Airspace Autonomy

Please join us for the Orange County ACM Chapter's bi-monthly evening program series.

Airspace Autonomy

Agenda
6:30 PM Doors Open & Networking
7:00 PM Announcements and Presentation
8:30 PM Meeting Adjourned

Event Details
The airspace industry has witnessed significant interest/activity in the use of autonomous solutions, across military and commercial applications. Driven by safety, efficiency and performance, and capability extension, these span a wide range, from Urban Air Mobility, to Cargo Operations, to military ISR missions, to Search and Rescue. There are many challenges to widespread adoption including technical, regulatory and societal (acceptance) considerations.
This talk describes some of the key technical challenges in airspace autonomy, e.g., (airborne) conflict detection and resolution, contingency management, verification, and validation approaches, etc. The talk also surveys ongoing work in industry in addressing these challenges, including vehicle platforms currently under development.
The focus is on the algorithmic and software aspects - as an example, the use of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes, in the development of conflict detection and resolution solutions, now codified in RTCA standards. On a related note, while Deep Learning has been widely adopted in automobile autonomy, challenges relating to vehicle certification limits its usage to safety-critical airspace applications. The challenges and opportunities here are also discussed. Finally, the talk touches upon the regulatory landscape and the work being done in the FAA and EASA towards enabling an autonomous airspace future.

Speaker
Bala Chidambaram is the Executive Director and Chief Engineer of Autonomy in the CTO’s Office at Boeing. In this role, he is responsible for defining and executing Boeing’s autonomy strategy across a variety of commercial and military programs. In his 25 year career at Boeing, Bala has held leadership roles in several areas, including modeling and simulation, electro-hydraulic actuation systems, software standards for vehicle health management, and secure connectivity solutions. His teams have supported platforms including the C-17 Globemaster III, the CH-47 Chinook, the V-22 Osprey, the International Space Station, the 787 Dreamliner, the 777X, and various Unmanned Vehicles. Bala has a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Co-sponsors
This event is co-sponsored by the IEEE Orange County Computer Society, SIGAI OC, the IEEE OC Solid-State Circuit Society (SSCS) and the Los Angeles Chapter of the ACM.

Venue & Parking
This meeting will be held at the Knobbe Martens' Irvine offices. Parking validation will be provided to attendees.