SEMINAR: Material Opportunities for Next Generation Remotely Piloted Air Vehicles

Abstract:

Next-generation concepts for remotely piloted air vehicles seek to balance mission range, agility, and affordability. This increases the need for improved light-weight, low-cost structures with integrated functions. Composites which add functions like agile communication, thermal management, and aerodynamic shape change have the potential to enable mission range and agility without significantly adding weight or reducing internal payload volume. This presentation will discuss current research efforts within the Composites Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory designed to investigate the potential of physically reconfigurable liquid metal structurally embedded vascular antennas arrays (SEVA2), additive manufacturing of composites, microvascular networks, morphing aerostructures, arrays of artificial hair flow sensors, and nanoparticle-based thermal sensing.

Biography:

Dr. Baur is a Principal Engineer within the Composites Branch of Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials & Manufacturing Directorate. He holds a Ph.D. from M.I.T and a B.S. from the University of Cincinnati in Materials Science and Engineering, as well as a B.A. in Physics from Illinois Wesleyan University. In addition to his time in industry and academia, Dr. Baur has worked for the Air Force for more than 22 years as Division Technical Director, Branch Technical Advisor, Research Leader, Program Manager, and other roles.

He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed technical journal articles in the area of shape memory morphing composites, microvascular composites, nano-enhanced polymer composites, bio-inspired flow sensors, nonlinear optical materials, and reconfigurable antennas. He is the recipient of the Cleary Award for Scientific Achievement, the Affiliated Societies Award for Technical Leadership, and the MIT Infinite Miles Award

His current interest are in materials for morphing aerostructures, additive processing of complex polymer composites, and affordable processing of composite structures. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE), and the Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE).