MICHELSON, ROBERT C.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH [current through 2015]

Principal Research Engineer, Emeritus

    Aerospace, Transportation, & Advanced Systems Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute

Adjunct Associate Professor, (Ret)

    School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

President, Millennial Vision, LLC

Currently consulting through Millennial Vision, LLC in the area unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with emphasis on biologically inspired micro and nano air vehicles (MAV/NAV), while also working in the areas of stratospheric and high altitude tropospheric unmanned airships, and remote sensing. Was member of the International Organizing Committee and official rules author for the 1st US-Asian Demonstration and Assessment of Micro Aerial Vehicle and Unmanned Ground Vehicle Technology (MAV-08) as adjunct to the U.S. Army RDECOM-Pacific and Indian Ministry of Defence. Performed a similar role during the 1st US-European MAV event (MAV-06). Has been Director and Principal Investigator (PI) for over 30 major projects during career at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Was GTRI Director for stratospheric airship programs and the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts project to develop an autonomous Mars surveyor for flight in the lower atmosphere of Mars. Was also Director of the DARPA Mesomachine effort to develop an “Entomopter” (mechanical insect-like multimode aerial robot). Was Director for the Department of Transportation’s Traffic Surveillance Drone project. Directed various efforts pertaining to future transportation, especially near term electric vehicles and futuristic designs. Performed verification and validation analyses of man-in-the-loop virtual reality simulators for STRICOM. Directed a DARPA program to show feasibility of a non-line-of-sight radio-acoustic sensor for bending radar signals using the Bragg principle to detect obstacle-masked targets. Directed project to develop the avionics suite for an Air Force Robotic Air-to-Air Combat vehicle. Directed project to specify dual-mode IR/MMW seeker parameters for a lethal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. Responsible for generating remote flight control system specifications for Soviet “HAVOC” and “HOKUM” gunship drone simulators for the U.S. Army. Directed task to develop a rotary winged UAV digital stability augmentation system for MICOM. Directed project to evaluate ground penetration radar for detection of buried natural gas leaks in urban utility systems. Managed construction of a 95 and 35 GHz multimode millimeter wave instrumentation radar system to provide calibrated characterization of high interest military targets. Directed programs to develop a Ka-band Linear ECM Source (KABLES) for the Army, and to develop a Sonar Scan Converter for the Navy. Directed program to create a Coherent Repeater to test foreign threat assets. Directed Army Indirect Fire Simulation effort conducted for Combat Development and Experimentation Command. Directed task to build a transponder for flight test against Army threat simulators. Directed NASA’s Sirenian Tracking Project, which involved remote electronic sensing of location and tracking of the aquatic mammal Trichechus manatus. Chief designer of the target processing unit for the Army’s Environment and Radar Operation Simulator (EROS). (see selected project descriptions at: http://angel-strike.com/wiki/index.php?title=R._C._Michelson_Research )

Michelson has been NATO/RTA lecturer at the Turkish Air Force Academy (Hava Harp Okulu) in Istanbul (’06), and invited lecturer on Micro Air Vehicle technology at both the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (’99 & ’03) and the Royal Military Academy (’01) in Brussels. Mitre Technology Speaker (’98). Adjunct Associate Professor to the School of Aerospace Engineering teaching classes in avionics for UAVs and Micro/Mini Air Vehicle (MAV) Design. Visiting technology professor in six nations: Australia, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, and Turkey.

Most recently Michelson has been the U.S. representative to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China's UAV Grand Prix during its inaugural year (2011) and again in 2013. He was the section editor for "MAVs and Bio-Inspired UAVs" in Springer's Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (released in 2014). He was the consultant to the U.S. Army and the Indian Ministry of Defence, responsible for defining and organizing the 1st U.S.-Asian Micro Air Vehicle Demonstration in Agra India ('08). Performed similar duties for the U.S. Army in defining the 1st US-European Micro Air Vehicle Competition/Demonstration in Garmisch Germany (‘05). He created the short course, “21st Century Aerial Robotics” and the digital signal processing lec­ture/demonstrations in “Principals of Modern Radar”. He is also creator and organizer of the annual International Aerial Robotics Competitions which is now in its 21st year. Prior to joining GTRI staff, participated in design and endo-atmospheric flight testing of computer-controlled space-based radar ocean surveillance systems while employed by the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

