The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is a prestigious fellowship awarded by the National Science Foundation to outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The fellowship provides three years of financial support, including a stipend and tuition allowance, to help recipients pursue research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. The GRFP aims to recognize and support individuals who demonstrate potential for significant achievements in science and engineering research.

Application

2024-2025 Award Year

Intellectual Merit

My research focuses on the persistent optimal control of renewably-powered robotic vehicles. Since these robots source their energy from their environment, they are uniquely capable of conducting persistent missions to collect spatiotemporally varying data at high resolution. To accomplish such tasks, however, it is necessary to allocate energy intelligently. I addressed the persistent energy allocation problem by solving an optimal control problem, through which I prove the energy-optimal strategy to maximize distance traveled is to travel at a constant speed. This work is currently available as a preprint and is under review for presentation at the IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications.

I coupled this controller with an information-maximizing ergodic path planner to create a hierarchical energy-aware information-maximizing control algorithm. I tested this in the field using a solar-powered autonomous surface vessel at Jordan Lake, NC to map wind speeds across the lake, focusing on regions of a particular rated wind speed. The data and results from this field test are currently being prepared for publication in IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

In my ongoing work, I am working to characterize the relationship between information and energy, a term called Information-Value of Energy (IVE). With this term, we can design controllers that intelligently allocate and save energy based upon the information that can be collected using that energy, allowing for even more efficient exploration and data collection.

Broader Impacts

I am continuing to work towards my goal of expanding access to STEAM education opportunities for students in my communities. I’ve worked with the InspireNC nonprofit to teach high school students basic control algorithms and helped them implement them in robots they designed and built. Further, I’m working with the nonprofit to establish a partnership with other nonprofit and corporate organizations in the area to set up a community workspace where students can have access to workshop tools, educational resources, and mentorship that may not otherwise be available to them.