Felipe Gonzalez

Qualifications

BE (Mech), PhD (Aerospace) , MIEAust, CPEng

Career History and biography

Professional and Group Associations

Member

• Institution of Engineers Australia
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME),
• Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS)

Professional and community services roles

Five years experience as a Mechanical and Project Engineer in project planning, engineering design, project management, and manufacturing and maintenance service for different manufacturing, metallurgic, aeronautical and heavy industry companies.

Awards:

• Studentship, PhD Aeronautical Engineering, The University of Sydney.
• Scholarship M. Eng (RES) Aeronautical Engineering, The University of Sydney.
• Honours Degree Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Best Graduate Point Average.
• Pertaining to the Professional Excellence Formation Program(PEP).
• Drill Machine Design and Construction winner in the category of science(V Show of Engineering Projects

Research Areas

Within the broad field of Aerospace Optimisation research, Dr. Luis Felipe Gonzalez Toro and his research team have defined three main research areas:

• Unmanned Aerial Systems
• Advanced Numerical tools for Multidisciplinary Design and Optimisation

Unmanned Aerial Systems

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are becoming important military and commercial assets for diverse applications. Ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance, to aid relieve and monitoring tasks. These vehicles are now available in a broad size and capability range and are intended to fly in regions where the presence of onboard human pilots is either too risky or unnecessary. Civilian applications for UAS technology are quickly emerging as a large and lucrative new aerospace market. Examples of civilian applications include: coastal surveillance, power-line inspection, traffic monitoring, bush-fire monitoring, precision farming and remote-sensing, to name a few. The multi-physics aspects of these vehicles can benefit from alternative approaches for design and optimisation.

 

Advanced Numerical tools for Multidisciplinary Design and Optimisation

Optimisation is an integrated part of global aeronautical design as small changes in geometry increase structural weight and reduce aerodynamic drag. In aerospace engineering design and optimisation the engineer is usually presented with a problem which involves not only one single objective but also numerous objectives and multi-physics environments. Hence a systematic approach, which accounts for the interaction and trade-offs between multiple objectives, variables, constraints and disciplines, is required. This approach is called Multi-objective (MO) and Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation (MDO).

Capturing the solution of a MO and MDO problem in aeronautics requires the use of CFD and FEA computations which are time consuming, and involve the evaluation of candidate solutions of non-linear equations with several millions of mesh points and the computations of prohibitive gradients. There are different approaches for solving a MDO problem using traditional deterministic optimisation techniques.

New algorithms such as Evolution Algorithms (EAs) are good for complex cases problems where the search space can be multi-modal, non-convex or discontinuous, with multiple local minima and with noise. There are also problems where we look for a set of Pareto solutions, a Nash equilibrium point or other solutions like ones issued from Stackelberg games. Optimisation techniques can be combined with approximation techniques for expensive computations, for multi-fidelity analysis, for complex MDO problems incorporating additional compatibility constraints and variables into the system and in applications with complicated search spaces where the design space dimension varies.

 

External Collaborators

Within the broad field of Aerospace Optimisation research, Dr. Luis Felipe Gonzalez Toro and his research team have strong collaborations with:

• Boeing Quarterly Meeting Committee Member
• ARCAA/CSIRO
• Airservices Australia
• Jyvaskyla University
• Tohuku University
• The University of Sydney

Teaching areas

• Advanced System Design
• Modern Flight control
• Engineering Optimisation
• Aerospace Propulsion
• Aerodynamics
• Aircraft Structures

Funding

Received over $0.2M in research funding since year 2006

 

Selected List of Awarded Grants

Within the broad field of Aerospace Optimisation research, Dr. Luis Felipe Gonzalez Toro and his research team have been granted funds to conduct following research projects:

 

Hierarchical Asynchronous Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms for High Altitude Long Endurance UAV Design Optimisation

This project focussed on developing the theory and practical application of Hierarchical Asynchronous Parallel Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms (HAPMOEA) for Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation (MDO) in Aeronautics and specifically to Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The project developed and advanced methodology and its coupling of aero structural analysis tools. Results will indicate the practicality and robustness of the method in finding optimal solutions and Pareto trade-offs between drag and weight by producing a set of non- dominated individuals from which the designer can choose.

 

Meta-Model Assisted Evolutionary Algorithms and Grid Computing

Dr. Gonzalez's work during the 21st Century COE Scholarship at Tohoku University in Japan led to the development of a novel Kriging/Response Surface approximation Technique integration with a robust evolutionary optimiser for the design and optimisation of aeronautical systems.

 

Search and Rescue UAV 2007 and 2008

This project consisted on supervising two groups of undergraduate students on the design, integration and operation of two fully autonomous UAV for the UAV outback challenge competitions in 2007 and 2008. (2008 - $24K, 2007 - $30K).