1. “Entomopter and Method for Using Same”, U.S. Patent No. 6,082,671, July 4, 2000
2. “Battery State of Charge Detector with Rapid Charging Capability and Method”, U.S. Patent No. 6,094,033, July 25, 2000
3. “Reciprocating Chemical Muscle (RCM) and Method for Using Same”, U.S. Patent No. 6,446,909, September 10, 2002

1. "Micro Air Vehicles", Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Volume 3, Chapter 53, pp. 1305 - 1310, ISBN 978-90-481, DOI 10.1007/987-90-481-9707-1, Library of Congress No. 201494462, Springer Dordrecht/Heidelberg, New York, London, K.P. Valavanis & G.J. Vachtsevanos editors.
2. "The Technology of Civilian Unmanned Aerial Systems," Aerospace Knowledge Magazine, Vol. 513, No. 1, Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CSAA), ISSN 1000-0119, 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China, 2014, pgs. 67-69
3. "Sixth IARC Mission Conquered-- Technology Advances Again," Unmanned Systems, Volume 31 - No. 10, October 2013, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Washington, D.C., pp 37-40, online version: http://angel-strike.com/documents/Sixth_IARC_Mission_Conquered.pdf, author
4. “Keeping the ‘I’ in AUVSI-- International Student Competition Spans Continents for First Time,” Unmanned Systems, Volume 30 - No. 10, October 2012, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Washington, D.C., pp 40-41, online version: http://angel-strike.com/documents/1012_Unmanned_Systems.pdf, author
5. “Test and Evaluation for Fully Autonomous Micro Air Vehicles– update,” 2012 Chinese Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference (CGNCC2012), Beijing, China, 10-12 August, 2012 author/invited keynote
6. “Ascending Unmanned from the Middle Kingdom,” Unmanned Systems, Volume 29 - No. 12, December 2011, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Washington, D.C., pp 26-30, online version: http://angel-strike.com/documents/avic_wu_ren_ji.pdf, author
7. “Autonomous Aerial Robots,” Unmanned Systems, Volume 29 - No. 10, October 2011, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Washington, D.C., pp 38-42, online version: http://angel-strike.com/documents/autonomous_aerial_robots.pdf, author
8. “Overview of Micro Air Vehicle System Design and Integration Issues,” in Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, R. Blockley and W. Shyy (eds). John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK, January 2011, ISBN: 978-0-470-75440-5, pp 4253-4264, author.
9. “Slow flight in the lower Mars Atmosphere in support of NASA science missions,” International Unmanned Vehicles Workshop (UVW2010), 10-12 June 2010, Istanbul, Turkey, online version: http://angel-strike.com/entomopter/UVW2010_Paper.pdf, author/invited keynote
10. “Digital Wings– Micro Flight in Confined Spaces,” Ankara International Aerospace Conference, 17-19 August 2009, online version: http://aiac.ae.metu.edu.tr/db/serv.php?Paper=AIAC-2009-002, author/invited lecturer
11. “The Quest for Indoor Flight,” First Symposium on Indoor Flight Issues, 19th annual International Aerial Robotics Competition, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, 21 July 2009, online proceedings, online version: http://iarc.angel-strike.com/symposium2009.php, author/lecturer
12. “Test and Evaluation for Fully Autonomous Micro Air Vehicles,” The ITEA Journal, December 2008, Volume 29, Number 4, ISSN 1054-0229 International Test and Evaluation Association, pp. 367-374, online version: http://angel-strike.com/documents/itea_t&e_auton_mavs.pdf, author [2009 ITEA Publications Award winning article]
13. “New Perspectives on Biologically-Inspired MAVs (bio motivation rather than bio mimicry),” 1st US-Asian Demonstration and Assessment of MAV and UGV Technology Conference, Agra India, 10-15 March 2008, author
14. “Very small flying machines,” 2006 Yearbook of Science & Technology, McGraw-Hill, New York, ISBN 0-07-146205-8, 2006, pp. 341 - 344, author
