{"426001":{"#nid":"426001","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Professor Mark Costello named to the David S. Lewis Professorship for Autonomy","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA recent vote by the Georgia Board of Regents has confirmed the selection of Professor Mark Costello as AE\u2019s new David S. Lewis Professor of Autonomy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn eight-year member of the GT-AE faculty, Costello said the support he receives from the endowed professorship will enable him to make greater strides in his work with the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.camm.gatech.edu\/index.php?title=Center_for_Advanced_Machine_Mobility\u0022\u003EGT Center for Advanced Machine Mobility\u003C\/a\u003E(CAMM), a multi-disciplinary research center he launched a little over a year ago.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur goal is to build robots that solve the problems that humans face,\u201d he said. \u201cThis support will allow us to take new risks in our research, to ask questions that a funder might not see the immediate value in, but will advance the field of mobile platform technologies.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAerospace Engineering Chair Vigor Yang applauded Costello\u2019s latest appointment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThroughout his tenure at Georgia Tech, Dr. Costello has significantly contributed to the scholarship and research that makes the School of Aerospace Engineering stand out among our peers. With this professorship, we are happy to call attention to his stature as a thought leader in the field of autonomy.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022200\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Cem\u003EOne of CAMM\u0027s most important investments is this 3D printer that enables Costello and his research colleagues to quickly and cheaply produce needed components.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECostello said the professorship will give him more resources to tackle one of the major obstacles preventing wide-spread use of robotic technologies: cost. Some component parts, like the inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the actuators, are currently very pricey. Through CAMM, he hopes to find \u201cfriendlier and easier ways\u201d to manufacture all parts, using 3D printers, laser cutters, and other machinery that is coming to the center\u2019s facilities, located in AE\u2019s ESM Building.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECostello is currently working with AE and other GT-CoE colleagues to integrate new technology into air and ground vehicles. In one DARPA-funded project he is looking at the viability of affixing robotic legs to helicopters as a way of making it easier to land the vehicles in steeply graded or rocky terrain. In another project, he is working with a nuclear engineering faculty Anna Erickson, to produce a robotic vehicle that can autonomously review radiation levels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe idea is they will fly over nuclear plants to detect and map out the sources of radiation leaks,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cRight now, it\u2019s something that we\u2019re doing on our own, something that his professorship will support. But, eventually, we think this will be very interesting to Homeland Security or the NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration].\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn associate fellow of the AIAA and a member of ASME, Costello has earned national recognition for his work developing innovative flight mechanics and controls technologies for a variety of flight vehicles, including rotorcraft, projectiles, parafoils, and unmanned air vehicles. He is the P.I. for a long standing joint research program with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in the area of smart weapons and unmanned air vehicles and the U.S. Army Natick Soldier System Center in the area of airdrop system technologies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECostello is an associate editor for\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EJournal of Aerospace Engineering\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;and has previously served as an associate editor for the AIAA\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EJournal of Spacecraft and Rockets\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;and the ASME\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EJournal of Dynamic Systems\u003C\/em\u003E,\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;Measurement, and Control.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A recent vote by the Georgia Board of Regents has confirmed the selection of Professor Mark Costello as AE\u2019s new David S. Lewis Professor of Autonomy."}],"uid":"27456","created_gmt":"2015-07-16 14:42:37","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:08","author":"Britanny Grace","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-08-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-08-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"135631","name":"David S. Lewis Professorship for Autonomy"},{"id":"135621","name":"Mark Costello"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["communications@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}