Postdoctoral: Control law design for near-ship operations of maritime UAVs

Job Description

The deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones from naval ships offers vast new and more adaptive possibilities for the use of maritime air power. The diverse range in size, platform design and systems integration possibilities, opens up a wide range of capabilities. Most importantly, implementation in commercial off-the-shelf flight control computers is a crucial adaptability for ongoing applications.

Robust control laws for Class-I UAV assisted and partial-autonomy operation, co-developed by the Royal NLR and the Nederlandse Defensie Academie (NLDA), will be implemented and demonstrated in flight. Initial flight testing will exploit a new deck motion simulator. Final flight testing is planned to take place at sea on a Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) Holland-class vessel.

The position is in collaboration of the Royal NLR and NLDA. The candidate will be working under the co-supervision of the Vertical Flight team of the Royal NLR and of professor Marc Voskuijl from NLDA. The location of employment will be primarily at the Royal NLR offices in Amsterdam and also at NLDA in Den Helder, with the possibility of remote work as well.

Requirements

We seek an enthusiastic researcher for doing cutting edge control law design research in a multidisciplinary context. A successful candidate should have:

• A PhD degree in a relevant field (Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering) with focus on Control Theory
• Proven ability to design control laws and thorough understanding of novel control theory methods with an application on drone flight dynamics
• Independence, eagerness to advance research and innovation, and communicational ability to interact with project members from various backgrounds

Additional desirable attributes also include:

• Interest in flight demonstration of test-drone from ship deck in open sea
• Flexibility to work at different locations within the Netherlands
• Fluent communication in both Dutch and English
• Hands-on experience with commercial flight controllers (e.g. PX4, ArduPilot, CubePilot)

Your new work environment

You will work in a diverse multidisciplinary team. We believe that a pleasant working environment in which everyone can feel at home is essential. There is an informal atmosphere in which team thinking is central. We are regularly in the department, but also work partly from home or are for consultation with customers and partners.

In terms of content, the Vertical Flight & Aeroacoustics department (AVVA) comprises of the Vertical Flight team, the Aerodynamics & Aeroacoustics team, and the Drone Centre. We identify, research, develop, supply and disseminate high-quality knowledge, technology, simulation tools and services for the aerospace sector in the areas of:

• the design, development, certification of rotorcraft (systems) for legacy and future platforms;
• the origin, (atmospheric) propagation and measurement of (source) noise from aircraft and spacecraft;
• applied and experimental aerodynamics.

What does working at NLR mean?

Royal NLR has been a knowledge organisation with the will and ambition to innovate for over 100 years. From this drive, we make the world of aerospace safer, more sustainable, more efficient and more effective and stand for ground-breaking innovations.

We employ over 900 dedicated professionals, from aeronautical engineers to psychologists and from mathematicians to application experts. NLR stands for an inclusive and diverse organisation where everyone feels welcome, safe, valued and respected.