Corey Ippolito

Research Scientist
NASA Ames Research Center

Phone: (650) 604-1605
Email: corey.a.ippolito at nasa.gov
 

Biography

Corey Ippolito is a Research Scientist in the Adaptive Controls and Evolvable Systems (ACES) Group in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center.  He has spent much of his working career at NASA Ames Research Center. His affiliations include work with the NASA Haughton-Mars Project and the Biologically-Inspired Engineering for Exploration Systems (BEES) for Mars projects at NASA Ames Research Center. Corey Ippolito is the Lead Engineer on the Exploration Aerial Vehicles (EAV) project and the Polymorphic Control Systems (PCS) Project at NASA Ames. He has developed traditional control systems for unmanned aerial vehicles and ground-based autonomous unmanned vehicle system, as well as non-traditional controllers for Mars exploration aerial vehicle concepts. He is an active researcher in the field of Control Systems as well as Artificial Intelligence, formulating a mathematical framework for developing emotion-based controllers in machines.

Corey Ippolito has extensive experience in a wide array of fields including control systems design, computer architecture design, physics-based modeling and simulation of both rigid-body and flexible structures, software engineering methodologies, graph theory, and computer graphics and animation. His graduate thesis focused on software architecture and mathematical assembly formulations for component-based systems. His major accomplishments include several large-scale software designs and implementations, including the Reflection Architecture for distributed embedded systems development and simulation, the Cognitive Emotion Layer Architecture for machine intelligence, the Perception Physics Engine for constrained rigid bodies and soft-body physics simulations, the Reconfigurable Flight Simulator at Georgia Tech for the management of shared distributed development of flight simulation technologies, and the Self-Assembling Brokering Object Architecture for automating and verifying the assembly of component-based simulation modules. Corey has also worked in the video game industry, writing physics simulation software and optimizing 3D graphics and animation engines. He has published and given presentations in a wide range of topics, including software engineering techniques and smart hardware sensor design using emotional constructs.

Publications

1. (draft accepting, pending final submission) Ippolito, C. Dolan, J. Lohn, J. “SaVAnT-ML -  A Stochastic Adapting Topology Modeling Library for Fluid Thermal Systems Control”. AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference. 8 - 11 Aug 2011 in Portland, Oregon, USA
2. Ippolito, C. “Intelligent Adaptive Control Techniques for NASA’s Sustainability Base”, CompSust'10, the 2nd International Conference on Computational Sustainability, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, June 28-30, 2010
3. Ippolito, C., Nefian, A.  "Object Classification from Aerial Visual Imagery", 2010 IEEE 9th Annual IEEE Conference on Sensors, November 1-4, 2010
4. Ippolito, C., Espinosa, P, Weston, A. "Swift UAS : An electric UAS research platform for green aviation at NASA Ames Research Center", CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium (EAS IV), Moffett Field, CA, April 23, 2010
5. Ippolito, C, Al-Ali, K, Dolan, J.  "Polymorphic Control of an Autonomous Ground Vehicle over Wireless Mobile Networks", AIAA Infotech@Aerospace 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, April 20-22, 2010
6. Ippolito, C., Frank, J. "Control and Simulation of an Autonomous Lunar Lander", 2009 AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference, Chicago, IL, August 2009
7. Ippolito, C., Fladeland, M. “Applications of Payload Directed Flight”, 2009 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, March 2009
8. Ippolito, C, Yeh, Y. “A Trajectory Generation Approach for Payload Driven Flight”, AIAA-2009-1351, 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Orlando, Florida, Jan. 5-8, 2009
9. Ippolito, C. S Joo, K Al-Ali, Y Yeh, “Flight Testing Polymorphic Control Reconfiguration in an Autonomous UAV with UGV Collaboration”, 2008 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, March 2008
10. Ippolito, C. Kaneshige, J. Yeh Y "Neural Adaptive Flight Control Testing on an Unmanned Experimental Aerial Vehicle", AIAA-2007-2827, AIAA Infotech@Aerospace, Sonoma, CA. May 2007
11. 2007 (Interview) Wired Science, Television/PBS, Government Autonomous Vehicle Research and DIY UAVs
12. Ippolito, C. K Al-Ali "Topological Constructs for Automatic Reconfiguration of Polymorphic Control Systems", AIAA-2007-2832, AIAA Infotech@Aerospace, Sonoma, CA. May 2007
13. 2006 (Interview) Future’s Channel, “Probability in Engineering and Robotics”,
14. Ippolito, C., Pisanich, G., Al-Ali, K. “Component-Based Plug-And-Play Methodologies for Rapid Embedded Technology Development”, AIAA-2005-7122, Infotech@Aerospace, Arlington, VA, Sep 2005
15. Ippolito, C., Pisanich, G, Young, L. “Cognitive Emotion Layer Architecture for Intelligent UAV Planning, Behavior and Control”, 2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, March 2005
16. Ippolito, C., Pisanich, G., Plice, L. “Holarchical Systems and Emotional Holons: Biologically Inspired System Designs for Control of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles”, Seventh Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. Orlando, FL, Jul. 27-30, 2003
17. 2003 (Interview) National Geographic and Discovery Channel, NASA Haughton-Mars Project
18. Ippolito, C., Pritchett, A. "Software Architecture for a Reconfigurable Flight Simulator", AIAA-2000-4501, AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference, Denver, CO, August, 2000
19. Ippolito, C., Pritchett, A. "SABO: A Self-Assembling Architecture for Complex System Simulation", AIAA-2000-0299, 38th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 2000
20. Ippolito, C. “Software Architectures for Flight Simulation” Graduate Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2000

