RMIT University

Professor Simon Watkins

Position

Professor

School /
Work Unit

Aerosp Mech & Manuf Eng

Contact Details

+(61 3) 9925 6084

simon.watkins@rmit.edu.au

Location

Building: 251
Level: 3
Room: 12

City Campus

College/Portfolio

Science, Engineering & Health

Key activities

RMIT electric car wins 2011 FSAE-A race

RMIT electric car wins 2011 FSAE-A race

Professor Watkins is responsible for undergraduate courses in Thermo-fluids and Vehicle Aerodynamics and is involved with many final year and postgraduate research projects in aerospace and automotive engineering. He was the originator and architect of the first automotive engineering degree in Australia and also set up RMIT Racing in 2000. RMIT Racing is one of 200+ teams from universities around the world that design and build open-wheel racing cars, winning the FISITA Formula Student World Cup in Silverstone UK in 2007 and the American FSAE event in Detroit in 2006. He now supervises the design, build and testing of all-electric FSAE cars, see www.fsae.rmit.edu.au . He also leads a Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) Group at RMIT (see later) with funding from the USAF supporting several PhD students.

Qualifications

BSc Hons (Bristol, UK), PhD (RMIT)

Employment history

Professional interests and links to the industry

Research

What the MAV Group does

MAVs are “a class of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that has a size restriction and may be autonomous. Modern craft can be as small as 15 centimetres. Development is driven by commercial, research, government, and military purposes; with insect-sized aircraft reportedly expected in the future. The small craft allows remote observation of hazardous environments inaccessible to ground vehicles. MAVs have been built for hobby purposes, such as aerial robotics contests and aerial photography” (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_air_vehicle)

My interest in micro planes has resulted in a research group in the MAV Group which we started in 2001, by producing one of the lightest airframe (7.3g) membrane-structure micro air vehicles in the world at that time. In the last few years we have been awarded 8 grants by the USAF for work on understanding the dynamic response of fixed, rotary and flapping wing MAVs in turbulent flow, including 5 Window on Science travel grants to give invited talks at USA and European meetings. Most research is now focussed on understanding MAVs and the influence of both their design type (e.g. fixed wing vs flapping vs rotary) and how these differing designs cope with the effects of atmospheric turbulence. I supervise several PhD students in this area.

We have been focusing on how MAVs will cope with the turbulence inherent in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) in order to make MAVs more useful. Our previous work documented the temporal and spatial environment of flight through turbulence inherent in the ABL, as would be perceived by MAVs, both manmade and natural (e.g. small birds, insects). This has involved working with the instrumented eagle of the Oxford Animal Flight Group where we took multi-point measurements of turbulence whilst the instrumented eagle was soaring and high speed videoing on locusts flying in smooth and turbulent flow in our wind tunnels. Depicted below is the largest bubble in the world, which shows some of the turbulent structures in the ABL which MAVs have to traverse.

SAMME JPG Staff profile photo bubble

G.Norman photo © 1996

We have replicated this turbulent environment in several wind tunnels, including the largest wind tunnel in the Southern Hemisphere and shown that aspects of the naturally turbulent flow environment had been reproduced with good accuracy.

Flying experiments

We have flown instrumented fixed wing, rotary wing and flapping MAVs in the tunnel, including some aerobatics (and many crashes!). Pilot inputs and aircraft accelerations were recorded on the MAVs. For some tests, synchronised measurements of the approach flow time history (u,v,w sampled at 1250 Hz) at four laterally disposed locations were made and retro-reflective markers and six video cameras permitted video tracking. The piloting aim was to hold straight and level flight in the 12m wide x 4m high x ~50m long test section whilst flying in a range of turbulent wind conditions. The results showed that the rotary craft were less sensitive to the effects of turbulence compared to the fixed wing craft. It was found that whilst fixed wing aircraft were relatively easy to fly in smooth air, they became extremely difficult to fly under high turbulence conditions. Rotary craft, whilst somewhat more difficult to fly per. se. did not become significantly harder to fly in relatively high turbulence levels.


