Navy Postgraduate School Seeks to Address Navy’s Increasing Use of Drones with New Robotics Program

PORT HUENEME, CA, UNITED STATES

03.11.2020

Story by Carol Lawrence 

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division

As the Navy expands and increases its use of unmanned systems within its future force, the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is standing up a new program in robotics engineering targeting primarily civilians across the enterprise.

In July, the first group of students is expected to start the Robotics Engineering Graduate Certificate Program, an online, one-year program that provides a technical foundation for understanding, designing and operating robotic systems for unmanned vehicles and autonomous systems. The program is open to eligible Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division personnel and those across the enterprise.

“At the highest levels, the importance of unmanned systems continues to be emphasized in naval planning and strategies,” said Brian Bingham, associate professor, mechanical and aerospace engineering departme nt, who oversees the new program at the Monterey, Calif.-headquartered school. He cited Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts’ 2018 Unmanned Systems goals, which describes exploiting unmanned and autonomous systems technologies as a “strategic imperative” for the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.

“Concurrently, we see that the size of these (dedicated unmanned and autonomous systems) programs is increasing exponentially through our program offices,” Bingham said. “(In response), it is critical for the Naval Research and Development Establishment (NR&DE) community to be able to educate and retain the expertise to deliver this vision.”

Under the program’s design, students enrolled will take a course a quarter that build on Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) undergraduate degrees.

The certificate program courses are modeled after a similar NPS program for its typical military service student body. They start with foundational elements such as computer programming for robotics and robotics fundamentals such as kinematics and sensor integration, and then move on to applications topics such as applied physics and robotic multibody systems, or another elective students may prefer. Instruction is by lecture and hands on.

“We crafted the certificate program to be foundational, and cover the software, platforms and sensor physics—the engineering knowledge you need to know for those applications,” Bingham said, and which would be hard for students to learn on their own. That’s because the instructors are experts in underwater, surface and aerial unmanned systems, ground vehicles and space robotics, and the information taught is for real-world defense-specific applications, all NPS programs and courses are.

The systems at the heart of the program are totally autonomous—meaning, those that require some programmed intelligence because they are not remotely piloted.

Bingham worked with Mike Tall of the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific; Reid McAllister with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock; Chris Egan of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport; and Mark Paulus and David Mortimore with Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Keyport for about six months to develop the program, aiming to not replicate any element students would be able to get from a non-military college.

The way they did that was to design the courses so that students will learn more about how to integrate these technologies and sensors into naval ships, Bingham said, rather than how to build the basic platforms, which is what non-military academic robotics programs teach.

“One of the needs we heard from warfare centers is that often their personnel are not building platforms, but instead are responsible for enhancing existing platforms through innovative payloads and missions,” he explained, because the warfare centers do Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RD T&E) and sensor integration. “We tried to design the certificate program specifically for folks in that world.”

The program idea came originally from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Unmanned Systems (DASN UxS) and the Unmanned Vehicles and Autonomous Systems (UVAS) Working Group. Prior to the program launching, there hadn’t been enough of a demand, Bingham said.

In existing NPS programs, a single command sponsors a 10-plus student cohort to attend the program. But with the robotics engineering program so new, the Consortium for Robotics Unmanned Systems Education and Research (CRUSER), with support from the Office of Naval Research, provided seed funding for the initial work to create the program. After this startup phase, tuition will support the program.

“We’ve had tremendous interest so far,” Bingham said, with the intent for the program to gain enough interest that commands sponsor a cohort so students don’t have to find their own sponsor.

NPS, because of that interest, is considering adding new programs in robotics operations, machine learning for autonomy, modeling/simulation for autonomy, and artificial intelligence.

“We hope to continue working with our warfare center colleagues to build out these and other associated programs,” he added.

Course-load wise, the multidisciplinary program is a step toward earning NPS graduate engineering degrees. The certificate can be stacked with other certificate programs, or individual courses, and a research thesis to satisfy degree requirements.

The robotics engineering certificate program is competitive, currently capped at 20 students, but the school will consider expanding that if there was more interest. The curriculum is also evolving, so the school wants feedback from the NR&DE community.

NEW GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN ROBOTICS ENGINEERING:
• Audience: Warfare Center and Naval Research Laboratory RDT&E workforce members.
• Application Package Deadline (details below): March 30, 2020.
• Submit To: [e-mail].
PROGRAM INFORMATION:
• Inaugural Cohort.
• Four-course sequence.
• Must maintain a “B” or better for each class. Anything less than a B will require student to reimburse the command for the cost of the class.
• Students are required to submit to Office of Workforce Development, unofficial NPS transcripts upon grade posting.
• Students experiencing difficulties must work with Office of Workforce Development prior to grades posting to get assistance with academic program.
• Students will be placed on a first-forty work schedule.*
• Classes and materials funded through the command.
• First classes begin July 6, 2020.
• Certificate POC Information:
For more information, contact:
Brian Bingham, Ph.D., associate professor, mechanical and aerospace engineering department
[phone]; [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 03.11.2020
• Date Posted: 03.11.2020 11:46
• Story ID: 364972
• Location: PORT HUENEME, CA, US