Ella M. Atkins' research focuses on risk assessment and planning algorithms to improve mission success and safety in the presence of system failures, environmental uncertainties, and operator error.  Her research has been funded by NSF, NASA, DARPA, and DoD.  Hardware-based experimentation is a key element of Dr. Atkins' research, ranging from manipulator and rover to unmanned aircraft platforms.  A key element to her ongoing research is in understanding how unmanned and highly-autonomous aircraft can be safely flown in the National Airspace System. The use of unmanned platforms has the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact, particularly the carbon footprint, of aircraft used in applications such as law enforcement, traffic surveillance, inspection of structures such as pipelines, etc.