• Professor, Aerospace Engineering
  • Director, Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory
  • Site Director, NSF Center for Unmanned Air Systems (C-UAS)
  • Site Director, FAA Center for General Aviation Research (PEGASAS)
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John Valasek Profile Photo

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, University of Kansas - 1995
  • M.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Kansas - 1990
  • B.S., Aerospace Engineering, California State Polytechnic University - 1986

Research Interests

    • Autonomous and nonlinear control of cyber-physical air, space and ground systems
    • Air vehicle control and management
    • Vision based sensors and navigation systems
    • Advanced cockpit/UAS systems and displays
    • Control of Bio-nano materials and structures

Certifications & Memberships

  • Engineering Hall of Fame, College of Engineering, Calif. State Polytechnic University, Pomona – 2019
  • Aerospace Engineering Honor Roll, Aerospace Engineering Department, University of Kansas – 2018
  • Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics – 2017
  • Sigma Gamma Tau National Aerospace Engineering Honor Society; National President – 2006

Awards & Honors

  • John Leland Atwood Award, National Outstanding Aerospace Educator, American Society for Engineering Education/American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics – 2015
  • McElmurry Outstanding Teaching Award, decided by the May and December graduating seniors in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University – 2001, 2004, 2014
  • Charles W. Crawford Service Award, College of Engineering, Texas A&M University – 2010
  • Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching, University Level, Texas A&M University Association of Former Students – 2004, 2008
  • Sustained Service Award, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Headquarters – 2008
  • Group Achievement Award, SATS Project Team, NASA Headquarters – 2006

