Professor Darren Ansell

Darren’s research interests include drone technology development, autonomous and intelligent systems, airspace integration with specialisms in mission systems development. Darren won a £1.1M equipment grant to support drone businesses in 2021.

Darren won and lead the 2021 £1.3M ERDF project ‘Lancashire Innovation Drone Zone’ supporting over 40 SMEs to develop new drones and drone related products within Lancashire. He partnered in regional and European projects to promote drone uptake for regional growth.

Darren also leads a key research project investigating airborne sensing for the detection of buried landmines and unexploded ordinance, conducting trials of new technology with international partners, and innovative drone technology for the agricultural sector. Darren collaborates with NASA Marshall on Sounding Rocket projects, focused on gathering solar imagery, with three successful projects completed.

Darren Ansell has been with us at the University of Central Lancashire since September 2012. He has previously been course leader for Aerospace Engineering courses, Academic Lead for Aerospace Engineering and became a professor in 2018.

He previously worked in industry at BAE Systems in research management and research and development roles, specialising in Mission Systems and Autonomy. At BAE Systems, he was an executive engineering lead for the £32M ASTRAEA programme which developed UAV technology to support the integration of unmanned platforms into UK airspace, where he led the development of 'Sense and Avoid' collision avoidance technology, autonomy and decision-making software and image processing research.