Inaugural Professorial Lecture by Professor Stuart Harmer

Stuart is Professor of Applied Electromagnetics and Dean of the School of Technology, Business and Arts. Stuart has held previous academic roles at the University of Sussex, Queen Mary University of London, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Chichester. Stuart holds a DPhil (2000) and BSc (1996) in Physics from The University of Sussex, is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. This is his Inaugural Professorial Lecture.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more commonly referred to as drones, are revolutionizing the aerospace industry by providing accessible and relatively inexpensive aerial platforms for an extremely wide variety of applications on a scale not realizable with traditional piloted aircraft.

Initially, drones were deployed as replacements for tasks previously executed with manned aircraft, for example, remote sensing applications, logistics, and surveillance. However, one key differentiator of drones from traditional aircraft is their capability to aerially distribute a large number of aircraft simultaneously and to very accurately control their positions. Such formation flying is widely referred to as drone swarming and can be used for a wide variety of applications. One such application explored in this lecture is that of conducting electronic warfare.