Professor Felipe Gonzalez

Experience Research  I’m an Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics (EER)  and a CI with the QUT Centre for Robotics (QCR) at Queensland University of Technology. My PhD is the field of Multi-disciplinary Design Optimization in Aerospace Systems from the University of Sydney. My research is a nexus of aeronautical engineering, artificial intelligence, and optimisation. The motivation for my work is highly on translating scientific outcomes to address the practical challenges in autonomy, sensor design, sensor integration, data analysis for Unmanned Aerials Systems in remote sensing tasks.  I lead the Airborne Sensing Lab at QUT. I’m part of a team that has attracted over $9M of funding for fundamental and applied research from external competitive sources and have published 1 academic textbook, 3 Book chapters,  22 Journal papers and over 50 internationally peer-reviewed articles.  I am part of a team that has received approximately $ 9 Million in research grants, including:

• Navigating Under the Forest Canopy and in the Urban Jungle ARC DP 367K
• Establishing Advanced Networks for Air Quality Sensing and Analyses ARC LP $445K
• Assessing the capabilities of digital imaging and Unmanned Aerial Systems for species management: Koala Abundance $80K
• CRC PB 2164 - Developing Pest Risk models of Buffel Grass using Unmanned Aerial Systems and Statistical Methods $230K
• CRC PB 2135 Optimizing surveillance protocols using unmanned aerial systems, $870K
• Creating a more Resilient Queensland - Unmanned aircraft for emergency response and biosecurity (ResQu) $3,500,000 over 3 years, Smart Futures Co-Investment Fund
• Smart Skies project, $3 067k over 3 years, National and International Research Alliance Program (NIRAP),
• Enhanced Flight Assist Scheme (eFAS) for Automated Aerial Survey of Powerline Networks, $1 104k, CRC for Spatial Information-2
• Solar Powered Nano-Sensors for Data Acquisition and Surveying in Remote Areas, $540K, National and International Research Alliances Program, (Smart Futures Fund) – NIRAP
• Novel Aero-structural Design Optimisation Methods AOARD-044078, $67K , the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

UAV-Drone based Precision Agriculture and Biosecurity  

• PBCRC2135 – Optimising Surveillance Protocols Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (2015-2017). This project will investigate the sensitivities and capacity of emerging unmanned aerial systems (UASs) and imaging technologies for biosecurity surveillance in viticulture, horticultural and grain industries.
• Evaluation of UAVs for Weed detection including buffel grass at ARCAA ( 2014-2015)
• Evaluation of UAVs for Insect Damage in Shorgum
• Evaluation of UAVsRust in Oats
• PB CRC 5055  Evaluating UAV's for plant biosecurity (2013-2014) : An ARCAA /QUT/PBCRC to evaluate the use  of UAVs for plant bisoecutiry Dr Gonzalez’s contribution to this project is focused on the leadership aspects of the problem.
• PBCRC 3032 Flying spore trap project (2009-2010). This project was a scoping study to determine the potential of using an unmanned aerial vehicle, fitted with a spore trap, to detect and monitor spores of plant pathogens. The aim was to develop a sampling system that would have the ability to spatially monitor fungal spores, and protocols to interpret their spatial distribution. This tool will greatly enhance the ability to detect new incursions of fungal pathogens and to enable more accurate delimiting of distribution. The technology will allow for earlier detection of harmful plant pest or disease incursions in difficult areas and provide efficient and effective airborne surveillance. My contribution to this project is focused on the software, hardware design and leadership aspects of the problem

UAV-Drone based  Wildlife and conservation

• Koala Rescu (2014-ongoing)   The aim of this project is to explore Bayesian statistical modelling, artificial intelligence, wireless technology and the use of UAVs to improve the accuracy of population estimates of wildlife. 
• Reef research

UAV-Drone based  Gas Sensing Applications

• I lead the The Green Falcon Solar Powered UAV for Fire Prevention and Planning (2011-ongoing). This significant technological outcome was awarded the gold medal from the International Federation of Inventors Association and second prize in the EDN Innovation awards for embedded systems design and the gold medal, the innovation iENA 2011 Gold Medal The design was selected to be exhibited at the Melbourne Museum form November 2009 to February 2010.I instigated the project and am the  lead researcher.
• Green Falcon II 

Enabling Technoilogies

Advanced Autonomy, and advanced Path Planning Tools for UASs :  EAs , RRT, MDP, POMDP

• I am a PI on the enhanced Flight assist System (eFAS) for automated Aerial Survey of Powerline Networks  The CRCSI Project 4.3.1 enhanced Flight Assist System (eFAS) project extends the 2D aircraft flight path planning, data capture and flight assist concepts developed under CRCSI Project 6.07 and Project 9.07 to an active 3D capability. This enables automated and optimised flight management and planning for large-scale infrastructure aerial surveys. This work also makes a step towards fully autonomous aerial survey with UAVs where a complete 3D planning and automated flight capability is required.
• I was a PI on the The Smart Skies project (2007-2010). This research program was dedicated to future national airspace technologies with partners in the Queensland State Government, Boeing Research and Technology, and the CSIRO (see http://www.smartskies.com.au/).Dr Gonzalez was a core member of the project. For this work, ARCAA/QUT was awarded a 2010 Engineers Australia (Queensland Division) Excellence Award in the category of Control Systems, Networks, Information Processing and Telecommunications, and a 2010 Business/Higher Education Round Table Award in the category of Best Research & Development Collaboration. I was  the research leader for the characterisation of the hardware based solution for the common information network in regards to manned and unmanned aerial systems.

• Hierarchical asynchronous parallel evolutionary algorithms for high altitude long endurance UAV design optimisation This project focussed on developing the theory and practical application of Hierarchical Asynchronous Parallel Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms (HAPMOEA) for Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation (MDO) in Aeronautics and specifically to Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The project developed and advanced methodology and its coupling of aero structural analysis tools. Results will indicate the practicality and robustness of the method in finding optimal solutions and Pareto trade-offs between drag and weight by producing a set of non- dominated individuals from which the designer can choose.

• Meta-model assisted evolutionary algorithms and grid computing During the 21st Century COE Scholarship at Tohoku University in Japan I led to the development of a novel Kriging/Response Surface approximation Technique integration with a robust evolutionary optimiser for the design and optimisation of aeronautical systems.

• QUT Search and rescue UAV 2007-2013: This project consisted on developing five fully autonomous Search and Rescue UAV  (SRAUV) for the UAV Outback Challenge Competitions (2007, 2008,2009,2010,2011). (Funding: 2011 - $24,000, 2010 - $16,000, 2009 - $17,000, 2008 - $24,000, 2007- $30,000). Scientific community service

• Conference Session Chair for ICAS, AIAC, ACRA
• Reviewer of the following journals:
• Progress in Aerospace Sciences IF 2.396, Journal Rank 1,
• Structural and Multi disciplinary Design Optimization,
• Aeronautical Journal,
• AIAA Journal of Aircraft Conference Technical committee:

• AIAC15,  AIAC14 Workshops:

• co-chaired the UAV Rotorcraft session at ICAS 2012, Brisbane, Australia,  2012,
• co-organised  the  Workshop on Unmanned systems for Environmental and Mining applications Melbourne, Australian August Service Experience QUT Administration

• Study Area Coordinator Aerospace Avionics ( QUT, 2007-2011) (2013-ongoing)
• Teaching and Learning Aerospace Leader 2010-2011 Community engagement

• Aviation Careers Expo
• Australian Youth Aerospace Forum
• QUT Aviation Gateway Schools
• Boeing / QUT Steering Committee
• Aerospace Studies Industry Reference Group Meeting