The Morpheus Laboratory is a component of NIA’s Alexander Brown Center for Adaptive Aerospace Technologies (ABCAAT), and the epicenter of Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS) at NIA. Research in the laboratory is aimed at designing, building, and achieving the successful flight of aerial robots that service the private sector. These efforts include new developments in actuation, modeling, morphing configuration, and control. A signature feature of work in the Morpheus lab is research regarding ornithopters, that is, aerial vehicles that are propelled as birds are, by flapping wings. Research into the advancement and success of ornithopters is ongoing at Morpheus. The lab’s achievements in this endeavor represent significant progress in its goal of creating and sustaining a Community of Research and Education (CORE), which will advance research and education for our nation’s future.
Morpheus maintains primary facilities at NIA’s Research and Innovation Laboratories in Hampton, Virginia, with secondary facilities at NASA Langley Research Center and the University of Maryland, College Park. Morpheus gratefully acknowledges the laboratory space provided by the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch at NASA Langley Research Center.
The Morpheus Laboratory’s mission is four-fold:
- To offer rigorous, graduate level, experiment-centric training in the fields of adaptive aerospace structures, smart materials, and flight-testing.
- To benefit society through the generation of scholarship in the fields of adaptive aerospace structures, smart materials, and flight-testing.
- To develop disruptive flight-worthy aerospace technologies based on innovative applications of smart materials.
- To inspire the children of today to become the scientific and engineering innovators of tomorrow through ongoing outreach efforts in the surrounding community.
Director: James Hubbard, Samuel P. Langley Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland
Contact: 757 325 6830 | jhubbard@nianet.org