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School of Aerospace Engineering

System and Design Research Group

The System and Design Research Group is a dynamic research team advancing aerospace engineering through unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies, advanced aircraft systems and intelligent instrumentation. The group tackles complex challenges in autonomous flight, aerospace diagnostics and sustainable aviation where conventional approaches require intelligent, integrated upgrades. Using a robust blend of theoretical frameworks and experimental works, the group develops innovative solutions ranging from AI-driven aerial robotics for environmental monitoring to bio-aviation fuels and optimized UAV trajectory planning. Its work supports the future of autonomous aviation and sustainable aerospace technologies while directly addressing critical agricultural, industrial and disaster management needs.

Core Focus Areas & Projects

  • Autonomous UAV Systems & Robotics: Aerial robotics for palm oil monitoring and river basin disaster management, UAV obstacle detection and avoidance and image/video processing.
  • Flight Optimization & Control: UAV path planning, trajectory optimization and solar data optimization.
  • Sustainable Aviation & Propulsion: Development and testing of bio-aviation fuel.
  • Advanced Diagnostics & Instrumentation: Void detection scanning units for composite laminates.

Facilities

  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Laboratory: For the design, assembly and testing of autonomous flight systems.
  • Flight Mechanic Laboratory: For analyzing aircraft performance, stability and control.
  • System and Instrumentation Laboratory: For developing and testing advanced avionic sensors and diagnostic tools.
  • Propulsion & Propellant Laboratories: For research in aviation fuels, propulsion systems and alternative energy sources.

Group Members

Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Parvathy Rajendran
Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Parvathy Rajendran
USM Expert Profile
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elmi bin Abu Bakar
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elmi bin Abu Bakar
USM Expert Profile
Dr. Nurul Musfirah Mazlan
Dr. Nurul Musfirah Mazlan
USM Expert Profile
Ir. Dr. Ahmad Faizul Hawary
Ir. Dr. Ahmad Faizul Hawary
USM Expert Profile
Assoc. Prof.Dr. Zhou Ye
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zhou Ye
USM Expert Profile
Dr. Mohammad Nishat Akhtar
Dr. Mohammad Nishat Akhtar
USM Expert Profile
Dr. Sarjit Singh Sidhu Junior
Dr. Sarjit Singh Sidhu Junior
USM Expert Profile
Dr. Mohamad Haniff Junos
Dr. Mohamad Haniff Junos
USM Expert Profile

