Youngjoo Kim

Experience

• 

  KAIST

  Mar 2018 - May 2018

  Postdoctoral Research Associate

  Mentorship to graduate students on their projects and research→ Authored a book chapter on Kalman filter.

• 

  The University of Sheffield

  Jun 2018 - Jan 2019

  Postdoctoral Research Associate

  Deep learning methods for traffic prediction in complex road networks.✓ Pioneered the application of the CapsNet to traffic prediction problems, outperforming CNN-based state-of-the-art by 13.1%.✓ Developed a scalable Structural RNN (SRNN) for traffic prediction, capable of predicting traffic data in road networks with varying topologies from the training set.→ Published 1 journal paper and 2 conference papers as the first author.

• 

  Sevendof

  Feb 2019 - Dec 2021

  Lead Autonomy Scientist

  Gave autonomous flight capabilities for hybrid electric drones in beyond-line-of-sight power line inspections.Control & Guidance✓ Tuned attitude and position controllers of PX4 for large hybrid electric drones.✓ Developed a guidance algorithm with collision avoidance to follow the desired path.Navigation✓ Developed a GNSS/INS to integrate RTK GNSS with the IMU of DJI FCU.✓ Developed an EKF for UWB-based position estimation in autonomous precision landing.Path Planning✓ Developed a minimum-cost path planner for power line inspection, considering terrain and obstacles.✓ Developed a large-scale planner for partitioning and planning missions covering extensive areas.→ Successful BLOS power line inspection demonstrations and commercial missions, utilizing the path planner for mission planning. Show less

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  Nearthlab

  Jan 2022 - now

  Architected multiple drone software solutions and led software development.Leading Software Development for a Custom Flight Controller✓ Designed and implemented embedded C++ software on an STM32 microcontroller.✓ Developed hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) environment with MAVLink and Gazebo.Led Software Development for a Newly Developed Drone, AiDEN✓ Modularized and simplified the open-source flight controller (PX4) architecture with unified flight mode management and streamlined setpoint flow to controllers.✓ Designed ROS2 mission computer architecture and message protocols for seamless system integration. → Used in various multi-drone operations and integrated with NearthWIND Mobile.NearthWIND Mobile: A Drone-Based Wind Turbine Inspection App✓ Led the planning and porting of the application to Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android).✓ Designed mission management and flight control API to integrate diverse commercial drone SDKs.✓ Developed mission planning and management algorithms for autonomous wind turbine inspections.Streamlining Development✓ Set up continuous integration (CI) pipelines and implemented comprehensive tests.✓ Implemented math libraries, logger, parameter management, and script support.✓ Proactively developed and managed documentation.Research & Innovations✓ Proposed, led, and participated in multiple path planning and navigation research projects.→ Registered 4 patents and published 1 journal paper as the first author. Show less

  • Lead Engineer

    Jan 2024 - now

  • Principal Aerospace Engineer

    Jan 2022 - Jan 2024