15. “Novel Approaches to Miniature Flight Platforms,” Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Vol. 218 Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, Special Issue Paper 2004, pp. 363 - 373, online version: http://angel-strike.com/documents/JournalAeroEngrgMICHELSON.pdf, author
16. “Beyond Biologically-Inspired Insect Flight,” von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics RTO/AVT Lecture Series on Low Reynolds Number Aerodynamics on Aircraft Including Applications in Emerging UAV Technology, Brussels Belgium, 24-28 November 2003, online version: http://angel-strike.com/documents/vki_2003_lecture_paper_1.pdf, coauthor/lecturer
17. “Extraterrestrial Flight (Entomopter-based Mars Surveyor),” von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics RTO/AVT Lecture Series on Low Reynolds Number Aerodynamics on Aircraft Including Applications in Emerging UAV Technology, Brussels Belgium, 24-28 November 2003, coauthor/lecturer
18. “Scaling of Biologically Inspired Aerial Robots,” 5th International Workshop on Similarity Methods, Institut für Statik und Dynamik der Luft- und Raumfahrtkonstruktionen, Universität Stuttgart, 4 - 5 November 2002, pp. 71 - 78, author/invited keynote plenary.
19. “Planetary Exploration Using Biomimetics - An Entomopter for Flight on Mars,” Phase II Final Report, NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts Project NAS5-98051, October 2002, online version: http://angel-strike.com/entomopter/NIAC_Final_Report_10-31-02.pdf, coauthor
20. “The Entomopter,” Neurotechnology for Biomimetic Robots, ISBN 0-262-01193-X, The MIT Press, September 2002, pp. 481 - 509 (chapter author).
21. “Full Autonomy of Intelligent Flight,” Information, Decision, and Control Symposium, Adelaide, Australia, 11 - 13 February, 2002, IEEE Catalog No. 01EX528C, ISBN 0-7803-7271-9, pp.7 - 12, author/invited keynote plenary
22. "Reciprocating Chemical Muscle (RCM) for Specialized Micro UAVs and other Nonelectric Anaerobic Aerospace Actuation Applications," U.S. Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRLMNGN) Grant No. F086300010007, October, 2001, coauthor
23. “How High will our Micro Air Vehicle Technology Take Us?,” Unmanned Vehicles (UV) for Aerial, Ground and Naval Military Operations Keynote, NATO Research and Technology Organization Proceedings 52, Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT), Ankara, Turkey, 9 - 13 October 2000, pp. K3-1 to K3-17, author
24. “The International Aerial Robotics Competition - a Decade of Excellence,” Unmanned Vehicles (UV) for Aerial, Ground and Naval Military Operations, NATO Research and Technology Organization Proceedings 52, Applied Vehicle Technology Panel (AVT), Ankara, Turkey, 9 - 13 October 2000, pp. SC3-1 to SC-24, author
25. “Planetary Exploration Using Biomimetics,” NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts Phase I Final Report, November 30, 2000, coauthor
26. “Mesoscaled Aerial Robot,” Final Report under DARPA/DSO Contract Number: DABT63-98-C-0057, February 2000, coauthor
27. “MicroFlyers and Aerial Robots; Missions and Design Criteria,” proceedings of the NATO/RTA lecture series “Development and Operation of UAVs for Military and Civil Applications”, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Brussels Belgium, September 13 - 19, 1999, RTO-EN-9, AC/323(AVT)TP/24, April 2000, pp. 7-1 to 7-13, author/lecturer
28. “Autonomous Navigation,” 2000 Yearbook of Science & Technology, McGraw-Hill, New York, ISBN 0-07-052771-7, 1999, pp. 28 - 30, author
29. “Update on Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle Research- Ongoing work to develop a flapping wing, crawling Entomopter,” 13th Bristol International RPV/UAV Systems Conference Proceedings, Bristol England, 30 March 1998 - 1 April 1998, pp. 30.1 - 30.12 principal author/lecturer