Research Activities

Selected Publications

  1. Ng, H. T., Ibrahim, H., & Rajendran, P. (2025). Statistical-based methods to improve precision of DBSCAN clustering algorithm for obstacle detection application in autonomous vehicles. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 84(38), 47101-47125.
  2. Ambareen, K., Rajendran, P., Sidhu Junior, S. S., & Sharifpur, M. (2026). Hybrid BWB UAV configurations with pointed and blunt nose shapes: aerodynamic and structural insights. The European Physical Journal Plus, 141(5).
  3. Khan, A., Rajendran, P., Sidhu, J. S. S., & Sharifpur, M. (2024). Control of Nozzle Flow Using Rectangular Ribs at Sonic and Supersonic Mach Numbers. Fluid Dynamics Research, 56(3).
  4. Umar, S. N. H., Abu Bakar, E., Akhtar, M. N., Kamaruddin, N. M., & Uchiyama, N. (2025). Development of a Two-board Potentiostat for Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry: Prospects for Heavy Metal Monitoring. Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology, 33(3), 1273-1299.
  5. Farhan, M., Hamad, Q. S., Akhtar, M. N., Rajendran, R., Danish, M., & Abu Bakar, E. (2026). Artificial intelligence for oil palm tree management using deep structured learning: A systematic review. Al-Qadisiyah Journal for Engineering Sciences, 19(1), 32-48.
  6. Zhao, Z., Abu Bakar, E., Abdul Razak, N., & Akhtar, M. N. (2024). Corrosion Image Classification Method Based on EfficientNetV2. Heliyon, 10(1), e36754.
  7. Khan, A., Mazlan, N. M., & Ismail, M. A. (2024). Base Pressure Control with Semi-Circular Ribs at Critical Mach Number. Journal of Aerospace Technology, 16(2), 204-221.
  8. Khan, A., Mazlan, N. M., & Ismail, M. A. (2022). Study on orientation and number of water spray nozzles for scientific experimental application. International Journal of Multi-fluid Dynamics, 14(2).
  9. Khan, A., Ismail, M. A., & Mazlan, N. M. (2020). Effect of Gas Area Fraction and Reynolds Number on Mixing Flow in Microchannel having Superhydrophobic Transverse Grooves. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 67(6).
  10. Abdulwahab, A. H., Mazlan, A. Z. A., & Hawary, A. F. (2025). Quadruped Robots Mechanism, Structural Design, Energy, Gait, Stability, and Actuators: A Review Study. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, 14(1).
  11. Ansari, E., Akhtar, M. N., Elmi, A. B., & Hawary, A. F. (2024). Throttle-by-Wire Control of Output Voltage Using Hall Sensor Throttle with PWM Output. Materials Today: Proceedings, 92, 411-419.
  12. Ansari, E., Akhtar, M. N., Elmi, A. B., & Hawary, A. F. (2024). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Exponentially Weighted Moving Average Filter in Enhancing Landslide Detection from Accelerometer Data. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, 403, 112-124.
  13. Jiang, H., Zhou, Y., & Ho, H. W. (2026). Aerodynamic Design and Analysis of a Ducted Fan Lift System for VTOL Aircraft Preliminary Design. Aerospace Science and Technology, 158.
  14. Hu, W., Zhou, Y., & Ho, H. W. (2025). Hierarchical Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient for Autonomous Maze Navigation of Mobile Robots. arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.04994.
  15. Li, L., Tang, J., Ye, Z., & Ma, L. (2021). Unsupervised face super-resolution via gradient enhancement and semantic guidance. The Visual Computer, 37(9), 2605-2617.
  16. Farhan, M., Hamad, Q. S., Akhtar, M. N., Rajendran, R., Danish, M., & Abu Bakar, E. (2026). Artificial intelligence for oil palm tree management using deep structured learning: A systematic review. Al-Qadisiyah Journal for Engineering Sciences, 19(1), 32-48.
  17. Chaudhary, Z. I., Khan, A., Khan, S. A., Akhtar, M. N., & Pathan, K. A. (2025). Control of Suddenly Expanded Flow Using Quarter Rib for Area Ratio 4.84 at Mach 2. Journal of Advanced Research in Experimental Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, 19(1), 1-29.
  18. Umar, S. N. H., Elmi Abu Bakar, & Akhtar, M. N. (2025). Development of a Two-board Potentiostat for Square Wave Anodic Stripping Voltammetry: Prospects for Heavy Metal Monitoring. Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology, 33(3), 1273-1299.
  19. Ambareen, K., Parvathy Rajendran, & Sidhu Junior, S. S. (2026). Hybrid BWB UAV configurations with pointed and blunt nose shapes: aerodynamic and structural insights. The European Physical Journal Plus, 141(5).
  20. Khan, A., Parvathy Rajendran, & Sidhu, J. S. S. (2024). Control of Nozzle Flow Using Rectangular Ribs at Sonic and Supersonic Mach Numbers. Fluid Dynamics Research, 56(3).
  21. Khan, A., Parvathy Rajendran, & Sidhu Junior, S. S. (2023). A Constraints based Approach using Ranking-Gradient-Similarity Multi-Block Matching Algorithm. Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision, 65(4).
  22. Junos, M. H., & Khairuddin, A. S. M. (2025). YOLO-MMS for aerial object detection model based on hybrid feature extractor and improved multi-scale prediction. The Visual Computer, 41(12), 4759–4778.
  23. Junos, M. H., Khairuddin, A. S. M., Zulkifli, S., & Elmi Bin Abu Bakar. (2024). YOLO-ME: an enhanced lightweight YOLOv7 Tiny model for efficient object detection in aerial imagery. Signal, Image and Video Processing, 18(6), 3121-3138.
  24. Sarudin, I., Junos, M. H., Abdul Hamid, N. S., & Abdullah, M. (2025). Aplikasi Pendekatan Hibrid Dalam Pengesanan Struktur Gelembung Plasma Khatulistiwa Berdasarkan Roti Keogram. 9th International Conference on Space Science and Communication (IconSpace), 44-51.