Evanns Morales-Cuadrado
Robotics Ph.D student · Georgia Tech
Evanns Morales-Cuadrado
I work on safe autonomy for hardware systems (mainly UAVs) focusing on aggressive low-level control, uncertainty-aware trajectory planning, and lightweight algorithms for computationally constrained platforms.
As part of my work I have also broken many drones, put them back together, and learned many lessons while working with hardware systems.
Education
Inside the Lab
I am a Robotics/ECE Ph.D student in the Formal Methods & Autonomous Control of Transportation Systems (FACTS) Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology under the supervision of Dr. Samuel Coogan.
My robotics work centers around hardware applications of safe autonomous control algorithms. In particular, I work on safe and efficient path planning and control synthesis in the face of onboard computational constraints. Much of my work involves hardware demonstrations of novel methods on quadrotor UAVs and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), so I’ve got some cool videos of drones flying autonomously and a lot of terrible videos of them crashing.
My Latest Project
RTD-RAX
My Runtime-Assurance eXtension (RAX) of the Reachability-based Trajectory Design (RTD) framework for fast candidate trajectory generation paired with an online, disturbance-aware verification layer to produce trajectories that avoid obstacles and achieve mission objectives while facing uncertain dynamics and real-world disturbances. RTD-RAX extends traditional RTD by separating fast candidate generation from online safety certification. The planner stays agile, while a fast online verifier utilizing Mixed Monotone Reachability (MMR) certifies each trajectory under the actual measured conditions and repairs unsafe candidates before execution.
Beyond the Lab
Roots
Boricua de pura cepa.
Proud of where I'm from and always thinking of ways to connect with my culture. At Georgia Tech I helped co-found "BORI" to provide a welcoming place for Puerto Rican students and promote our culture across campus.
Research
I love building cool things and breaking them making them work.
From undergraduate research at UT Arlington to my PhD at Georgia Tech. My next stop is in Albuquerque, NM for a Summer 2026 internship at Sandia National Laboratories.
Recreation
We like to enjoy life.
I spend whole days outside playing mediocre basketball when I'm able to. I'm also a somewhat decent salsa dancer (and getting better too).