Terrabite | Sensor Simulations in support of Autonomous Ground Vehicle M&S tools | May 27th, 2025

Hosted by

• Guest speaker
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  Philip Price Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, Mobility Systems Branch, USACE ERDC

• Team member
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  Lutz Richter Vice President

• Guest speaker
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  George Mason

  Dr. George Mason worked for 33 years as a research engineer in the Mobility Systems Branch, Engineering Systems and Materials Division, Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, as the Army’s lead researcher for studies on vehicle mobility. Later, he joined the Center for Advanced Vehicle Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University as a Research Civil Engineer. His work in mobility research was related to military areas, encompassing geospatial analyses, discrete element modeling of soils, and investigating vehicle/terrain interaction. The research required the application of advanced theories of soil physics and soil mechanics to quantify complex physical phenomena associated with the science and engineering of off-road vehicle mobility and the study of changes in associated surface geology.

• Team member
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  Varsha Swamy

  Varsha S. Swamy is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, under the guidance of Dr. Corina Sandu and Dr. Alba Yerro-Colom. Her Ph.D. research deals with the numerical modeling and experimental validation of tire-mud interactions, supported by the Automotive Research Center, a university-based U.S. Army Center of Excellence for modeling and simulation of military and civilian ground systems. Additionally, she received the SMART scholarship from the DoD and works with U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

• Guest speaker
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  Philip Price Research Physicist @ Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory, Mobility Systems Branch, USACE ERDC

  Phillip Price is a research physicist in the Mobility Systems Branch (MSB) in the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory (GSL) at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). His work primarily involves modeling realistic sensor-environment interactions in a virtual environment with the goal of simulating various autonomous ground vehicles. Before arriving at ERDC, Phillip completed his PhD in physics at the University of Connecticut where he created numerical simulations of atomic and molecular systems with the goal of improving the efficiency of processes that create suitable candidates for quantum computing applications. Prior to this he attended Auburn University, where he graduated with degrees in physics and math. At present, Phillip is a mentor of the local FTC robotics team Trial and Error 10191. He has adopted two cats from Hawaii that keep him busy otherwise.