People

Director

Prof. Mirko Kovac Director & Reader in Aero Structures Room 326, CAGB, South Kensington Campus

PhD, (EPFL). Postdoctoral researcher, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering (Harvard University). My research focus is on the development of novel, biologically inspired flying robots for distributed sensing in air and water on autonomous robotic construction with particular specialisation is in robot design, fluid-structure interaction and multi-modal robot mobility.

Management

Dr Ashutosh Choubey Programme Manager Room 141a, CAGB, South Kensington Campus

PhD, Delhi University India. MBA, Durham University. Joined ARL December 2019. A business development consultant with background as a material research scientist. I focus on managing the ongoing research projects, strengthening links with current collaborators and building new relationships.

Sofia Shamim Personal assistant to Prof. Mirko Kovac Room 141A, CAGB, South Kensington Campus

B.A. Information Management & Finance. Joined ARL March 2020. Providing PA support to Prof. Kovac and project and administrative support to the ARL.

Research Associates and Visiting Faculty

Sophie Armanini Research Associate

PhD, Delft University of Technology, 2018. Joined the ARL in April 2018. Research project: dynamics and control of multi-modal robots. Research focus on the (aero)dynamics and control of novel bio-inspired aerial-aquatic robots, with the aim of providing new insight, supporting new design solutions, enabling new applications.

Dr Aslan Miriyev Materials Scientist/Visiting Researcher

PhD Materials Engineering,Ben-Gurion University, 2015. Joined the ARL in October 2019. Research project: Biological Artificial Muscle; Soft Actuation Materials; Bio-hybrid Aerial Robotics. My research focuses on the materials-robotics nexus, aiming at developing robotic materials and creating intelligent robots of the future.

Raphael Zufferey Research Engineer

MSc, EPFL, 2015. Joined the ARL in March 2016. Research projects: SailMAV, AquaMAV. Robotics and micro-technology postdoctoral engineer with extensive experience in mobile autonomous systems.

Dr Salua Hamaza Research Associate

PhD Robotics and Autonomous Systems, University of Bristol 2019. Joined the ARL in November 2019. My focus is on the design, control and integration of a novel manipulation system for aerial robotics applications.

Dr Basaran Bahadir Kocer Research Associate

PhD Nanyang Technological University. Joined the ARL in Nov 2019. Research Project: Design, Control, and Perception for Aerial Manufacturing: Current approaches could enjoy leveraging static models or they might only rely on training of policies with fixed architectures of neural networks.

Dr. Daniel Gortat Research Associate

PhD in Industrial Photonics, University of Cambridge, 2020. Joined the ARL in October 2020. My research focuses on the industrial applications of aerial robotics in construction with particular specialisation in material deposition methods and repair of structures at height.

Dr. Pham Huy Nguyen Research Associate

PhD Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, 2020. Joined the ARL in November 2020. Research project: Soft Actuation Schemes; Soft Aerial Robotics. My research focuses on designing and utilizing soft actuation schemes for robotics applications.

PhD Students

Peter Zheng

MEng, Imperial College London 2017. Joined the ARL in October 2017. Research project: Morphing multirotor for rainforest applications. This project aims to apply morphing designs to quadrotor robots to aid remote sensing of the rainforest under canopy.

Andre Farinha

MEng, University of Lisbon, 2016. Joined the ARL in November 2017. Research project: Remote sensor placement from aerial robots.

Feng Xiao

MSc, Imperial College London, 2017. Joined the ARL in May 2017. Research project: Bio-inspired Perching for Micro Aerial Vehicles: Inspired by flying insects’ perching strategy. This project aims to find the robotic method for MAV using embedded sensing and intelligence to perch.

Chuqian Lou

MSc, Imperial College, 2018. Joined the ARL in January 2019. Research project: meso-scale manufacturing techniques, control of sensor-limited robot systems, and morphable soft-bodied flying robots.

Dr Julien Di Tria

MEng, Microengineering March 2019, EPFL Switzerland. Joined the ARL March 2020. Research project: AquaMAV: multi-modal aerial aquatic diving plane.

Brett Stephens

MSc Robotics Systems and Control ETH Zürich. Joined the ARL in October 2018. Research project: A multi-modal approach to aerial manipulation, autonomous sensor placement with an aerial manipulator, passive velocity field control of aerial manipulators.

Crystal Winston

BSc Mechanical Engineering. Joined the ARL in August 2019. I am one of five MIT students to receive the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, which provides two years of funding toward a graduate degree in the United Kingdom. Research project: Morphing Wings for Sailing Micro Aerial Vehicles.

Fabian Wiesemüller

MSc ETH Zurich 2019. Joined the ARL in December 2019. Research Projects: Bio-degradable micro aerial vehicle. Bio-inspired lightweight glider: Ultralightweight and bio-mimetic designs for micro aerial vehicles enable new strategies towards a circular economy.

Lachlan Orr

MEng Imperial College, 2019. Joined the ARL in August 2019. Bioinspired construction and maintenance of infrastructure with aerial additive manufacturing methods. The aim of the project is to develop an aerial construction platform capable of performing construction tasks and novel surface interactions.