Selected List of Research Student Projects

Within the broad field of Aerospace Optimisation, Dr. Luis Felipe Gonzalez Toro’s students have undertaken following funded research projects:

 

Study of Multi-Objective Optimisation Software for Industrial and Academic Purposes

Name: J.A. Badra
Year: 2006
Course: MER.
College: USYD

 

Aerostructural Optimisation of High Altitude Long endurance UAV wings

Name: Lloyd Damp
Year: 2006
Course: MER.
College: USYD

 

Reconfigurable path planning in a forced landing for an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

Name: Jane Y Hung
Year: 2005-2009
Course: Ph. D.
College: QUT

 

Aircraft Hybrid Powerplant

Name: Richard R Glassock
Year: 2007-2008
Course: MEng
College: QUT

 

MDO Aerospace Vehicles

Name: Dong Seop Lee
Year: 2008
Course: PhD.
College: USYD

 

Twelve Undergraduate theses to completion on the topic of unmanned aerial systems, aerodynamics, race car aerospace vehicle design and optimisation

 

Selected List of Publications

Book Chapters:  

• L. F. González, E. J. Whitney, J. Périaux and K. Srinivas. Evolutionary Optimization Tools for Multi-objectiveDesign in Aerospace Engineering: from Theory to MDO applications. Evolutionary Algorithms and Intelligent Tools in Engineering Optimization W. Annicchiarico, J. Périaux, M. Cerrolaza and G. Winter (Eds.) WIT Press, Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst, Southampton , SO40 7AA , UK, 2004   
• E. Whitney, L. González, K. Srinivas and J. Périaux. Multi-Objective Evolution Design for UAV Aerodynamic Applications. French-Australian Advanced Workshop on Multidisciplinary Methods and Numerical Tools for UAV Design Applications, UAV-MMNT03, Sydney , Australia . 2004
• E. Whitney, L. Gonzalez and J. Périaux, “Distributed Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation in Aeronautics using Evolutionary Algorithms, Game Theory and Hierarchy” , Multidisciplinary Methods for Analysis Optimization and Control of Complex Systems, Mathematics in Industry Series, Volume 6 Part II,  p 249-281,  DOI 10.1007/3-540-27167-8_8 , 2005, Springer Berlin Heidelberg,  ISBN 978-3-540-22310-8

Lecture Notes:  

• Jacques Periaux, Luis F. Gonzalez, Eric J. Whitney and K. Srinivas, MOO Methods for Multidisciplinary Design Using Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms, Game Theory and Hierarchical Topology: Practical Application to the Design and Optimisation of UAV Systems (Part 1), Von Karman Institute (VKI) Lecture Series, Introduction to Multidisciplinary to Optimization and Multidisciplinary Design: Applications to Aeronautics and Turbomachinery, March 6-10, 2006.
• Luis F. Gonzalez, Jacques Periaux, Eric J. Whitney and K. Srinivas, MOO Methods for Multidisciplinary Design Using Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms, Game Theory and Hierarchical Topology: Practical Application to the Design and Optimisation of UAV Systems (Part 2), Von Karman Institute (VKI) Lecture Series, Introduction to Multidisciplinary to Optimization and Multidisciplinary Design: Applications to Aeronautics and Turbomachinery, March 6-10, 2006.
• Luis F. Gonzalez, Jacques Periaux, DongSeop. Lee, Eric J. Whitney and K. Srinivas, MOO Methods for Multidisciplinary Design Using Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms, Game Theory and Hierarchical Topology: Practical Application to the Design and Optimisation of UAV Systems (Part 3),Von Karman Institute (VKI) Lecture Series, Introduction to Multidisciplinary to Optimization and Multidisciplinary Design: Applications to Aeronautics and Turbomachinery, March 6-10, 2006.
• L. F. González, E. J. Whitney, J. Périaux and K. Srinivas. Practical Aerodynamic Design for UAVs using Multi-criteria Evolutionary Algorithms. Von Karman Institute (VKI) Lecture Series, Methods & Tools For Multi-Criteria/Multidisciplinary Design, November 15-19, 2004.  

Journal Papers

• H. A. Griffin, L. F. Gonzalez, and K. Shrinivas, Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Externally Blown Flap Configuration for Transport Aircraft, Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 45, No. 1, January–February 2008, p 172-184
• D.S. Lee, L.F. Gonzalez, K. Srinivas and J. Periaux. Robust Evolutionary Algorithms for UAV/UCAV Aerodynamic and RCS Design Optimisation, Computers & Fluids Journal ,  37(2008), p547–564
• D.S. Lee, L.F. Gonzalez, K.Srinivas and J. Periaux. Robust Design Optimisation using Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms, Computers & Fluids Journal  37 (2008) 565–583
• L.F .Gonzalez, D.S. Lee, K. Srinivas and K.C. Wong, Single and Multi-objective UAV Aerofoil Optimisation via Hierarchical Asynchronous Parallel Evolutionary Algorithm, RAeS Aeronautical Journal Vol 110, No. 1112, Oct 2006.
• L. Gonzalez, E W Whitney, K. Srinivas,  S. Armfield and J. Periaux, A. Robust evolutionary technique for coupled and multidisciplinary design optimisation problems in aeronautics Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal,  July 2005, pp142 – 153.
• E. J. Whitney, M. Sefrioui, K. Srinivas, J. Périaux:  “Advances in Hierarchical, Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms for Aerodynamic Shape Optimisation”, JSME (Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers) International Journal, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2002.
• D.S Lee, L.F Gonzalez, K. Srinivas, D.J Auld and K.C Wong, Aerodynamic Shape Optimisation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles using Hierarchical Asynchronous Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms, International Journal of Computational Intelligence Research (in press)