Bradford Robertson is a Research Engineer in the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory’s (ASDL) Defense and Space Division where he leads space systems research. This research focuses on the conceptual design of space vehicles and space architectures, entry, descent, and landing (EDL) aerodynamics, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in-the-loop flight simulation. In his time at ASDL he has worked on projects involving airline schedule optimization, aerospace manufacturing, entry descent and landing systems, space vehicle design, and high speed missile design and has participated in various research collaborations with NASA, AFRL, Pratt and Whitney, and The Boeing Company. He is also the technical advisor to ASDL’s AIAA missile design competition teams and has advised many winning teams. He earned his B.S. in Computer Science as well as his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Aerospace Engineering, 2013, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA - USA
  • Master of Science, Aerospace Engineering, 2009, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA - USA
  • Bachelor of Science, Aerospace Engineering, 2007, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA - USA
  • Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, 2007, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA - USA

Guided Capture and Deorbit of Space Debris (Sponsor: Georgia Tech Research Institute)

  • Role: Co-Investigator
  • Project overview: This is a Georgia-Tech wide effort to design an active debris removal space mission. ASDL is the lead orginization responsible for systems engineering and integration.

Georgia Tech Cislunar Architecture Study (Sponsor: Georgia Tech Research Institute)

  • Role: Technical Lead
  • Project overview: The goal of this project is to perform a multi-stakeholder cislunar architecture study that accounts for civilian, national security, and commercial interests in cislunar space.

Reliability Modeling Support in DYREQT for the Robust Mars Study (Sponsor: Jacobs Engineering/ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)

  • Role: Co-Investigator
  • Project overview: The project objective is to develop a methodology to perform a conceptual level reliability assessment of space transportation system architectures to support NASA MSFC’s Robust Mars study.

Reaction Control Systems in Free Flight CFD (Sponsor: NASA STMD)

  • Role: Co-Investigator
  • Project overview: This project extended previous work in CFD-in-the-loop flight simulation to include the open loop control of a reaction control system (RCS). This resulted in a demonstration of a Mars Science Laboratory vehicle pulsing its RCS system and showing the forces and moments calculated in CFD propagating through the flight simulation.

Light Bender (Sponsor: NASA STMD)

  • Role: Co-Investigator
  • Project overview: This project provided systems analysis to support the Light Bender, a proposed system for power distribution through the use of large mirrors, NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) award.

Launch Vehicle Trajectory Simulation with Integrated CFD Aerodynamic Prediction (Sponsor: National Institute of Aerospace/ NASA Langley Research Center)

  • Role: Co-Investigator
  • Project overview: This project created a CFD-in-the-loop flight simulation environment with POST2 and FUN3D. This environment was subsequently verified using a projectile and validated against ballistic range campaign data.

Human Lander System Generic Architecture Modeling (Sponsor: Jacobs Engineering/ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)

  • Role: Co-Investigator
  • Project overview: The project objective is to develop a methodology to perform probabilistic analysis of Human Lander System concepts using DYREQT in order to explore many of the operational uncertainties associated with proposed missions.

Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Design Methodology and Tools (Sponsor: Jacobs Engineering/ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)

  • Role: Co-Investigator
  • Project overview: The project objective is to develop a multi-disciplinary design environment to analyze small launch vehicles.

Airline Schedule Optimization for FedEx Airlines (Sponsor: FedEx)

  • Role: Technical Lead
  • Project overview: The project objective is to develop the methdology and software to optimize the airline schedule and package routing for FedEx. This involved formulating a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem to minimize the total cost of the airline under sponsor-provided business constraints and implementing software that is interoperable with FedEx backend systems.

Journal Papers

  1. Choi, Y., Robertson, B., Choi, Y., & Mavris, D., A multi-trip vehicle routing problem for small unmanned aircraft systems-based urban delivery., Journal of Aircraft, October 2019, Volume 56, Issue 6,pp 2309-2323, Link to PDF
  2. D.J.L.Siedlak, O.J. Pinon, B. Robertson and D.N. Mavris, Simulation-based Optimization Approach to Reduce the Impact of Manual Installation Tasks on Low Volume, Aerospace Production Flows, Journal of Manufacturing Systems, January 2018, Volume 46, Pages 193-207, Link to PDF

Conference Papers

  1. Ernst, Z., Drosendahl, M., Robertson, B.E. and Mavris, D.N., -Development of a Trajectory-Centric CFD-RBD Framework for Advanced Multidisciplinary/Multiphysics Simulation. AIAA SCITECH 2022 Forum. 2022. AIAA 2022-1793.
  2. Robertson, B., Ramos, E.M., Diaz, M.J. and Mavris, D. A Conceptual Design Study for an Unmanned, Reusable Cargo Lunar Lander. International Astronautical Congress (IAC). No. IAC-19-D2. 4.10. 2019.
  3. Mendez Ramos, E., Robertson, B.E., Diaz, M.J. and Mavris, D.N., -Development of a Lunar Lander Modeling and Simulation Capability. AIAA SCITECH 2022 Forum. 2022. AIAA 2022-0380.
  4. Hickey, A., Petitgenet, V., Robertson, B.E. and Mavris, D.N., -A Methodology for Actuating RCS Jets in a Continuous, Time-Accurate CFD Simulation. AIAA SCITECH 2022 Forum. 2022. AIAA 2022-1673.
  5. Ernst, Z.J., Hiller, B.R., Johnson, C.L., Robertson, B.E. and Mavris, D.N. Coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics with 6DOF Rigid Body Dynamics for Unsteady, Accelerated Flow Simulations. 2018 AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference. 2018. AIAA 2018-0291.
  6. Robertson, B.E., McNabb, J., Rines, M.R., Mavris, D.N., Stanley, D., Gupta, M. and Taylor, C. -The Effectiveness of Power Distribution Systems for Deployment on the Lunar Surface. ASCEND 2021. 2021. AIAA 2021-4161.
  7. Robertson, B.E., Rines, M.R., Taylor, C., Traore, A., Turner, T., Burgess, J. and Roach, T. -The Light Bender Concept for Power Distribution on a Lunar Base. ASCEND 2021. 2021. AIAA 2021-4160.
  8. Birbasov, N.S., Fields, T.M., Robertson, B.E. and Mavris, D.N. -A Multi-Disciplinary Analysis Framework for the Design of Small Launch Vehicles. ASCEND 2021. 2021. AIAA 2021-4205.
  9. Zhu, S., Downs, C., Robertson, B.E., Mavris, D.N. and Trent, D. -Probabilistic Modeling of a Three-Stage Human Landing System Architecture. ASCEND 2021. 2021. AIAA 2021-4129.
  10. Crowley, D., Robertson, B., Douglas, R., Mavris, D. and Hellman, B.  Aerodynamic Surrogate Modeling of Variable Geometry. 50th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition. 2012. AIAA 2012-0268.
  11. Robertson, B., Crowley, D., Garmendia, D., Douglas, R., Mavris, D. and Hellman, B. -A Modeling Methodology and Environment for Integrated Trim Analysis for a Reusable Booster System. 49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition. 2011. AIAA 2011-1009.
  12. Robertson, B., Crowley, D., Douglas, R., Mavris, D. and Hellman, B.-* Configuration determination of a reusable first stage booster utilizing monte carlo based inverse design.* AIAA Space 2011 Conference & Exposition. 2011. AIAA 2011-7280.

Theses

  1. B. E. Robertson, A Hybrid Probabilistic Method to Estimate Design Margin, Ph.D. Thesis, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, Decmber 2013