30. “Les Plus Petites Machines Volantes Intelligentes du Monde”, Radio Commande Magazine, ISSN 0290-9693, April, 1998, pp. 22 - 27, author
31. “International Aerial Robotics Competition- The world’s smallest intelligent flying machines,” 13th Bristol International RPV/UAV Systems Conference Proceedings, Bristol England, 30 March 1998 - 1 April 1998, pp. 31.1 - 30.10 author/invited paper lecturer
32. “A Reciprocating Chemical Muscle (RCM) for Micro Air Vehicle “Entomopter” Flight,” 1997 Proceedings of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, International, June 1997, pp.429 - 435, coauthor/lecturer
33. “Autonomous Vehicles,” Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 84, No. 8, August 1996, pp. 1147 - 1164, coauthor
34. “Feasibility of Applying Radio-Acoustic Techniques to Non Line-of-Sight Sensing,” AIAA Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 33, No. 2, March - April 1996, pp. 260 - 267, coauthor
35. “Remotely-Piloted Aircraft for Earth Science Measurements,” NASA Headquarters workshop, Washington, D.C., editors: Michelson, R., Muller Karger, F., Radke, L., Unsworth, M., Welch, April 9 - 11, 1996
36. “The Future is... NATO: the road ahead for UAVs in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” Unmanned Systems Volume 14, Number 1, Winter 1996, pp 8 - 14, author
37. “The Future of UAVs in NATO,” Proceedings of the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, AGARD-CP-591, Flight Vehicle Integration Panel Specialists’ Meeting on the “Design and Operation of Unmanned Air Vehicles,” Ankara, Turkiye, October 11, 1995, pp 11/1 - 11/5, author/keynote UAV lecture
38. “Enabling Technologies for UAVs,” Proceedings of the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, AGARD-CP-591, Flight Vehicle Integration Panel Specialists’ Meeting on the “Design and Operation of Unmanned Air Vehicles,” Ankara, Turkiye, October 11, 1995, pp 17/1 - 17/10, author/lecturer
39. “New Technology: Intelligent Building Sensors,” Intergovernmental Energy Management Workshop, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA, December 6, 1994, invited lecturer
40. “UAV Technology Issues,” National Technical Specialists’ Meeting on Helicopter Military Operations Technology (HELMOT VI), Williamsburg, VA, November 1 - 3, 1994, invited lecturer
41. “Future Use of Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems in the Maritime Environment,” NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development advisory report, Aerospace Applications Study (AAS)-36, AGARD-AR-307 Vols. 1 and 2, August 1994, coauthor
42. “Feasibility of Applying Radio-Acoustic Techniques to Non Line-of-Sight Sensing,” 15th AIAA Aeroacoustics Conference, Long Beach, CA, October 25 - 27, 1993, principal author/lecturer
43. “Vertical Flight Intermodal Transportation Requirements and Demonstration,” (GPS section), Federal Aviation Administration, A-9251 Final Report, March 1993, coauthor
44. “Non Line-of-Sight Sensor,” DARPA, A-9271 Final Report, Contract DAAA91-92-C-0098, March 1993, coauthor
45. “Robotic Air-to-Air Combat Vehicle (RAAC) Integrated Avionics Suite Definition,” Final Report No. A-9107-F (SAIC contract 15-920103-78 under prime F33615-87-C-0531), for Wright Patterson AFB, WL/FIMM, July 1992, author
46. “Telerobotic Testing of Autonomous Air Vehicles,” Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE/AIAA National Telesystems Conference, Washington D.C., May 19 - 20, 1992, author/lecturer
47. “Advanced Vehicle Control Systems,” Proceedings of the Workshop on Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems and Advanced Transportation Technologies, Atlanta, Georgia, July 14 - 16, 1991, author
48. “Automatic Control of a Truck-Mounted Drill Rig,” presented at the International Symposium on Mine Mechanization and Automation, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, June 10 - 13, 1991, coauthor
