Editor’s Note: Over the next year, we will be hosting a series of GoFly Master Lectures where industry experts share advice, insights, and answer questions from GoFly Teams.
For the latest in our series of “Master Lectures,” we welcomed Irene Gregory, NASA Senior Technologist (ST) for Advanced Control Theory and Applications. Her current interests are in the areas of robust autonomous systems, self-aware vehicle intelligent contingency management, acoustically-aware vehicles, and resilient control for advanced, unconventional configurations with particular focus on Urban Air Mobility. Previously, Dr. Gregory’s research spanned all flight regimes from low subsonic to hypersonic speeds, and included advanced control for aircraft and launch vehicles, aeroelasticity, fluidic control effectors, and autonomous vehicles. Her research has been documented in over 100 technical publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, invited lectures and presentations.
Dr. Gregory earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctorate in Control and Dynamic Systems from California Institute of Technology. She is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, a member of IEEE and IFAC, serves on IEEE Control Systems Society Aerospace Control Technical Committee and on IFAC Aerospace Control Technical Committee. She is an emeritus member of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Technical Committee and a former member of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee.
In her presentation, she explained the difference between control and feedback control. “Control is the use of algorithms and feedback in engineered systems to alter system behavior, while feedback control is the basic mechanism by which systems maintain their equilibrium,” she said.
To view the entire lecture, join the GoFly Prize challenge by contacting info@goflyprize.com.
