Derek A. Paley

Derek Andrew Paley is an American aerospace engineer, academic, and researcher specializing in collective dynamics and control in natural and robotic systems. He is the Willis H. Young Jr. Professor of Aerospace Engineering Education at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he holds a joint appointment with the Institute for Systems Research (ISR).

Education and career Paley earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Physics from Yale University in 1997 and went on to receive a Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2007.

He founded the Collective Dynamics and Control Laboratory (CDCL) in 2007, focusing on the development of algorithms and control systems for autonomous robotic vehicles and bioinspired systems. While serving as director of the Maryland Robotics Center from 2019 to 2025, Paley oversaw developments in robotics education and research at the University of Maryland.

He has received teaching awards, such as the UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award and the Exemplary Researcher Award. Paley also served as the Technical Director of the M.Eng. Robotics program from 2019-2025.

The Autonomous Micro Air Vehicle (AMAV) team, which he founded, has won multiple national awards, including the NIST UAS First Responder Challenge. He was also honored as a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher for the 2020–2021 academic year. He is also an associate fellow with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Research His work includes developing distributed control algorithms, conducting hypothesis-driven studies on biological collectives, and optimizing sensor networks for environmental monitoring. His research has been funded by agencies such as DARPA, the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR), with total funding exceeding $25 million since 2007.

Paley's research integrates dynamics, estimation, and control theory to address challenges in autonomous robotics, mobile sensor networks, and bioinspired engineering. Paley's recent work involves developing self-driving scooters, focusing on their ability to reposition themselves for greater convenience in shared spaces like college campuses.

Paley and his team have developed fish-inspired underwater vehicles with flexible tails powered by electric motors and momentum wheels. These robots are designed to mimic real fish movements and respond to hydrodynamic signals, including vortices generated by nearby "fish."

Selected publications Journals

Books