49. “Telerobotic Control Issues for NLOS, NOE Rotary Wing Target Drones,” Proceedings of the 1991 National Telesystems Conference, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Atlanta, Georgia, March 26 - 27, 1991, author/lecturer
50. “Automation of a Truck-Mounted Drill Rig,” Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 13 - 16, 1991, pp. 272-277, coauthor
51. “Hokum Target Concept Emulator Analysis Specification,” Contract DAAH01-89-D-0133-0002, August 1990, coauthor
52. “Sprite Unmanned Air Vehicle,” Unmanned Systems, Volume 8, Number 1, Winter 1990, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Washington, D.C., author
53. “Havoc Droning and Instrumentation,” Havoc Drone Specification, Contract No. DAAH01-89-D-A004, February 1990, author
54. “Multimode Seeker for Lethal UAVs,” Final Report, E-Systems’ Contract No. V3987A, December 1989, coauthor
55. “Techniques to Achieve UAV VTOL by Means Other Than Fully Articulated Rotors,” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Joint Technology Center and Test Bed Support Final Technical Report, Contract No. DAAH01-87-D-0082, November 1989, author
56. “Air Defense Sensor System Analysis,” Final Report, Contract No. DAAB07-87-D-P008 D.O. 0007/03, March 1989, coauthor
57. “Mission Control,” Section 2, Final Report to Special Working Group 11, Mission Essential Equipments Committee, UAV Feasibility for small NATO ships, December 1988, coauthor
58. “Specialized Engineering for Special Operations Forces,” Final Report, Contract No. F09603-85-G-3104-0021, November 1988, coauthor
59. “Digital Autopilots for Rotary Winged Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” Proceedings of the National Specialist’s Meeting on Automation Applications for Rotorcraft, American Helicopter Society, Atlanta, Georgia, April 4 - 6, 1988, author/lecturer
60. “Analysis for a Stability Augmentation System for a Rotary Wing Target,” Final Report No. E-16-619/A-4891-F on Contract DAAH01-87-D-0082, Task Order 23, November 1987, coauthor
61. “Advanced Concepts and Technology Committee (ACT),” Final Report, Contract No. DAAH01-87-D-0082, D.O. 0011, November 1987, author
62. “Application of Autonomous Rotary Winged Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Naval Operations,” Proceedings of the 1987 RPV Symposium Incorporating Advanced Technologies into Aerial RPV Systems to Support U.S. and NATO Missions, Naval Air Systems Command and ADPA, Virginia Beach, VA, June 1987, author
63. “Results of an Experiment in Networking Computer Resources at the Georgia Tech Research Institute,” University System of Georgia Computer Network 1986 Fall Conference, October 1986, author/lecturer
64. “Remote Detection of Natural Gas Leaks from Buried Utility Pipes by Electromagnetic Means,” Final Report, Contract No. GRI-50084-252-112 (subcontract to the Philadelphia Electric Company; prime to the Gas Research Institute), June 1986, coauthor, technical editor
65. “High Power Millimeter Wave Electronic Countermeasures Source (U),” Proceedings of the Tenth DARPA/Tri-Service Millimeter Wave Symposium (U), SECRET DARPA-TIO-86-1, Adelphi, Maryland, April 1986, author
66. “Tactical Submersible Display Compression Through the Use of Multimode Microcircuitry,” 1985 Government Microcircuit Applications Conference Digest, Orlando, Florida, November 1985, principal author/lecturer
67. “Improved High Power Emitter Simulation Study- Phase A,” Final Report, Contract No. N00421-84-C-0237, July 1985, coauthor
68. “Millimeter Wave Component Technology Survey,” January 1985, prepared under contract MDA904-84-C-7115 to the Maryland procurement office, Fort George G. Meade, MD, coauthor, technical editor
69. “Sonar Scan Converter,” Final Report No. N00612-79-D-8004-HR53-F, June 1984, principal author
70. “Ka-Band Linear ECM Source (KABLES),” Final Report No. F33615-81-C-1530-F, June 1984, principal author
