
Professor Tom Richardson
M.Eng., Ph.D.(Bristol)
Current positions
Professor of Aerial Robotics
School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
I currently lecture in Flight Mechanics and Control. My principal research interest is Control, ranging from classical flight control up to high-level decision-making and autonomy. Recently I have been working with members from Engineering Mathematics to address the problem of autonomy within groups of unmanned air vehicles.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
WildBotics
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Civil, Aerospace and Design EngineeringDates
01/01/2026 to 31/12/2029
WildDrone
Principal Investigator
Role
Collaborator
Description
Autonomous Drones for Nature Conservation MissionsManaging organisational unit
School of Civil, Aerospace and Design EngineeringDates
01/01/2023 to 31/12/2026
1 year RAIN expansion project - demonstrators
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Dates
01/04/2021 to 31/03/2022
Complex Autonomous aircraft Systems Configuration, Analysis and Design Exploratory
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
Aerial robotics or dronesManaging organisational unit
Dates
01/02/2018 to 31/10/2023
Practical use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for the Environmental Sciences
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Dates
01/04/2016 to 31/03/2019
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
12/06/2025MMLA: Multi-Environment, Multi-Species, Low-Altitude Drone Dataset
WildLive: Near Real-time Visual Wildlife Tracking onboard UAVs
Automatic Judging for Precision Aerobatics
Journal of Aircraft
Subterranean Mine Inspection Using the Prometheus Re‐Configurable Drone
Journal of Field Robotics
Use case design for swarms of firefighting UAVs via mutual shaping
2024 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and Its Social Impacts (ARSO)


