$517k to research HITL MAV Sim at Jackson State

Jackson State University computer engineering professor Kamal Ali has been awarded a research grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to build a simulator to test unmanned aircraft.

The project title is “A Hardware-In-the-Loop-Simulation ( HILS ) System for the Simulation of Micro Air Vehicle ( MAV ) Flight.” The requested amount for the three-year-project is $517,062.

The project aims to build a simulator that will allow Micro Aerial Vehicle’s ( MAV ) autopilot to be tested under all flight conditions in the laboratory. MAVs are small unmanned aircraft that are primarily used for reconnaissance. Using this system, a MAV’s autopilot can be made to fly any aircraft under any weather conditions in the laboratory, which averts delays caused by real testing

The project’s co-principal investigators are Abdelnasser Eldek, associate professor of computer engineering, and Mahmoud A. Manzoul, professor and chair of the Computer Engineering Department at Jackson State.