Videos for some of the more adventurous flight experiments in wind tunnels can be found on the www, including:

First attempts at aerobatic MAV flight in a wind tunnel

MAV Flight in turbulence

High speed videoing of locusts in a wind tunnel

Pressures varying around a flapping wing MAV


The background to our USAF-sponsored MAV work in turbulence can be downloaded from:

MAV project – final report (PDF 3.3MB 83p)

MAV project – addendum (PDF 85KB 4p)

Mitigating the Effects of Atmospheric Turbulence: Toward More Useful MAVs (PPT 5.1MB 11p)

Accomplishments and achievements

Refereed publications in the past five years

Book Chapters

  1. Watkins S., “Aerodynamic Noise and its Refinement in Vehicles”, Chapter 10 in Vehicle Noise and Vibration Refinement, by Woodhead Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84569-497-5.
  2. Watkins S. and Pagliarella R., “The Flow Environment of Road Vehicles in Winds and Traffic”, The Aerodynamics of Heavy Vehicles: Trucks, Buses and Trains, Lecture Notes in Applied and Computational Mechanics. Springer Berlin/Heidelburg, Vol 41, ISBN 978-3-540-85069-4, 2008.
  3. Watkins S and Mousley P., “On Spray from Commercial Vehicles”, The Aerodynamics of Heavy Vehicles: Trucks, Buses and Trains, Lecture Notes in Applied and Computational Mechanics. Springer Berlin/Heidelburg, Vol 41, ISBN 978-3-540-85069-4, 2008.
  4. Watkins S. and Pearson G., “Formula SAE: Student Engagement Towards World Class Performance”, in The Impact of Technology on Sport II (edited by F. K. Fuss, A. Subic and S. Ujihashi), pp 755-766, ISBN 978-0-415-45695-1, Taylor & Francis, London, 2007.

