Accomplished Leader in Autonomous Vehicle Behavior and Control

Will Silva is a software developer and team leader with nearly a decade of experience in shipping safe autonomous vehicles for the purpose of enriching the human experience. He is an engineering manager in AV Robotics at Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company with goals to launch an autonomous mobility taxi service in San Francisco. He was previously at Zoox leading a planner behavior team developing maneuver algorithms for dense urban driving. Prior to entering the automotive industry, he worked at 3D Robotics helping deliver the first “smart” drone, the Solo. There he invented the suite of automated flight paths for smooth camera movement that set the next bar in consumer drone cinematic footage quality.

Will received his BS in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA and his MS in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from CU Boulder. His master’s thesis titled, “An Energy-Aware Trajectory Optimization Layer for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems” is based on data collected by deploying fixed-wing autonomous vehicles into the rear-flank downdraft (RFD) of super cells to gather wind data for the purposes of understanding tornadogenesis.

In his spare time, Will enjoys studying meteorology using the data collected with a small mesonet to automate systems around his home. He also enjoys gardening with his wife in the summer and backcountry skiing during the winter.

Publications

Dynamic Soaring Flight Test Results using an Online Energy-Aware Trajectory Optimization LayerEnergy-Aware Path Optimization for Persistent Sampling of Severe Storms

Implementation of an Energy-Aware Trajectory Optimization Layer in Severe Atmospheric Conditions

Implementing Path Planning and Guidance Layers for Dynamic Soaring and Persistence Missions

Path Planning for Persistent Environmental Monitoring Using an Energy-Aware Airborne Dynamic Data-Driven Application System

An Energy-Aware Trajectory Optimization Layer for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems