Welcome to FLAIR Lab
The METU Flight Dynamics, Learning, Autonomy and Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (FLAIR Lab; ODTÜ Uçuş Dinamiği, Öğrenme, Otonomi ve Akıllı Robotik Laboratuvarı), led by Dr Süleyman Yıldırım within the Department of Aerospace Engineering, is dedicated to bringing artificial intelligence, machine learning, machine vision and robotics to bear on the dynamics, guidance and control of aerospace vehicles. Our research spans flight dynamics and nonlinear flight simulation, missile guidance and trajectory optimisation, reinforcement learning for guidance and control, swarm intelligence and the cooperative guidance of unmanned systems, autonomous aerial refuelling, and vision-based robotic inspection and manipulation for aircraft. Our objective is to develop learning-enabled guidance and control methods, high-fidelity simulation environments and intelligent robotic systems that allow aerospace vehicles to be modelled, controlled and operated autonomously, safely and reliably, and to verify these methods rigorously in simulation before they are transferred to real aerospace systems.
Why “FLAIR”?
The name is an acronym of the four pillars of our work: Flight dynamics, Learning, Autonomy and Intelligent Robotics. It also carries two further meanings that we hold close. In English, flair denotes a natural aptitude, an instinctive skill; it reflects our ambition to give autonomous aircraft something of the judgement of an experienced pilot. And it echoes the flare, the final manoeuvre before touchdown, in which the pilot raises the nose to arrest the descent and settle the aircraft gently onto the runway. It is the moment at which flight dynamics and control meet most precisely, and the moment we aim to master in everything we build.