About
Dr Prior is a senior academic with 35 years experience of teaching in the fields of systems design, development and testing in real-world environments. He remains curious, innovative and enjoys pushing the boundaries of education and research.
- A qualified drone pilot
- Chartered Mechanical Engineer
- Corporate Member of the IMechE
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- VTOL Aeronautics
- Autonomous Uncrewed Systems
- Aerial Robotics
- Design engineering
Current research
The focus of my current research is a four-year EPSRC grant of £1.25m in collaboration with colleagues in ISVR on Aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of closely-coupled rotors (2022-26) (EP/V05614X/1). This project brings together specialists in aeroacoustics (Paruchuri, Joseph), aerodynamics (Ganapathisubramani) and flight vehicle design (Prior) to address directly a major gap in understanding aimed at enabling the design and development of efficient and quiet future multi-rotor propulsion systems. High fidelity flow and noise data will be used to establish new design principles and semi-analytical predictive models for high-efficiency low-noise multi-rotor configurations. In the final phase of the project the results from the project will be exploited to develop a full-scale low-noise multi-rotor demonstrator (Prior). The project is a collaborative effort with project partners Mejzlik propellers and Leonardo UK Ltd.
The main reason for doing this research is for defence applications of uncrewed systems. Of particular interest, is developing hybrid propulsion systems for heavy-lift operations in challenging environments. Involvement in the recent series of the Army Warfighting Experiment (AWE) 2022-24, Royal Navy Heavy Lift Capability (HLC) challenges (2021-26) and exhibitions such as the Army Expo, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI 2023) and the the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 provide oppotunities to test equipment and engage with end users.
Research projects
Active projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
SESA1015 - Introduction to Aeronautics and Astronautics (ML)
FEEG2001 - Systems Design and Computing
FEEG3003 - Individual Project
FEEG3009 - Industrial Placement Year
FEEG6013 - Group Design Project
SESA6084 - Systems Design of Multi-Rotor Aircraft (ML)
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Dr Stephen D Prior is a Reader in Unmanned Air Vehicles within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Dr Prior gained a BEng Mechanical Engineering degree in 1987 and a PhD in Robotics from Middlesex University, London in 1993.
His research interests are in the areas of VTOL Aeronautics, Autonomous Uncrewed Systems, Aerial Robotics and Design Engineering.
He has developed a number of innovative aerial platforms, including a world leading Hydrogen Fuel Cell drone in collaboration with Intelligent Energy, Batcam and Cella Energy, which flew for 70 min carrying a 5 kg payload.
He was project lead for the shortlisted MoD Grand Challenge i-Spy team in 2008 and was the team leader for Team HALO, winner of the DARPA UAVForge Competition 2012. He has led various teams to success in the IMechE UAS Challenges (2015-2019). His teaching has been recognised with a Vice Chancellors Teaching Award in 2014, after redeveloping the cornerstone FEEG2001 Systems Design and Computing module, taken by all second year engineering students. Teams of project students supervised by Dr Prior have won the Eurobot (UK) final every year since 2014.
He has been on the editorial board for the International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles since 2010 and the Unmanned Systems Journal since 2013.
His leadership roles include Governor and University Liaison Officer for the £8m South-Wiltshire Defence Industries UTC (2012-16), Admissions Tutor for Aero & Astro (2017-2019), as well as the Employability & Industrial Liaison Officer from 2020 to date, where he grew the cohort from 7 to 45 students.
He works closely with colleagues in Taiwan, where he jointly organises two international conferences (IEEE ICASI & IEEE ICICE) per year and has jointly edited 35 special issues over the last decade.
He was a non-executive director of Tethered Drone Systems Ltd and is the CEO and Founder of Hybrid Drones Ltd, a company developing heavy-lift hybrid drone technology.