Journal Articles

  1. Ravi, S., Watkins, S., Watmuff, J. Massey K. Petersen P., Marino M. and Ravi A., “The flow over a thin airfoil subjected to elevated levels of freestream turbulence at low Reynolds numbers”, Experiments in Fluids, v3, no 53, August 2012.
  2. Ravi, S., Watkins, S. & Watmuff, J., "On the transient loads occurring over a thin airfoil subjected to elevated levels of freestream turbulence," submitted to American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Journal, June 2012.
  3. Ravi, S., Watkins, S. & Watmuff, J., Massey K., Pereson P. and Marino M., “Influence of Large-Scale Freestream Turbulence on the Performance of a Thin Airfoil”, AIAA Journal, 2012, Vol.50: 2448-2459, 10.2514/1.J051640
  4. Deivasigamani A, McCarthy J.M, John S, Watkins S, Trivailo P, Coman F, “Flutter of Cantilevered Interconnected Beams with Variable Hinge Position”, accepted (5th Nov 2012) inJournal of Fluids and Structures.
  5. Marino M., Watkins S., et. al. “Time-varying surface pressures on wings at low Reynolds numbers in smooth and turbulent flow”, submitted to AIAA Journal, 3rd June 2012.
  6. White C, Watkins S., Lim E. W. and Massey K., “The Soaring Potential of a Micro Air Vehicle in an Urban Environment”, International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles vol. 4, no. 1, March 2012.
  7. White, C., Lim, E. W., Watkins, S., Mohamed, A., & Thompson, M., “A Feasibility Study of Micro Air Vehicles Soaring Tall Buildings”, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, vol. 103, April 2012.
  8. Ravi S, Watkins S., "The Flow Structure over a Thin Airfoil in Smooth and Turbulent Conditions at Low Reynolds Numbers", Journal of Flow Visualization and Image Processing, JFV-3945, Proc.2012003945, February 2012.
  9. Thompson, M, Watkins, S., Homes, J. & White, C., “Gust Inputs for Birds, Insects and MAVs of Increasingly Small Wingspans”, Journal of TheRoyal Aeronautical Society, vol. 115, no. 1173, 2011.
  10. Prasad S. and Watkins S., “ The Influence of Wheel-Housing Shape on Vehicle Aerodynamic Performance”, International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2011 - Vol. 57, No.2/3 pp. 275 – 291.
  11. Abdulrahim M., Watkins S., Segal R., Marino M., and Sheridan J., “Dynamic Sensitivity to Atmospheric Turbulence of Unmanned Air Vehicles with Varying Configuration”, AIAA Journal of Aircraft, pages (1873-1883) 2010 vol. 47 no. 6.
  12. Watkins S., ThompsonM., LoxtonB. and Abdulrahim M., “On Low Altitude Flight Through The Atmospheric Boundary Layer”, International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, vol. 2, no. 2 June 2010.
  13. Watkins S., Abdulrahim M., Thompson M., Shortis M., Segal R. and Sheridan J., “An Overview of Experiments on the Dynamic Sensitivity of MAVs to Turbulence”, Journal of TheRoyal Aeronautical Society, vol. 114, no. 1158, 2010.
  14. Wang X. and Watkins S.,” Reduction of Roof Rack Noise and Vibration, International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, Vol. 6, Nos. 2/3/4, 2010.
  15. Shabani B., Andrews J. and Watkins S., “Energy and Cost Analysis of a Solar-Hydrogen Combined Heat and Power System For Remote Power Supply Using a Computer Simulation”, Solar Energy 84 (2010) 144–155.
  16. Watkins, S. Ravi, S. and Loxton, B., “The Effect of Turbulence on the Aerodynamics of Low Reynolds Number Wings, Engineering Letters, 18:3, EL_18_3_09, 2009.
  17. Alam, F. Subic, A., Watkins, S. and Smits A., 'Aerodynamics of an Australian Rules Foot Ball and Rugby Ball', in Lecture Notes in Computational Science and Engineering, Springer, Germany, vol. 72, pp. 103-127 ISSN: 1439-7358, July 2009.
  18. Alam, F. Subic, A. and Watkins, S. 2009, 'Aerodynamics of an Australian rules foot ball and rugby ball', in Lecture Notes in Computational Science and Engineering, Springer, Germany, vol. 72, pp. 103-127 ISSN: 1439-7358, July 2009.
  19. Satya Prasad, Simon Watkins, Xu Wang “New rating criteria for in-cabin Vehicle HVAC system noise”, International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, Vol 5, No1/ 2, 2009.
  20. Watkins S. and Vino G., “The Effect of Vehicle Spacing on the Aerodynamics of a Representative Car Shape”, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 96 (2008) 1232–1239.
  21. Satya, P.M. and Watkins S., ‘Vehicle wheel aerodynamic testing, using the double-symmetry technique’, International Journal of Vehicle Design, Volume 48, Number 1-2 / 2008, 81 - 96.
  22. Alam, F. Subic, A. Watkins, S. Naser, J. and Rasul, M. 2008, 'An experimental and computational study of aerodynamic properties of rugby balls', in WSEAS Transactions on Fluid Mechanics, WSEAS, Greece, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 279-286 ISSN: 1790-5087.
  23. Cooper R. K., and Watkins S., “The Unsteady Wind Environment of Road Vehicles, Part One: A Review of the On-road Environment”, SAE International Transactions Journal of Passenger Cars – Mechanical Systems 2007-01-1236, April 16-19, 2007, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
  24. Watkins S. and Cooper K. R., “The Unsteady Wind Environment of Road Vehicles, Part Two: Effects on Vehicle Development and Simulation of Turbulence SAE International Transactions Journal of Passenger Cars – Mechanical Systems 2007-01-1237, April 16-19, 2007, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
  25. Wang X. and Watkins S., “Noise Refinement Solutions for Vehicle HVAC Systems”, SAE International Transactions Journal of Passenger Cars – Mechanical Systems 2007-01-2184, April 16-19, 2007, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
  26. Xu, W., Mandrawa, W., Watkins, S., “Experimental investigation of power –assisted steering pump noise for housing material change from cast iron to aluminium”, International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, Volume 3, No. 3, 2007.

