Rob MacCurdy
rbm7@cornell.edu




Position:
PhD
Major:
Mechanical Engineering
Project Focus:
Power Harvesting
Micro Aerial Vehicle

Robert MacCurdy
Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Sr. Research Engineer
Advanced Animal Tag Project Lead
Cornell U. Lab of Ornithology
91 Sapsucker Woods Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 254 2101
rbm7 (at) cornell.edu

View my CV

Papers:

• MacCurdy, R., Gabrielson, R., Spaulding, E., Purgue, A., Cortopassi, K., Fristrup, K., 2008, "Automatic animal tracking using matched filters and TDOA", Journal of Communications (in review)
• MacCurdy, R.B., Reissman, T., Winkler, D.W., and Garcia, E., 2008, “Energy Harvesting to Extend Wildlife Tag Lifetime”, Proceedings of ASME IMECE Conference, IMECE2008, #68082
• MacCurdy, R., Gabrielson, R., Spaulding, E., Purgue, A., Cortopassi, K., Fristrup, K., 2008, "Real-Time, Automatic animal tracking using direct sequence spread spectrum" Proceedings of European Wireless Technology Conference, EuWiT, Amsterdam
• MacCurdy, R.B., Reissman, T., and Garcia, E., 2008, “Energy Management of Multi-Component Power Harvesting Systems”, In Proceedings of SPIE Conference on Smart Materials and Structures, 6928, #6928
• Reissman, T., MacCurdy, R., Garcia, E., 2008, “Experimental Study of the Mechanics of Motion of Flapping Insect Flight Under Weight Loading”, Proceedings of ASME SMASIS Conference, SMASIS2008, #661
• Miller, S., MacCurdy, R., Kidd, W., Hudson, J. “Stabilization and Control of a Micro-scale Helicopter” AIAA Region I Student conference, March 2008

Talks:

• “Advanced Animal Tagging” ISBE breakout sessions at Cornell, Sept 2008
• “Recent Cornell work on Advanced Animal Tags” MIGRATE conference; hosted at Cornell April, 2008
• “The BRP RF Initiative: Radio Tracking and Telemetry” presentation to Lab of Ornithology Board of Directors May 2006
• “Real-time, automatic RF animal tracking using Spread Spectrum TDOA” Poster presentations at Princeton & Cornell

Lab Projects:

•Power Harvesting
I’m currently working on applying power harvesting techniques to extend the lifetimes of extremely low mass (and therefore energy constrained) wildlife tracking/telemetry tags.
•Micro Aerial Vehicle (see the Google Code project page)
I lead and advise a team of students who are developing a control system for a 250 gram electric helicopter operating indoors (GPS is assumed to be unavailable). Our initial goals are hands-off hover and reduced operator workload. Subsequent goals include autonomous flight, path planning/navigation and obstacle avoidance.

Other Projects:

•Automated Wildlife Radio Tracking
•Wildlife Data Telemetry
•Autonomous Acoustic Monitoring
•Elephant Listening Project
See the Cornell Engineering Magazine Story on acoustic elephant tracking.
The NY Times Science section also carried the story.
•Robotic Scaregull
Check out the video of it installed on Eastern Egg Rock.