I am currently a senior lecturer (assistant professor) in aerospace engineering at Coventry University. I have joined the university in November 2012. I am an RAeS member and I was awarded a PhD in the control of spacecraft from Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, 2004. I then worked for 5 years as a research fellow on spacecraft control related projects. I also taught guidance, navigation and control as well as the dynamics and control of spacecraft during that time.

My teaching at Coventry University has included UAV systems, aerospace control, flight dynamics, avionics and instrumentation as well as aerospace technology. I am currently course director of the MSc in aerospace engineering at Coventry University. I also teach Coventry MSc courses to external partners such as Emirates Aviation University.

 I have supervised 4 PhDs to a successful completion and am currently co-supervising 4 PhDs. Two of the PhD completions are co-funded cotutelle collaborations with Onera (French National Aerospace Research Centre) and Paris-Saclay University in France, in the field of navigation and control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, I also supervised a number of MSc and MReS at Coventry University and student exchanges as part of 2 Masters projects in collaboration with Bologna Univerity. The Bologna collaboration also led to a PhD completion. My PhD supervisions are generally in the field of navigation and control for aerospace vehicles, including UAV, manned aircraft and spacecraft, as well as in loss of control in flight.

My research interests include:

- Fault detection, estimation, isolation and recovery for aircraft control.

- Flight envelope protection using gain scheduling and MPC type approaches.

- Autonomous coordinated control of UAV formations.

- Sensor fusion using EKF/particle filter type estimation methods.

- Satellite attitude control in the presence of actuator constraints and failures

- System identification for aircraft and pilot in the loop modelling.

- Robust aircraft control in the presence of flexible modes

- Optimal aircraft path planning

- Control allocation and dynamical modelling for New UAV concepts such as ducted fan UAVs 

Funded research project work:

- Innovate UK project Assured Parking (ParkIt) with Horiba Mira, 2019-2020, with a focus on autonomous path planning and control, led by Dr Olivier Haas.

- Consultancy for AIBN on an air incident investigation, with Dr Mike Bromfield, 2018.

https://www.aibn.no/Luftfart/Avgitte-rapporter/2020-03-eng

- Consultancy on ducted fan UAV investigation for AIE-UK, Pii (Performance Improvement Initiative), funded by the EU regional Development Fund, led by Ivan Arokiam, 2014-15.

- EPSRC funded project AAReST (Reconfigurable space telescope), at Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, with a focus on guidance, navigation anc control, led by Professor Craig Underwood, 2011-2012.

- STFC funded STRaND 2 satellite formation project with a focus on guidance, navigation and control for in orbit inspection, 2012, led by Craig underwood.

- EU funded Marie Curie Astornet Research Training Network project ASTRONET, a project led by the University of Surrey with Professor Mark Roberts as PI and Professor Phil Palmer line managing my project on low computational optimal control of spacecraft, 2007-2010.

4 PhD completions to date:

- Nicolas Merlinge, State estimation and trajectory planning using box particle kernels, Cotutelle PhD between Coventry University and Onera/Paris Saclay University in France. Co-supervised at Coventry University with Director of Studies James Brusey. 2018.

- Encarnacion Serrano Castillo, Nonlinear approaches to attitude control using mechanical and magnetic actuation, in collaboration with director of studies Professor Fabrizio Giuliette from Bologna University (Erasmus Partner). This included a 6 months echange when the student was under my regular supervision at Coventry University, 2017.

- Lawrence Oyedeji Inumoh, Tilted Wheel: 3 DoF Torque Generation for Three Axis Control of a Rigid Satellite. University of Surrey, cosupervised with Dr Alexandre Pechev and Professor Vaios Lappas, 2013.

- Enzo Iglésis, Multimode navigation and control for degraded UAV operation under sensor and actuator faults, 2022.

PhDs under current co-supervision

- Zaidan Ziyadat, Flight envelope protection with fault recovery for hybrid e-VTOL aircraft, 05/2021 → ..., supervised with Mauro Innocente and Thomas Statheros.

- Osita Nnanna Ugwueze, e-VTOL Concept Vehicle 22/01/18 → supervised with Thomas Statheros and Mike Bromfield.

- Mohamed Ahsan Mafaz, Quadcopter fault and wind perturbation recovery under payload mass variations, 2021 --> ... Supervised with Matthew England and S. Amiri.

- Jun Jet Tai, Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Enabled Drones to Inform Predictive Maintenance Actions in the Railways and Roads, Sept 2020 → … supervised with Mauro Innocente and James Brusey.

- Thomas Oliver Milward, Novel Sensing for Angle of Attack (AOA) Systems, (PT)  → … Supervised with Rashid Ali and Mike Bromfield.

- Floris Wolfert, The effects of haptic feedback on pilot performance and workload, (PT)  → … Supervised with Steve Scott, Stewart Birrel, Mike Bromfield.

Publications:

44 publications including 11 Q1 journal papers, Currently 456 citations on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=WKQHYnQAAAAJ&hl=en