Area of Specialization

Associate Technology Director
Flight Control Laws (CLAW) Directorate
Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA),.

Dr Ambalal V. Patel received the Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Government Polytechnic, Pune in 1989, B.E. (Instrumentation) from Pune University in 1993, M.E. (Instrumentation) from Marathwada University (SGGS College of Engineering and Technology, Nanded) in 1995, and Ph.D. (Fuzzy Control Systems) from Indian Institute of Technology, Khargapur in 2000.
From April 1999 to September 2000, he was a Scientist at Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) at Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), Bangalore where he worked on the design and development of the control laws for the Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Navy). Since the year 2000 he is a Scientist at Aeronautical Development Agency (Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India), Bangalore and working as member of National Control Law Team setup for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme. At present he is Scientist / Engineer ‘G’ and holding the post of Associate Technology Director (Flight Control Laws: CLAW).
He is responsible for the design, development and testing of Air Data Algorithms (ADS) and Control Laws (CLAW) for the modern high performance LCA. He is actively involved in the testing, evaluation and clearance of the on-board flight control software on the Hardware-In-Loop test platform. He has also carried out significant research work in the area of Fuzzy Control systems.
He has reach experience in dealing with the following technical tasks:
• Design, Development of LCA Air Data System,
• Performance evaluation and clearance of flight control laws,
• Development of formal clearance procedures, associated tools,
• Research work in fuzzy systems
• Testing, evaluation and clearance of flight control software in Hardware-In-Loop test platform.
In association with his team, he has also produced over 2500 design documents and reports as part of the LCA Control Law and Air Data System related work. He has also several publications in international and national journals of reputes, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He has guided several candidates on Ph.D. Thesis as well as on the BE / B. Tech., and M.E. / M. Tech. Projects.
He is a recipient of several awards for his contribution to the design & development of Air Data System and performance evaluation of fly-by-wire control laws for LCA,and pioneering research work carried out in the field of fuzzy systems. The awards include:
1) Technology Shield-2001 from National Aerospace Laboratories as a member of CLAW Team
2) INAE Young Engineer Award-2006 from Indian National Academy of Engineering
3) Young Systems Scientist Award-2009 from Systems Society of India
4) Swarna Jayanti Award-2010 from Aeronautical Society of India
5) Dr. V. M. Ghatge Award-2017 from Aeronautical Society of India
6) DRDO Scientist of the Year-2019 from DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India
7) National Technology Day 2022 Oration Medal & Certificate-2022 by DRDO.
He is a fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India, Systems Society of India, and Institution of Engineers (India). He member of several other professional bodies like Systems Society of India (SSI), Indian Society for Science for Engineering (ISSE), etc. His current interests / areas of specializations include Instrumentation & Control broadly, Air Data Systems and instrumentation for flight controls and navigation, Performance evaluation of flight control laws, Flight Control Software Testing, Evaluation and clearance, and Intelligent Control / Soft Computing and their applications to aeronautics, and relevant Systems Engineering Aspects.