Systems Control Experts Join the Joby Energy Team

Frédéric “Fred” Bourgault

Michael “Mike” Sherback

Joby Energy commercial airborne wind turbines will be entirely autonomous and capable of long-term operation in a variety of weather conditions. This requires highly specialized system controls to handle multiple system components required to reliably produce renewable energy from high altitude winds. Joby Energy founder, JoeBen Bevirt has recently recruited two engineers to co-lead the system controls team.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer Frederic “Fred” Bourgault, Ph.D., and Mechanical Engineer Michael “Mike” Sherback, Ph.D., joined the Joby Energy system controls team in March 2010. Prior to arriving at Joby Energy, Fred was a senior scientist and Mike was a post-graduate fellow working with Professor Raffaello D'Andrea at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland.

Fred and Mike first learned about Joby Energy through an article in Nature magazine. While still at ETH, they were investigating the feasibility of airborne wind power in their spare time. They met JoeBen after he delivered a company presentation and toured ETH facilities. After learning about the company’s technological progress, they were both interested in joining the growing company.

“I love the idea of airborne wind turbines to address both the energy crisis and the carbon emission from burning fossil fuels problems,” Fred said. “If we hadn't joined Joby Energy, Mike and I were seriously considering starting our own venture in this area or joining forces with other friends and colleagues.”

The two engineers are taking on a critical technological challenge. “When taken individually, the sub-systems of airborne wind systems such as power generation, structure, aerodynamics, estimation and control constitute very achievable engineering challenges,” Fred said.

"The challenge is to quickly converge on simple and robust sub-systems, and to integrate them. We can then refine this to produce airborne wind turbines that will fly and generate electricity autonomously and reliably. With sufficient scale and design optimization, we expect that they can be cost competitive with, for example, coal, when externalities are considered."

The Company's leadership, vision and product and its potential to be an industry trailblazer were what attracted both men to Joby Energy.

“Joby Energy is a well-funded and professional company with a charismatic and technically savvy founder and a talented and bright team,” Fred said. “The Company has a serious chance of succeeding.”

Bevirt said his vision of launching the first successful airborne wind energy system will become reality only by recruiting and retaining the very best team.

“Fred and Mike are top-notch engineers with the systems control know-how that will be instrumental to the success of the technology,” Bevirt said. “I expect their knowledge and skills will drive our technological leadership in the development and deployment of our product.”

Fred and Mike join C.O. Lee Boyce, Ph.D., Henry Hallam, Mathew Peddie and Allen Ibara on the systems control team.


Introducing Michael “Mike” Sherback

Mike Sherback snowboarding

As a post-doctoral research assistant at ETH, Mike wrote simulation, control, and estimation code for unmanned aerial vehicles. His solid robotics and controls research experience along with a desire to contribute to a technology with the potential of having a positive impact on society sold him on the Company. “I was drawn to Joby Energy because of the system control challenges and because I see the huge potential benefit for humanity,” he said.

Mike, received his Ph.D., M. Sc., and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University with a research focus on dynamics and controls. His work at Joby Energy will focus on deploying control systems for airborne wind turbines to compensate for inevitable modeling errors.

“We need to stay ahead of the ball. Computational modeling will have some real-life problems when a dynamic system is flown. Our job is to gather data to minimize these problems in advance, and to design control systems that can cope with what error is left over."

Mike is convinced the technology can work. “The back-of-the-envelope calculations look great,” he said. According to Mike, the control of unmanned aeronautical vehicles is a reasonably mature field. “There may be some unknowns surrounding the tether and regulatory issues, but they aren't too intimidating.”

Mike is married to Grace Li, a postdoctoral research assistant studying fibronectin for biomedical engineering at ETH Zurich. When not at work, Mike enjoys hiking, snowboarding and hockey.  He is looking forward to having his wife join him in Santa Cruz in September.


Introducing Frédéric “Fred” Bourgault

Fred Bourgault paragliding

Fred’s main task, as part of the systems control group at Joby Energy, is to contribute to the design and implementation of algorithms that make the vehicle fly and generate power autonomously. This involves control and estimation theory, systems theory, some artificial intelligence and optimization.

“The challenge from the controls perspective is to assure that the airborne wind energy system is efficient and ultra-reliable" said Fred. "It must be robust in adverse weather conditions and to multiple subsystem failures."

According to Fred, the engineering challenges ahead are ambitious but achievable. Some of the technology’s main hurdles may be non-technical, for example, changing public perception and gaining acceptance from large utility companies for this novel technology, and obtaining the legal framework and regulations to enable seamless large scale operations.

Fred was most recently Senior Scientist, Lecturer and Fellow at ETH Zurich, Mechanical & Process Engineering. His work at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control included performing design, analysis and developing control algorithms for the Distributed Flight Array. The project featured small autonomous vehicles, each equipped with a single propeller, motored wheels and sensors, that are able to drive and join together into an array while on the ground, and then take off to fly as a single entity.

A Canadian, Fred completed postdoctoral research studies at Cornell University’s Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, a M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and a B.Eng. in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. He is also alumni of the International University. He also studied at Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (Sup’aero) in Toulouse, France.

When off the clock, Fred actively pursues a wide variety of interests including traveling, learning languages and absorbing local culture (including food and wine). He is also a sports and fitness buff who enjoys mountaineering, skiing, cycling and running. An avid flyer, Fred competes in local and international paragliding competitions. While in Santa Cruz, he plans on adding kite surfing to his sports regimen.