Ryan Cash Email & Phone Number

Sunnyvale, Ca, Us

Mountain View, California, Us

Cupertino, California, Us

Mountain View, California, Us

Led and managed the Platform Systems Engineering teams responsible for systems and test engineering of motion control, positioning, fault protection, vehicle integration, and electrical and embedded systems across all of Waymo’s self-driving vehicle platformsLed development of driverless autonomy interface between Waymo Driver and Chrysler Pacifica including architecture, requirements, and verification and validation programResponsible for systems engineering including verification and validation of motion control, positioning, and embedded systems on Waymo's “Firefly” driverless drive-by-wire prototype vehicle

Alameda, Ca, Us

Developed Vehicle Dynamics Control System (VDCS) from scratch including traction control, electronic differential, extended Kalman filter based state estimation, two-motor shift coordination and fault-tolerant motor manager. Developed a full MATLAB and Simulink physics simulation including selectable fidelity components in order to test algorithms. Coded and deployed many of the control algorithms in embedded C. Responsible for scheduling, prioritization, and coordination of controls tasking, integration, and testing. Coordinated with EE, ME, and SW groups to test and deploy associated code and hardware to the vehicles or testbeds to achieve company milestones.Led drive test program of first vehicle prototype. Led initial dyno testing of new gearbox, motors, power electronics and shifting.Created initial dynamometer and vehicle testing procedures, data collection protocols, and data analysis scripts. Developed LabVIEW-based dyno control including battery cell monitor, data collection, and engineering display. Designed novel sliding-mode nonlinear controller for permanent magnet traction motor. New controller drastically improved torque response and is extremely robust to mass changes (i.e. wheel on ice vs full truck load)Developed Battery Management System (BMS) from scratch including SOC estimation and correction and dynamic power limiting for lithium iron phosphate battery packDeveloped Engine Fuel Controller and Manager for on-board turbine generatorCo-inventor on patent: I. Wright, R. Cash, System and "Method for Vehicle Dynamics Control in Electric Drive Vehicles." Managed and authored all communications with patent office and legal counsel.

Arlington, Va, Us

Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer: YMQ-18A (A160T) Hummingbird• Led effort to improve control stability and expand top speed of A160T by 50% and main rotor RPM by 35%.• Wrote optimal gain search algorithm to help tuning of controls architecture and proposed high-speed changes• Designed, coded and tested new robust and fail-safe “on-ground detector” and incorporated into control system• Performed real-time system identification during 15+ flight tests to analyze stability margins and verify aircraft dynamics• Designed and coded mast-moment control augmentation to allow for safe takeoff and landing with significant lateral and longitudinal CG offset• Implemented temperature compensation for flight-critical gear-load strain gauges• Designed new control algorithms in MATLAB and on paper, and implemented in C++A160T Flight Test Operations • 15+ hours as RSO (co-pilot / payload operator) for A160T during test and operational flightsFlight Engineer for 60+ A160T Flight Tests and 40+ hours as LSO (Pilot) for A160T during ground tests• Wrote A160T flight and ground tests plans for envelope expansion, deployment demos, and payload checkout• Developed advanced MATLAB scripts to handle both real-time and post-flight data analysis of frequency response, vibration, sensor malfunctions, and rotor dynamicsConcept Exploration Testing Recruiting Lead• Responsible for all recruiting activities for college new-hires for flight testing, controls, and electronics groups

Led experiment testing the impact of UAV agility on low-altitude survivability during surveillance missionsSupported research of aggressive UAV landings

Bethesda, Md, Us

Led Trade Study and drafted an RFI to select an autopilot and avionics solution for an optionally-piloted / unmanned variant of the Kaman K-Max.Conducted autonomy gap analysis to identify aircraft subsystems which required automation in the absence of a pilotWorked with ADS-33E-PRF, STANAG 4586, DoDAF to define airframe and autonomy requirementsHelped draft an Interface Control Document to regulate communication between a vehicle management computer and the autopilot