Conference and symposia papers and presentations

  1. Frield C, “Drag Coefficient Measurement, CFD Simulation and Validation of an Automotive Body”, abstract accepted for SAE World Congress, Detroit, 16-18th April, 2013.
  2. Thompson M., Watkins S., Sungwoo C., Juwan L. and Jongman K.M., “Wind-Tunnel & On-road Wind Noise: Comparison, Replication, Synthesis”, abstract accepted for SAE World Congress, Detroit, 16-18th April, 2013.
  3. McCarthy J. M., Deivasigamani A., Watkins S. and John S. J., “Wind-Induced Flutter of Piezoelectric Films for Energy Harvesting; a Parametric Study”, 18th Australian Fluid Mechanics Conference (AFMC), Launceston, December 2012.
  4. McCarthy J. M., Deivasigamani A., John S. J. and Watkins S., “The Effect Of The Configuration Of The Amplification Device On The Power Output Of A Piezoelectric Strip”, Smart Materials, Structures and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS), Georgia 19-21 Sept. 2012.
  5. Watkins S., “Turbulence Characteristics of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer and Possibilities of Replication for Aircraft”, invited paper and presentation, Joint Symposium of DFG and DLR-Airbus “Simulation of Wing and Nacelle Stall”, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, 21-22 June, 2012.
  6. Watkins S. and Abdulrahim M., “Opportunities and Challenges for MAVs in the Complex Flow Environments in Cities”, invited presentation Unmanned Aerial Systems UK, Cranfield University, Shrivenham, UK, 25-28 June, 2012.
  7. Mohamed A, White C. and Watkins S., “A Numerical Study of the Updrafts over a Building, with Comparison to Wind-Tunnel Results”, 15th Australasian Wind Engineering Society Workshop, University of Sydney, Australia, 23-24 February 2012.
  8. Ravi S., Watkins S., Watmuff J., Massey K., Marino M. & Petersen P., “Influence of Turbulence Intensity on the Flow Structure over Airfoils at Lower Reynolds Numbers, 28th Congress of The International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS 2012), 23-28 Sept. Brisbane, Australia.
  9. Deivasigamani, A. McCarthy J. M., Watkins S. and John S. et.al., “Flow-induced flutter of slender cantilever high-compliance plates”, ICAS 2012, 23-28 Sept. Brisbane, Australia.
  10. A. Fisher, S. Watkins, J. Watmuff, “Dynamic surface pressure measurements on a flapping wing in smooth and turbulent flow”, ICAS 2012, 23-28 Sept. Brisbane, Australia.
  11. Marino M., Ravi S., S. Watkins, et al., “Optimum location of pressure measurements around a wing as a dynamic control input in smooth and turbulent conditions” ICAS 2012, 23-28 Sept. Brisbane, Australia.
  12. Fu, C, Hoseinnezhad, R, Watkins, S and Jazar, R., 'Direct Torque Control for Electronic Differential in an Electric Racing Car', 4th International Conference on Sustainable Automotive Technologies (ICSAT4), 21-23rd March 21, 2012 Melbourne, Australia, 21-23 March 2012.
  13. Watkins S. and Samsons A., “Sustainable Racing Utilising Solar Power”, ICSAT4, 21-23rd March, 2012 Melbourne, Australia.
  14. Thompson, M. and Watkins, S., “The Small Scales of Turbulence: A Significant Challenge to Micro Flight”, proc. 13th International Conference on Wind Engineering (ICWE13), Amsterdam, Netherlands, 10th – 15th July, 2011.
  15. Watkins S., Ravi S., Thompson M., Abdulrahim M., Marino M., “Testing of MAVs in Replicated Atmospheric Turbulence”, proc. ICWE13 Amsterdam, Netherlands, 10th – 15th July, 2011.
  16. Watkins, S., Ravi S. & Marino M., ‘The Opportunities Afforded by Micro Air Vehicles and the Challenges they have to Overcome’ World Conference on Engineering, Imperial College, London, UK, 6-8th July 2011.
  17. Watkins S. and Samsons A., “Green Racing; Solar and FSAE”, Presented at the 16th Asia Pacific Automotive Conference, Chennai, India, 6-8th October, 2011, SAE Technical Paper M20100123.
  18. Thompson, M. and Watkins, S., “The Small Scales of Turbulence: A Significant Challenge To Micro Flight” , paper presented to 14th Australian International Aerospace Congress (AIAC), Melbourne, Australia, 28th February to 3rd March, 2011.
