Vishal Gautam

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I am a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Tech and a member of the Nonlinear Systems Laboratory. My work focuses on adaptive control, nonlinear systems, and 6DOF modeling and simulation, with applications to propulsion and hardware based testing.

I completed my undergraduate studies at UPES in India and worked on eVTOL and multirotor aircraft systems at VTOL Aviation India, primarily on propulsion and flight related development. That work involved hands on design, integration, and testing, and continues to inform how I approach modeling and control of real systems.

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Research

I am interested in solution methods that are precise and well structured, especially in control problems where performance, stability, and safety matter in practice. I care about approaches that remain usable under constraints, limited data, and imperfect models.

I am open to working on both theoretical and applied problems, particularly where control theory, nonlinear systems, and optimization connect to real hardware and testing.


Platforms

DRAGON eVTOL

DRAGON eVTOL flight demonstration

Heavy-lift multirotor

500 lb heavy-lift multirotor UAV

MALE UAV first flight

MALE — Medium Altitude Long Range UAV

Hexacopter flight test

Hexacopter flight test


News

May 15, 2025 Demonstrated the first stable fixed-wing-to-multirotor transition on the DRAGON eVTOL platform using gain-scheduled LQR and PID transition control laws with custom PX4 firmware.
May 10, 2025 Completed AOE 5404 (Optimal Control) final project on Hermite-Simpson direct collocation for UAM trajectory optimization, implementing a custom projected gradient descent solver in MATLAB.
May 01, 2025 Joined the Nonlinear Systems Laboratory as a Research Assistant, taking GNC ownership of the DRAGON eVTOL and working on adaptive control for 6-DOF platforms.
Aug 25, 2024 Started my M.S. in Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Tech, joining the Nonlinear Systems Laboratory.