. Rodrigues was instrumental in bringing this important equipment to Concordia. He worked closely with the Montreal-based simulator company Mechtronix Inc. (founded by four Concordia alumni) to ensure that the simulator would be housed at the university. The simulator is now an essential research tool for both faculty and students involved in aerospace-related projects.
His own research began in a somewhat surprising place: the ocean off the coast of his native Portugal. While pursuing his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering, the young Rodrigues became fascinated by robotics. When he discovered that the most advanced robotics were being developed for underwater applications, he joined the research team to help produce autopilots for a hydrodynamic robotic design. His work became his capstone project, which is a project that students must carry out in their final year to prove their skills in and understanding of design, project management, technical writing, and presentation skills. His team later headed to the Azores with its automated “crew” to explore volcanic heat sources underneath a seabed.
His passion for robotics eventually led him to Stanford University, where the underwater robotics group was part of the aerospace department. While that might seem like an odd pairing, Rodrigues says it makes perfect sense. “There are lots of things you can do under the water to simulate a space environment,” he explains. “You’re weightless, so a lot of preliminary tests are done under water because it’s cheaper than doing them in space.”
Once exposed to the field of aerospace at Stanford, Rodrigues got his feet out of the water and put his head in the clouds, so to speak. His PhD involved producing work on computer-aided switched control laws, and heading off to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a visiting student.
He very nearly returned to Portugal for a job in industry, but chose academia when Concordia had an opening tailor-made for his research interests. Now an official member of the expanding Concordia Institute of Aerospace Design and Innovation (CIADI), Rodrigues is confident the industry will continue to evolve in positive directions, with CIADI often leading the way.
“I’m sure CIADI, with its new focus on research opportunities and interdisciplinarity, is going to have increased success in the years to come, while strengthening its ties to industry,” he says, remaining confident that the sky is truly the limit when it comes to work in aerospace.
Related Links:
• “CIADI readies for takeoff” — NOW, November 9, 2011
• Concordia Institute of Aerospace Design and Innovation
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering