Student Bio
John Bass has been passionate about mechanics and airplanes since he was a child; learning how things work and fly. In the last two years of his undergraduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sherbrooke, for his Major Design Project, he and his team designed, built and tested a ultralight quadrotor aircraft capable of seating a pilot onboard. He oversaw the rotor aerodynamics and worked with dynamic models and simulation. It was during this project that he started to have a passion for small remotely piloted aircraft systems. Since then, he has completed three internships in his current supervisor’s – Professor Alexis Lussier Desbiens – research lab, two of which specialized in RPAS. He worked on setting up a DJI S1000, written user manuals for the various remotely piloted aircraft in the lab, and has experience applying for Special Flight Operator Certificates with Transport Canada. Having completed his undergraduate degree with a specialization in aerodynamics, he chose to pursue his Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering, and now his PhD in Mechanical Engineering, supervised by Professor Lussier Desbiens.
His Master’s project aimed at improving the landing envelope of small multirotor RPAs, by allowing them to land on inclined surfaces using reverse thrust. He was able to touch many different areas of robotics, such as dynamic modeling, simulation, control, genetic algorithms, testing and data acquisition. During his graduate studies, he has worked on various RPAs related projects with industrial partners. Glencore was interested in using small RPAS for flying inside an ore warehouse to monitor equipment thermals, in order to reduce risks to workers as the powdery ore was flammable and carcinogenic. He also kicked off a project with CIMA+, as they were interested in using RPAs to inspect the inside of industrial chimneys. Recently, he has been working on a two-year project in partnership with the surveying firm Corriveau J.L. & Associates and three mining companies. Their task is to design, build and fly an RPAS capable of mapping underground mines, autonomously. Throughout his graduate studies, he acted as supervisor for seven interns that are working on the various projects.
His PhD project revolves around the same subject as his Master’s, to improve the landing envelope of multirotor, but on fast moving surfaces, such as trucks, trains and ships. The projects encompasses multiple domains, such as dynamic modeling, prototyping, mechanical optimization, control and trajectory optimization.