71. “Advanced Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar (ASTAR) Prototype,” Final Report on Contract No. DAAK20-82-C-0144, February 1983, coauthor
72. “Tracking of the Florida Manatee,” ISA Transactions, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1982, pp. 79 - 85, author
73. “Direct Support and General Support Maintenance Manual for the Georgia Tech Coherent Repeater,” April 1982, principal author
74. “Operator’s Training and Maintenance Manual for the Georgia Tech Coherent Repeater,” April 1982, principal author
75. “An Indirect-Fire Terminal Effects Simulator,” Proceedings of the 3rd Interservice/Industry Training Equipment Conference, Orlando, Florida, December 1981, principal author
76. “The Automated Remote Tracking of the Florida Manatee (Trichechus manatus ),” Proceedings of the 1981 IEEE SOUTHEASTCON, Huntsville, Alabama, April 1981, pp. 96 - 100, author/lecturer
77. “Tracking of the Florida Manatee (Trichechus manatus ),” Proceedings of the 18th Annual Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium, Laramie, Wyoming, April 1981, author/lecturer
78. “A-10 All Weather Targeting System Concept Study,” Final Report on Contract P. O. #SC37733 (A-2747), January 1981, coauthor
79. “Indirect Fire Simulator- Cue System Development,” Final Report, Contract No. DAAG08-78-C-0191-F, January 1980, principal author
80. “EROS Hardware Manual,” Report ERADCOM-77-2174-1A, May 1979, coauthor
81. “West Indian Manatees on Edge of Extinction,” The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 18-C (8 February 1979), author
82. “Radar Beamsplitting Experiments and Feasibility Demonstration of a Combined Electro-Optical/Radar Sensor System,” Final Report No. N00014-77-C-0638, July 1978, coauthor
83. “Research at Georgia Tech: Manatee Tracking,” a radio program produced by WREK in conjunction with the Publications and Information Office of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, June 1978, author
84. “Automated Tracking of the Florida Manatee (Trichechus manatus ),” Final Report No. NAS10-9097-F, June 1978, principal author
85. “Environment and Radar Operation Simulator,” Proceedings of the NAAG Panel XIV (EW) Group, Brussels, Belgium (invited paper), January 1978, coauthor
86. “Communications Technology Report,” Proceedings of the AIAA/NASA Conference on Aerospace Technology Transfer to the Public Sector, 9-11 November 1977, coauthor/invited participant
87. “Environment and Radar Operation Simulator,” Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual U.S. Army Operation Research Symposium (AORS XVI), 12-14 October 1977, Fort Lee, Virginia, coauthor
88. “Environment and Radar Operation Simulator,” ECOM-74-0272-F, Final Report, September 1977, coauthor
89. “Research and Development Technical Report for the Environment and Radar Operation Simulator,” Report Nos. ECOM-74-0272-1 through 6 and 9, Project A-1649-000, September 1974 - December 1976, coauthor
90. “Charge-Coupled Devices for Analog-to-Digital Conversion,” Master’s Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, November 1974, author

Interests and Hobbies

Marine Aquaria

Scuba Diving (NAUI certified)

HAM Radio (FCC Amateur Extra class licensed, N4ATE)

Language Study (English - fluent/native, Español - basic, Türkçe - basic)

Built and Flown Experimentally-Rated Gyrocopter [details] [movie]

Archeology (esp. Biblical), Paleontology, and Catastrophist Hypotheses

Robotics and Machine Intelligence (esp. fully autonomous systems)

Ornithology

Botany

As general contractor, built own home using all-steel construction, solar powered, with geothermal HVAC

Sons: Christian (AI4XY) and Stuart (KG4ZIR)

Interesting Natural Phenomena (incl. tornados, E-field interactions, planetary "coincidences" violating theories of "chaos")

The International Aerial Robotics Competition created in 1991 and is the longest running aerial robotics competition in the world...