  19. Thompson, M. and Watkins, S., “Small Scale Flight Within The Lower Regions of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer”, paper presented to 14th Australasian Wind Engineering Society (AWES) Workshop, Canberra, Australia, 5-6th August, 2010. *Winner Best Presentation Award
  20. Abdullah, E, Bil, C and Watkins, S 2010, 'Adaptive Airfoil Control System Using Shape Memory Alloy Actuators For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles', in Fragomeni, Venkatesan, Lam & Setunge (ed.) Proceedings of the 21st Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials: Incorporating Sustainable Practice in Mechanics of Structures and Materials, AK Leiden, The Netherlands, 7 - 10 December 2010, pp. 141-146.
  21. Abdullah, E, Bil, C and Watkins, S 2010, 'Numerical Simulation of An Adaptive Airfoil System Using SMA Actuators', in W. Crossley; D. Krausche (ed.) 48th Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition (AIAA 2010), United States, 4 - 7 January 2010, pp. 1-10.
  22. Abdullah, E, Bil, C and Watkins, S 2010, 'Testing of Adaptive Airfoil For UAV Using Shape Memory Alloy Actuators', in I Poll (ed.) Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of The Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS), Sweden, 19-24 September 2010, pp. 1-9.
  23. Thompson M., Watkins S. and Watmuff J., “The Small Scales of Turbulence: A Significant Challenge to Micro Flight”, AIAC14, Melbourne, 26 Feb – 2nd March, 2011.
  24. Fisher A., Watkins S. and White C., “Dynamic Surface Pressure Measurements on a Flapping Wing Model” AIAC14, Melbourne, 26 Feb – 2nd March, 2011.
  25. Ravi S., Watkins and Watmuff J., “Pressure Fluctuations Over an Airfoil in Smooth and Turbulent Flow at Low Reynolds Number”, AIAC14, Melbourne, 26 Feb – 2nd March, 2011.
  26. Watkins S., King M. and Pearson G., “Past, Current and Future Development of Formula SAE at RMIT”, Society of Automotive Engineers Int. Conference on Sustainable Mobility, 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1-3rd Dec. 2010.
  27. Thompson, M. and Watkins S., “Gust Inputs Relevant to Bees, Birds and MAVs”, 25th International Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems Conference, Bristol, UK, 12th – 14th April 2010.
  28. Alam, F., Chowdhury, H., Moria, H., Watkins, S. (2010), Effects of Vehicle Add-Ons on Aerodynamic Performance, Proceedings of the 13th Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics (ACFM2010), ISBN: 978-984-33-22214-2, pp 186-189, 17-21 December 2010, Dhaka
  29. Abdullah E., Bil C. and Watkins S., “Application of Smart Materials for Adaptive Airfoil Control,” 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Orlando, 5th – 8th January 2009.
  30. Watkins, M. Abdulrahim, M. Thompson, M. Shortis, B. J. Loxton, R Segal and C Bil, “Turbulence in the Atmospheric Wind: A Limiting Factor in MAV Operations”, 24th International Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems Conference, Bristol, UK, 24th March to 1st April 2009.
  31. Abdullah E., Bil C. and Watkins S, “Adaptive Airfoil Control System for Improving Cruise Performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle,” 13th Australian Aerospace Congress, Melbourne, 9th - 12th March, 2009.
  32. Watkins S., Loxton B., Thompson M., “The Flow Fields Around Buildings: A Significant Challenge to MAVs”, 3rd Australasian Unmanned Air Vehicles Conference, 9 - 12 March, 2009, Melbourne, Australia.
  33. Marino M., Watkins S., Loxton B., “Stability and Controllability of MAVs with Variable Dihedral and Rolling Moments of Inertia”, 3rd Australasian Unmanned Air Vehicles Conference, 9 - 12 March, 2009, Melbourne, Australia.
  34. Loxton B., Watkins S., Watmuff J., Trivalio P., Cruz E., Ravi S., “The Influence of Atmospheric Turbulence on the Aerodynamics of a Flat Plate Micro Air Vehicle Wing”, 3rd Australasian Unmanned Air Vehicles Conference, 9 - 12 March, 2009, Melbourne, Australia