Selected Publications

  • Valasek, John (Ed.), Advances in Computational Intelligence and Autonomy for Aerospace Systems, AIAA Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics Series, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2018. DOI :https://doi.org/10.2514/4.104794
  • Lauderbach, Alison H., (Eds.), Complex Aerospace Systems Engineering, AIAA Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics Series, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2018. Chapter: Valasek, John, “Aerospace Capstone Design and Senior Technical Electives with Enhanced Complex Aerospace Systems Engineering Content”
  • Saha, Dipanjn,Valasek, John, Famularo, Douglas, “Output Feedback Control Using State Observers of a Class of Nonlinear Nonstandard Two-Time-Scale Systems,” International Journal of Control, (accepted; to appear).
  • Saha, Dipanjan, Valasek, John, Leshikar, Christopher, and Reza, Mashfique, “Multiple-Time-Scale Nonlinear Control of Aircraft with Model Uncertainties,” Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, (accepted; to appear).
  • Goecks, Vinicius, G., Gremillion, Gregory M., Lawhern, Vernon J., Valasek, John, and Waytowich, Nicholas, "Integrating Behavior Cloning and Reinforcement Learning for Improved Performance in Dense and Sparse Reward Environments," International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 2020 (AAMAS20), Auckland, New Zealand, 9-13 May 2020.
  • Goecks, Vinicius, G., Woods, Grayson, Das, Niladri, and Valasek, John, "Combining Visible and Infrared Spectrum Imagery Using Machine Learning for Small Unmanned Aerial System Detection," Automatic Target Recognition XXX, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2020, Anaheim, CA, 28 April 2020.
  • Bera, Ritwik, Goecks, Vinicius G., Gremillion, Gregory M., Valasek, John, and Waytowich, Nicholas R., “PODNet: A Neural Network for Discovery of Plannable Options,” Combining Machine Learning and Knowledge Engineering in Practice (AAAI-MAKE) 2020, Palo Alto, CA, 23-25 March 2020.
  • Goecks, V.G., Gremillion, G.M., Lawhern, V.J., Valasek, John, and Waytowich, N.R., "Efficiently Combining Human Demonstrations and Interventions for Safe Training of Autonomous Systems in Real-Time,” 6613, Thirty-Third AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-19), Honolulu, HI, 27 January 2019.
  • Valasek, John, and Bowden, Ezekiel, “A UAS Flight Test Engineering Course Modeled on Professional Methodologies and Practices,” AIAA-2019-1078, 2019 AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference, AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition, San Diego, CA, 9 January 2019.
  • Saha, Dipanjan, and Valasek, John, “Nonlinear Multiple-Time-Scale Attitude Control of a Rigid Spacecraft with Uncertain Inertias,” AIAA-2019-0932, 2019 AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition, San Diego, CA
  • Narang-Siddarth, Anshu, and Valasek, John, "Nonlinear Multiple Time Scale Systems in Standard and Non-Standard Forms: Analysis and Control," Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), 2014, eISBN: 978-1-61197-334-1, ISBN: 978-1-61197-333-4, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1137/1.9781611973341
  • Valasek, John, Akella, Maruthi R., Narang, Anshu, and Rollins, Elizabeth, "Adaptive Dynamic Inversion Control of Linear Plants with Control Position Constraints," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Volume 20, Number 4, July 2012, pp. 918-933.
  • Siddarth, Anshu, and Valasek, John, "Kinetic State Tracking for a Class of Singularly Perturbed Systems," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 34, Number 3, May-June 2011, pp. 734-749.
  • Restrepo, Carolina, and Valasek, John, "Structured Adaptive Model Inversion Controller for Mars Atmospheric Flight," Journal of Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 31, Number 4, July-August 2008, pp. 937-953.
  • Tandale, Monish D., and Valasek, John, "Solutions for Handling Control Position Bounds in Adaptive Dynamic Inversion Controlled Satellites," Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Volume 55, Issue #2, April-June 2007.
  • Tandale, Monish D., and Valasek, John, "Fault Tolerant Structured Adaptive Model Inversion Control," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 29, Number 3, May-June, 2006, pp. 635-642.
  • Valasek, John (Ed.), "Advances in Intelligent and Autonomous Aerospace Systems," AIAA Progress in Aeronautics & Astronautics Series, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2012, eISBN: 978-1-60086-896-2 print ISBN: 978-1-60086-897-9, http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/4.868962
  • Valasek, John (Ed.), "Morphing Aerospace Vehicles and Structures," John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK, 2012, ISBN: 978-0-470-97286-1.
  • Woodbury, Timothy, and Valasek, John, “Synthesis and Flight Test of an Automatic Landing Controller Using Quantitative Feedback Theory," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 39, Number 9, September 2016.
  • Valasek, John, Kirkpatrick, Kenton, May, James, and Harris, Joshua, "Intelligent Motion Video Guidance for Unmanned Air System Ground Target Surveillance," Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, Volume 13, Number 1, January 2016.
  • Kirkpatrick, Kenton, Valasek, John, and Haag, Chris, "Characterization and Control of Hysteretic Dynamics Using Online Reinforcement Learning," Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, Volume 10, Number 6, June 2013, pp. 297-305.
  • Kirkpatrick, Kenton, and Valasek, John, "Active Length Control of Shape Memory Alloy Wires via Reinforcement Learning," Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures , Volume 20, Number 4, July 2012.
  • Lampton, Amanda, and Valasek, John, "Multiresolution State-Space Discretization for Q-Learning with Pseudo-Randomized Discretization," Journal of Control Theory and Applications, Volume 9, Number 3, 2011, pp. 431-439.
  • Valasek, John, Tandale, Monish D., and Rong, Jie, "A Reinforcement Learning - Adaptive Control Architecture for Morphing," Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, and Communication, Volume 2, Number 5, pp. 174-195, April 2005.
  • Valasek, John, Famularo, Douglas, and Marwaha, Monika, “Fault Tolerant Adaptive Model Inversion Control for Vision-Based Autonomous Air Refueling,” Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, (accepted; to appear in 2017).
  • Tandale, Monish D., Bowers, Roshawn, and Valasek, John, "Robust Trajectory Tracking Controller for Vision Based Autonomous Aerial Refueling of Unmanned Aircraft," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 29, Number 4, July-August, 2006, pp. 846-857.
  • Doebbler, James, Spaeth, Theresa, Valasek, John, Monda, Mark J., and Schaub, Hanspeter, "Boom and Receptacle Autonomous Air Refueling Using a Visual Pressure Snake Optical Sensor," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 30, Number 6, November-December 2007, pp. 1753-1769.
  • Valasek, John, Hughes, Declan, Kimmett, Jennifer, Gunnam, Kiran, and Junkins, John L., "Vision Based Sensor and Navigation System for Autonomous Aerial Refueling," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 28, Number 5, pp. 979-989, September-October 2005.
  • Doebbler, James, Spaeth, Theresa, Valasek, John, Monda, Mark J., and Schaub, Hanspeter, "Boom and Receptacle Autonomous Air Refueling Using a Visual Pressure Snake Optical Sensor," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Volume 30, Number 6, November-December 2007, pp. 1753-1769.
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