SELEX Galileo MAST Laboratory

‌The Aerospace Sciences Research Division is committed to pursuing research using the latest resources and technology.  The Micro Air Systems Technology (MAST) laboratory provides the ideal platform for research and investigation of small-scale autonomous vehicles and their associated technologies.

The MAST lab is home to a variety of micro air vehicles, including the Qball-X4 quadrotor, capable of autonomous flight using an 18-camera Optitrack motion capture system and integration with MATLAB and Simulink.  The Qbot unmanned ground vehicle serves as a ground-based counterpart to the Qball, affording undergraduates safer investigations into vehicle control without the worry of spectacular crashes.  Several custom quadrotors have been built from scratch using off-the-shelf components by the MAST lab team, ranging from large aircraft to much smaller vehicles, intended for use in UAV swarms.

The Optitrack system allows accurate position and attitude tracking of multiple bodies within the designated flight volume, offering a wealth of possibilities in multi-agent control and navigation research.  A 3D printer allows aircraft frames and components to be modelled in CAD (computer-aided design) software and constructed within a matter of hours, allowing rapid prototyping of a variety of micro air vehicles.  Several quadrotors have already been constructed using this process.

The MAST lab is supervised by Dr. David Anderson.

Click here to watch a video of the Qball-X4 quadrotor performing a simple autonomous test flight.