  35. Watkins S., “Advances in Road Vehicle Aerodynamics: An International Perspective”, APAC15-274, October 26-28, 2009, Hanoi-Vietnam.
  36. Satya Prasad and Watkins S, “The influence of Wheel-Housing Shape on Vehicle Drag and Lift”, APAC Conference, APAC15-274, October 26-28, 2009, Hanoi-Vietnam.
  37. Watkins S., Abdulrahim M., Loxton B. and Bil C., 2009,“The Challenges and Opportunities Posed by Micro Flight in the Lower Level of The Atmosphere”, Invited address, AIAA Guidance and Control Conference, Honolulu,18-21 Aug, 2008.
  38. Abdullah E., Bil C and Watkins S., “Development of an Adaptive Airfoil Control System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle,” The 3rd International Conference on Mechatronics 2008, Kuala Lumpur, 18th – 20th December 2008.
  39. Cruz, E. G., Watkins, S. and Loxton, B., “A Flat Plate Rectangular Wing Subjected To Grid-Generated Turbulence”, 26th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, August 2008.
  40. Satya Prasad Mavuri, Simon Watkins, Xu Wang, Simon St. Hill, David Weymouth (2008). An Investigation of Vehicle HVAC Cabin Noise, SAE Paper 08HX-10. 2008 SAE International Congress, 2008.
  41. Loxton B., Abdulrahim M. and Watkins S., “An Investigation of Fixed and Rotary Wing MAV Flight in Replicated Atmospheric Turbulence”, 46th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 7-10 Jan. 2008, Reno, NV, USA.
  42. Watkins S., Loxton B., Milbank J., Melbourne W. H. and Abdulrahim M. “Modelling the Atmospheric Boundary Layer in a Large Wind Tunnel for MAV Development” 46th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 7-10 Jan. 2008, Reno NV USA.
  43. Pagliarella, R., Watkins, S., Tempia, A., “Aerodynamic Performance of Vehicles in Platoons: The Influence of Backlight Angles”, SAE 2007-01-1547, SAE World Congress, Detroit, USA, 2007
  44. Pagliarella, R., Zha, L., Watkins, S., “The Influence of Platooning on Vehicle Aerodynamics and Driving”, Intelligent Vehicles and Road Infrastructure Conference IVRI ’07, University of Melbourne, 4-6 December , Melbourne, Australia, 2007.
  45. Walter, D., Watkins, S., “Force and Pitching Motion Variation of Inverted Aerofoils at high angles of attack in ground effect”, Proceedings of the 16th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, ISBN 978-1-864998-94-8, 3-7 December, Gold Coast, Australia, 2007.
  46. Alam, F., Tio, W., Watkins, S., Subic, A. and Naser, J., “Effects of Spin on Tennis Ball Aerodynamics: An Experimental and Computational Study”, Proceedings of the 16th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, ISBN 978-1-864998-94-8, pp 324-327, 3-7 December, Gold Coast, Australia, 2007
  47. Alam, F., and Watkins, S., “Effects of Crosswinds on Double Stacked Container Wagons”, Proceedings of the 16th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, ISBN 978-1-864998-94-8, pp 758-761, 3-7 December, Gold Coast, Australia, 2007
  48. Alam, F., Jaitlee, R. and Watkins, S., “Aerodynamic Effects on an Automotive Rear Side View Mirror”, Proceedings of the 16th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, ISBN 978-1-864998-94-8, pp 762-765, 3-7 December, Gold Coast, Australia, 2007
  49. Watkins, B. Loxton, J. Millbank, B. Melbourne, and M. Abdulrahim, “The Turbulent Flight Environment of MAVs - Flight Environment Measurements and Tunnel Replication”, 2nd European Conference for Aerospace Sciences (EUCASS), Brussels, Belgium, July 1-6, 2007.
  50. Xu Wang and Simon Watkins (2007). Noise Refinement Solutions for Vehicle HVAC Systems, presented and published in the SAE 2007 Noise and Vibration Conference and Exhibition, May 15-17, 2007, St. Charles, IL, USA.
  51. Jaitlee, R., Alam, F. and Watkins, S., “Pressure Fluctuations on Automotive Rear View Mirrors”, SAE World Congress, Detroit, Michigan, USA, , SAE 2007-01-0899 in Vehicle Aerodynamics 2007, SP-2066, ISBN 978-0-7680-1856-1, 16-19 April, 2007

