The Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Laboratory, formerly referred to as The Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Center (ADSC) was founded in 2001 and pursues the following major objectives:

• Focuses on novel research topics that support technologies vital to the Army’s future force, combating terrorism and new emerging threats;
• Supports the development of a family of various-weight precision guided airdrop systems, which enable conventional military aircraft or autonomous vehicles to drop sensors, munitions, and/or supplies at high offsets onto the battlefield with near pinpoint accuracy, minimizing risk to the airdrop aircraft and limiting the need for ground vehicle convoys;
• Backs up the development and testing of a variety of fixed- and rotary-wing unmanned platforms carrying EO/IR sensors to be used in the different surveillance and reconnaissance missions;
• Pursues the development and implementation of interactive / automated tools / GUIs to support a variety of YPG missions, including those devoted to real-time image processing;
• Accelerates research results transition to real-world fielded applications;
• Provides YPG personnel with high-quality training in a variety of applied disciplines (computer-aided engineering; inertial navigation, navaids, GPS; communication and networking; computer vision and EO/IR imagery data processing; autonomous systems, weaponry).

The ADSC is constantly working on different challenging projects, providing a wide variety of thesis opportunities in different areas: conceptual design, CFD/FSI analysis, computer modeling, image processing, control design, sensor integration. Depending on student skills and desire, he or she may be involved in rigorous computer simulations, hardware-in-the-loop simulations and real field tests at the Marina airport, McMillan airfield and the Yuma Proving Ground, Yuma, AZ.