Select Co-Authored Papers

1. Y. Yeh, C Ippolito, "Hardware Implementation of COTS Avionics System on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platforms", AIAA Infotech@Aerospace 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, April 20-22, 2010
2. R Lee, Y Yeh, C Ippolito, "Geological Applications of Payload Directed Flight", AIAA Infotech@Aerospace 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, April 20-22, 2010
3. R. Lee, C Ippolito, "A Perception and Mapping Approach for Plume Detection in Payload Directed Flight", AIAA-2009-1898, AIAA Infotech@Aerospace Conference, Seattle, Washington, Apr. 6-9, 2009
4. Adami, Zhou, Ishihara, Yeh, Ippolito, "Six DoF Trajectory Tracking for Payload Directed Flight Using Trajectory Linearization Control" AIAA-2009-1897, AIAA Infotech@Aerospace Conference, Seattle, Washington, Apr. 6-9, 2009
5. Kumar, Ippolito, "Modeling and Trajectory Control of an Autonomous Sailboat for Path Planning", AIAA-2009-1965, AIAA Infotech@Aerospace Conference, Seattle, Washington, Apr. 6-9, 2009
6. Sungmoon Joo, Corey Ippolito, Khalid Al-Ali, Yoo Hsiu Yeh, "Vision Aided Inertial Navigation with Measurement Delay for Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Landing", IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana USA, March 2008.
7. Sungmoon Joo, Corey Ippolito, Khalid Al-Ali, Yoo Hsiu Yeh, "Towards Autonomous Fixed-Wing UAV Landing : A Vision Aided INS under Sensor Reconfiguration Scenario", 17th Annual IFAC World Congress, Seoul Korea, July 2008.
8. Kulkarni, N., Ippolito,C., Krishnakumar, K.  "Dynamic Inversion Based Control of a Docking Mechanism", AIAA-2006-6043, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, Keystone, Colorado, Aug. 21-24, 2006
9. Kulkarni, N., Ippolito, C., Krishnakumar, K., Al-Ali, K. “Adaptive Inner-Loop Rover Control”, 2nd IEEE International Conference on Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology
10. Krishnakumar, K, Kaneshige, J., and Ippolito, C., “A Plug and Play GNC Architecture Using FPGA Components”, AIAA-2005-7120, Infotech@Aerospace, Arlington, Virginia, Sep. 26-29, 2005
11. Young, L., Pisanich, G. Ippolito, C. “Aerial Explorers”, AIAA-2005-912, 43rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, Nevada, Jan. 10-13, 2005
12. Pisanich, Ippolito, Plice, Young, Lau, "Actions, Observations, and Decision-Making: Biologically Inspired Strategies for Autonomous Aerial Vehicles", AIAA-2004-948, 42nd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, Nevada, Jan. 5-8, 2004

Multimedia

• Collage (Autonomous UGV, Autonomos UAV, etc.)
• Space Autonomy and Robotics
  • A Lunar MicroRover Concept Simulation
  • Space Shuttle Docking Mechanism Simulation
  • ALDER Autonomous Lunar Lander (Control Video)
  • ALDER Autonomous Lunar Lander (Instruments)
  • ALDER Autonomous Lunar Lander (Vis)
• Satellite ADC and C&DH
  • Small Satellite Simulation - Control, C&DH System Sim Demonstration
  • Small Satellite - Tracking Sim
• UAV
  • EAV Flight Tests, 13 Dec 2005.  (Video produced by Greg Pisanich)
  • Video of EAV001
• Polymorphic Control Systems Research
  • PCS: Coordinated UAV and UGV Simulation Demonstration
  • PCS EAV Autolanding 1
  • PCS EAVAutolanding 2
  • PCS EAVAutolanding 3
• UGV and Robotics
  • Max Simulation Environment with Friction
  • Simulation and Visualization of the Max UGV Rover Systems
  • Max UGV in the Atacama Desert, in Chile
  • Max Rover in Autonomous Operation and Simulation
  • My first rover running at night (Crossbow NAV 420 had large GPS inaccuracies)
  • Modern Marvels Video Clip (Copyright)
    • Video During Filming, Picture, Group Picture
  • Nilesh's Experiment- Neural Adaptive Controller 4x Friction Model Error
  • Nilesh's Experiment- Neural Adaptive Controller 2x Friction Model Error

 

Perception Physics Engine

I created the Perception Physics Engine, a rigid-body constraint-based simulation system created for several console platforms. I optimized this engine particularly for the PlayStation 2 Vector Units.  These technology demos were recorded on a PlayStation2 development kit.

'Bubbling Brook' (13 MB) Simple Fluid Surface Notes on Finite Differencing	'Tour of Duty' (6.2 MB) Characters Respond to Physics of Vehicle (Simple Character Physics) (5 Body Vehicle Physics) Notes on Rigid Body Dynamics
'Cloth' (6.0 MB) Cloth and Hair Simulation Notes on Cloth Simulation Notes on Particle Simulation	'Deep Ocean' (12 MB) Deep Ocean Wave Simulation
'Horse' (2.9 MB) Cowgirl Character Reacts to Moving Body (Simple Character Physics)	'Blob' (4.0 MB) Deformable Surface
'Vehicles' (7.2 MB) Jeep and Motorbike Vehicles (Multi-body Vehicle Physics)	'Motorbike' (6.9 MB) Cowgirl Reacts to Player Controlled Motorbike (Simple Character Physics) (3 Body Vehicle Physics)
'Rag Doll' (5.4 MB) Cowgirl Responds to Impulse Input, Using Various Constraint Configurations (Character Physics)

 

 

 

Web:

CMU/CMIL Blog
Windows Live Space Blog
Multimedia Page on Exhedra Site