Other - Invited, Plenary or Keynote Papers and Presentations

  1. Watkins S., “Replication and Simulation of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer and Flows Around Buildings”, invited presentation, Designing the Dynamic, RMIT Design Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia, 21-25th Nov. 2011.
  2. Watkins S. and Subic A., “Green Technologies in the Automotive Industry”, Keynote Opening Address, Green Car Expo and Conference, Gwangju City, South Korea, 25th Nov. 2010.
  3. Watkins S., “Road Vehicle Aerodynamics: An Overview”, Society of Automotive Engineers Int. Conference on Sustainable Mobility, 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1-3rd Dec. 2010.
  4. Watkins S., “Micro Air Vehicle Test in Turbulence”, 2nd Symposium for Flight Tests on Innovative Air Transport Systems, Aerospace Plane Research Centre, Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan, 13th Sept. 2010.
  5. WatkinsS., AbdulrahimM., MarinoM. and RaviS., “Towards Autonomous MAV Control in Atmospheric Turbulence”, 6th International Conference on Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Bali, Indonesia, 3-5th Nov. 2010.
  6. Watkins S., Abdulrahim, Thompson M., Shortis M., Loxton B., Segal R., Bil C and Watmuff J., 2009 , “An Overview of Experiments on the Dynamic Sensitivity of Micro Air Vehicles to Turbulence”, AIAA-2009-5906, Invited Paper, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, 10-13th Aug 2009, Chicago, Il, USA.
  7. Abdulrahim M, Watkins S., Segal R., Sheridan J., “Dynamic Sensitivity to Atmospheric Turbulence of a Fixed-Wing MAV with Varying Configuration”, AIAA-2009-5907. Invited Paper, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, 10-13th Aug 2009, Chicago, Il, USA.
  8. Watkins S., “Aspects of Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Research in Australia”, invited presentation to the Royal Society of Victoria, Melbourne, 12th April 2007.
  9. Cooper R. K., and Watkins S., “The Unsteady Wind Environment of Road Vehicles, Part One: A Review of the On-road Environment”, invited paper and presentation, SAE-International World Congress, April 16-19, 2007, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
  10. Watkins S. and Cooper K. R., “The Unsteady Wind Environment of Road Vehicles, Part Two: Effects on Vehicle Development and Simulation of Turbulence, invited paper and presentation, SAE-International World Congress, April 16-19, 2007, Detroit, Michigan, USA.