Liam Fletcher

Email: liam.fletcher@bristol.ac.uk

Supervisors: Tom Richardson and Mark Hansen

PhD Project Title: Application of Reinforcement Learning to the Flight Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Research Group: Aerial Robotics

Biography

After finishing a degree in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Leeds, I worked in industry, completing secondments at a number of aerospace companies. My main interests were the development and integration of emerging technologies for aircraft design and manufacture. These experiences demonstrated to me the future importance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as well as the current issues limiting their ubiquity.

My research interests are novel vehicle design and control for UAVs. Multirotor UAVs, such as quadcopters, have high manoeuvrability and the capability to hover in place, however, their range and endurance are limited. Fixed-wing UAVs have superior range and endurance, however, they are difficult to operate in areas where space is restricted, such as complex urban environments. Enhancing the agility of fixed-wing vehicles allows superior operation in such environments, by performing manoeuvres such as perched landings, and rapidly changing direction and altitude. However, such capabilities are difficult for classical control methods and vehicle designs. As part of my project, I will research how machine learning techniques can be used for the flight control of UAVs, as well as how different sensors and actuators can be integrated into such systems.