Summary
Dr Sophie Armanini is a Research Associate at the Aerial Robotics Laboratory, where she works on dynamics and control problems related to miniature bio-inspired aerial-aquatic robots.
She received her PhD degree in aerospace engineering in 2018 from Delft University of Technology (Control & Simulation Section / MAVLab), in the Netherlands, where she worked on modelling and system identification of flapping-wing micro air vehicles. Her MSc degree, also in aerospace engineering, was obtained from the Technical University of Munich (Flight System Dynamics Institute), Germany, in 2013. During her studies, she was a visiting researcher at Cornell University (Cohen Group), in the US, where she investigated the control mechanisms of transgenic fruit flies, and at Cranfield University (Dynamics Simulation and Control Group), where she worked on inflight icing detection and response for unmanned aircraft. She also worked on decision-making for unmanned flight in adverse weather as an intern at AOS Group, in Melbourne, Australia. In 2015, she won the best paper award at the International Conference on Intelligent Unmanned Systems (ICIUS).
Her research interests include flight dynamics, system identification and control, especially for unconventional, small-scale and unmanned flight vehicles. She is particularly interested in flapping-wing and bio-inspired flight.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Zufferey R, Ancel AO, Farinha A, et al., 2019, Consecutive aquatic jump-gliding with water-reactive fuel, Science Robotics, Vol:4, ISSN:2470-9476, Pages:1-11
Armanini SF, Caetano JV, de Visser CC, et al., 2019, Modelling wing wake and tail aerodynamics of a flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle, International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, Vol:11, ISSN:1756-8293
Armanini SF, Karasek M, de Croon GCHE, et al., 2017, Onboard/Offboard Sensor Fusion for High-Fidelity Flapping-Wing Robot Flight Data, Journal of Guidance Control and Dynamics, Vol:40, ISSN:0731-5090, Pages:2121-2132
Armanini SF, Caetano JV, de Croon GCHE, et al., 2016, Quasi-steady aerodynamic model of clap-and-fling flapping MAV and validation using free-flight data, Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, Vol:11, ISSN:1748-3182
Armanini SF, de Visser CC, de Croon GCHE, et al., 2016, Time-varying model identification of flapping-wing vehicle dynamics using flight data, Journal of Guidance Control and Dynamics, Vol:39, ISSN:0731-5090, Pages:526-541