Geogria Institute of Technology

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Faculty Profile

Eric Johnson

Associate Professor

Lockheed Martin Associate Professor of Avionics Integration

Office: Knight 415-2
Phone: 404.385.2519
eric.johnson@aerospace.gatech.edu
http://www.ae.gatech.edu/~ejohnson/

Education

  • B.S. Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering, University of Washington (1991)
  • M.S., Aeronautics, The George Washington University (1993)
  • S.M., Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1995)
  • Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (2000)

Biography

Dr. Johnson’s research interests include: Fault Tolerant Estimation and Control as enabled by advancements in digital processing and new sensor technologies; Aerospace Vehicle Design, particularly as enabled by digital avionics (micro-air vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), autonomous vehicles, and new configurations); Digital Avionics Systems, including architectures and redundancy management; and Modeling/Simulation, including improving aerospace system design and integration processes. This research includes the development and operation of several research UAVs, including the GTMax helicopter research UAV. Prior to joining the Aerospace Engineering faculty, Dr. Johnson held positions with The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, and at the NASA Langley Research Center. His academic and industry research experience is in the design and integration of avionics systems, including: the X-33, the C-5 Avionics Modernization Program, the C-130J, the Draper Small Autonomous Air Vehicle, and other airplane, helicopter, submersible, and launch vehicle programs. Dr. Johnson is also an instrument-rated private pilot.

Research

Digital avionics systems, flight control, and navigation, specializing in the following areas:

  • Adaptive flight control for fault tolerance, including the use of artificial neural
    networks, with applications for flight safety and reliability
  • Vision-based guidance and navigation, including vision-based air-to-air tracking,
    with applications for small unmanned aircraft
  • Digital avionics systems, including hardware and software, for small
    unmanned aircraft
  • Flight testing of guidance, navigation, and control methods on research aircraft

Selected Publications

  • Johnson, E.N. and Calise, A.J., “Limited Authority Adaptive Flight Control for Reusable Launch Vehicles,” AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 906-913, November/December 2003.
  • Johnson, E.N. and Kannan, S.K., “Adaptive Trajectory Control for Autonomous Helicopters,” AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 524-538, May/June 2005.
  • Wu, A.D., Johnson, E.N., and Proctor, A.A., “Vision-Aided Inertial Navigation for Flight Control,” AIAA Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication, Vol. 2, No. 9, pp. 348-360, September 2005.
  • Christophersen, H.B., Pickell, R.W., Neidhoefer, J.C., Koller, A.A., Kannan, S.K., and Johnson, E.N., “A Compact Guidance, Navigation, and Control System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” AIAA Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication, Vol. 3, No. 5, pp. 187-213, May 2006.
  • Johnson, E.N., Calise, A.J., Watanabe, Y., Ha, J., Neidhoefer, J.C., “Real-Time Vision-Based Relative Aircraft Navigation,” AIAA Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 707-738, March 2007.

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    Prof. Mitchell Walker in the High-Power Electric Propulsion Lab

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