Kevin Plaizier
Guidance Navigation And Controls
United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolKevin Plaizier is a Guidance, Navigation, and Controls engineer with six years of hands-on experience building and tuning UAS flight software and hardware. He develops embedded flight-control code, filters, sensor fusion, and state estimation—work that includes contributions to prominent open-source projects like Betaflight and EmuFlight where he improved mixer behavior, filtering, and RPM accuracy. At KULR and Teal Drones he architected and test-flew autopilots (including a Rust-based system), while also creating an Arduino-based VTOL autopilot used to teach a university controls course. Comfortable across firmware, simulation (SITL/HITL), and flight testing, he combines low-level signal processing with practical piloting and mission execution. Kevin’s background as an adjunct professor and PIC for remote sensing highlights his ability to translate research and code into reliable, flown systems. He’s driven by a practical obsession with making drones “fly well” and a tendency to fix subtle control and filtering issues others miss.
6 years of coding experience
3 years of employment as a software developer
Aviation Management Emphasis UAS, Unmanned Aerial Systems, Aviation Management Emphasis UAS, Unmanned Aerial Systems at Utah State University
English, Esperanto
Github Skills (21)
algorithm10
algorithms10
develop10
controller10
firmware10
c-programming10
c1110
c1710
filter10
sys10
embedded10
filtering10
preflight9
beta-release9
beta-versions9
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
emuflight/EmuFlight
Aug 2019 - Sep 2022
EmuFlight is flight controller software (firmware) used to fly multi-rotor craft.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:12 releases, 146 reviews, 934 commits in 3 years 1 month
Contributions summary:Kevin primarily contributed to the EmuFlight flight controller software by merging features and making changes to the code related to filtering and calibration. These changes involved modifications to core files such as `filter.c`, `filter.h`, and various target-specific header files. Their contributions included adding and modifying filtering algorithms, implementing filtering options in the OSD and settings, and integrating enhancements to the internal workings of the flight controller.
flightcontrollerwhoopfpvcraft
betaflight/betaflight
Sep 2022 - Oct 2022
Open Source Flight Controller Firmware
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:79 reviews, 3 commits, 13 PRs in 10 days
Contributions summary:Kevin primarily contributed to the `betaflight` firmware, focusing on the flight controller's mixer functionality. They fixed airmode mixer issues, ensured smooth transitions, and laid the groundwork for an airmode strength setting. The contributions also involved code cleanup, including comment removal, and enhancements like improved RPM filter accuracy. Overall, the user demonstrated expertise in flight control systems and embedded software development.
flightcontrollerbetaflightfirmwareflight-controller
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