National Science Foundation fellowship supports the future of flight
For Garrett Asper, the Graduate Research Fellowship will help advance electric and hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.
Electric or hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, commonly known as eVTOLs, represent the next frontier in air travel. This rapidly growing class of aircraft has the potential to improve advanced air mobility by moving people and cargo more quickly, quietly, and cost-effectively than traditional helicopters or ground transportation.
While there are still a lot of unknowns in this emerging field, there is also an opportunity for researchers to collaborate and share open-access tools with the broader community. This makes the work all the more exciting to Garrett Asper.
The aerospace engineering doctoral student will spend the next few years researching the advancement of flight control systems for eVTOL aircraft. Using custom control theory, he hopes to better understand how to control a variety of aircraft throughout their transition between vertical and horizontal flight.
As he begins year one of his graduate studies, one item Asper won’t need to worry about is the source of his funding. A recipient of the prestigious 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Asper is now essentially self-funded for three years with an annual stipend, allowing him the flexibility to choose the direction of his Ph.D. research.
The Graduate Research Fellowship program is the country’s oldest in support of doctoral and master’s degree students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields and aims to recognize and empower the next generation of knowledge experts who can contribute in meaningful ways to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering.
A world of possibilities
eVTOL aircraft have the ability to take off and land vertically but can transition to traditional horizontal, fixed-wing flight while in the air to fly farther and faster with much greater efficiency. The vertical take-off and landing capability allows operation from small “vertipads” in urban environments and it also improves access to rural regions, where infrastructure such as runways can be sparse.
This class of aircraft has the potential to improve efficiency and provide better access to critical services for those who need it most. Delivery of medical equipment, blood bank materials and general supplies to mission hospitals and remote medical clinics, for example, can be done much faster and more efficiently than transporting materials by land vehicle on dirt roads.
Improving the quality of life for others, in areas both close to home and across the globe, is a driving force behind Asper’s research.
“Having grown up in rural Appalachia, I see the problem of especially rural regions not having access to the same kind of infrastructure that we see in more suburban or urban environments,” he said. “I like the idea of utilizing technology for good.”
Asper has participated in mission trips to the Dominican Republic with his church since he was 12 years old, leading STEM and drone classes for the youth at Escuela Cristiana Bautista del Norte, a school that serves students from several surrounding villages. When he arrived at Virginia Tech, he built off those outreach experiences and joined the Uncrewed Systems Laboratory under the direction of professor Kevin Kochersberger to help bring drone education to Malawi.
“Part of the reason why I chose to come to Virginia Tech was the central motto of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve),” said Asper. “It's really great to be with like minded students that want to do outreach and are committed to being of service to others.”
Developing foundational tools
Asper is currently advised by Professor Craig Woolsey and has been working for several years as part of the research group in the Nonlinear Systems Laboratory. Woolsey’s lab focuses on nonlinear dynamics and control of ocean and atmospheric vehicles, specifically for applications involving fixed-wing and multi-rotor aircraft, ocean surface vessels, and subsurface ocean vessels at all scales.
For his Ph.D. research, Asper is working on developing a framework for flight testing novel control algorithms.
Much of Asper’s work will be experimental-based with real hardware in flight, but he will also be utilizing a simulation environment as well. As there aren't many tools that currently exist, he’s hoping to make the ones he’s developing accessible and open sourced for fellow researchers to test the theories that they're working on.
In the Nonlinear Systems Laboratory, he will have a collaborator, master’s degree student Patrick Corrigan, as their individual research projects focus on different parts of the same problem. Corrigan’s research is centered on aircraft modeling with system identification, and Asper’s work will benefit from that modeling. In turn, Corrigan will be able to utilize the improved control theory to get better model data.
“It’s a great process to have a partner on the other end, since we are all working towards the same goal of better understanding the transition from vertical to fixed-wing flight,” said Asper.