Activities
2024
- 22 Jul 2024 – 26 Jul 2024: Farnborough International Airshow - Participating in or organising an event
- 17 Apr 2024 – 21 Apr 2024: 10th IEEE International Conference on Applied System Innovation - Conference/programme organisation (committee chair or member)
2023
- 9 Nov 2023 – 13 Nov 2023: International Conference on Innovation, Communication and Engineering 2023
- 12 Sept 2023 – 15 Sept 2023: Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2023 (Participating in or organising an event)
- 12 Jul 2023: Mass Manufacturing of Smart Machines
2022
- 25 Feb 2022: Episode 14 - Robot Talk on Aerial Robotics: Taking Flight (Talk or presentation: Invited speaker)
2019
- 3 Dec 2019: Drone Pathfinder - Academic Workshop (Participating in the event)
- 21 Nov 2019: Connected Places Catapult - Drone Pathfinder Community Day
- 15 Oct 2019 – 16 Oct 2019: Drone Technology to Monitor and Secure Education Estate Facilities (Invited speaker)
- 15 May 2019: Private Briefing with the Science and Technology Select Committee on Commercial and Recreational Drone Use in the UK (Invited speaker)
- 29 Mar 2019 – 31 Mar 2019: DSTL/AFRL Fire Hack Challenge 2019 - Judge
- 11 Mar 2019: Drones and other Unmanned Air Vehicles (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop - talk)
- 18 Feb 2019: Chief Scientist Office (External organisation) - Membership - Appointment or secondment to government, quasi-governmental or supra-national organisation
- 1 Jan 2019 – 4 Jul 2019: BIEA 2019 International STEM Youth Innovation Drone Competition - Judge
2018
- 29 Nov 2018: RADAR Club Meeting - The challenges facing commercial UAVs and their applications (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop)
- 22 Nov 2018: RAeS (IoW Branch) - Aerial Revolution; an insight into Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop)
- 20 Nov 2018: MoD Grand Challenge - 10 Years On (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop)
- 27 Sept 2018: Drone Nation - Remotely Piloted Air Systems (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop)
- 10 Jun 2018: Drones - Ready for Take-Off (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop)
- 17 May 2018: Drone Revolution (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop)
- 6 Feb 2018: Drone Revolution (Public lecture, debate, seminar or workshop)
2013
- International Journal of Unmanned Systems (Journal) - Member of editorial board
- Publication peer-review and editorial work › Editorship or editorial board appointment or Reviewing (Journals)
2012
- 12 Nov 2012: 'Introducing the HALO small unmanned aerial vehicle' (Conference Invited Talk)
- 12 Oct 2012: 'Building next generation small unmanned air vehicles' (Talk or presentation › Conference Keynote)
- Oct 2012: 'Team HALO - DARPA UAVForge 2012' (Conference Invited Talk)
- Designing next generation small unmanned aerial systems - UAVForge 2012 (Invited speaker)
2010
- Jan 2010: Ministry of Defence Counter-IED Think Tank (External organisation) - Membership › Appointment or secondment to government, quasi-governmental or supra-national organisation
- 2010: Journal of Science and Innovation (Journal) - Stephen Prior (Member of editorial board)
- 2010: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Editorship or editorial board appointment or Reviewing (Journals)
2009
- 4 Nov 2009: Unmanned Vehicle Comprising a Triangular Array of Rotors (Patents awarded)
- Jun 2009: Invited to be the Mechatronics Consultant for Middlesex University Teaching Resources (Mindsets) - Consultancy
- 2009: International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles (Journal) - Member of editorial board, Editorship or editorial board appointment or Reviewing (Journals)
2006
- 24 Mar 2006: Higher Education Academy (External organisation) - Membership - Professional qualification
Prizes
- Winner of the DARPA UAVForge competition 2012 (2012)
- International Robotics Challenge Event 2017 - Runner-Up Prize - £600 (2017)
- IMechE UAS Challenge 2018 - Overall Runner-Up Team Athena and Design Award – Team Horus (2018)
- Taiwan Institute of Knowledge Innovation (TIKI) 2018 Fellow. (2018)
- IMechE UAS Challenge 2019 - Innovation Prize - Team Volta (2019)
- Eurobot (UK) 2014-2024 (2024)
- Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Award (2014)
- IMechE UAS Challenge 2016 - Overall Runner-Up Team Daedalus, Innovation Award & Autonomous Operations Awards and 3rd Place - Team Saffire, Safety & Airworthiness Award and 4th Place - Team Gryphon (2016)
- IMechE UAS Challenge 2017 - Overall Runner-Up Team Valkyrie and Navigation Authority Award, 3rd Place Team Olympus - Payload Delivery Award (2017)
- IMechE UAS Challenge 2015 - Overall Winner - Awards for Autonomous/Automatic Operations & Flying Operations (2015)