UTFacultiesEEMCSNewsRamy Rashad first cum laude PhD: flying robots ERC project

Ramy Rashad first cum laude PhD: flying robots ERC project

Rashad, an established, leading principal investigator of the University of Twente, is the first cum laude PhD for the ERC Advanced Grant project PortWings. It’s a long-term funding to pursue a ground-breaking, high-risk project about the development of mathematical models and control algorithms for flying robots that interact with their environments.

PortWings is a ERC 2018 Advanced Grant (Ad.G) of 2.8M Euros awarded to Prof. Stefano Stramigioli, which started on 1-10-2018 and last 5 years totally. The project aims to decode the wonders and secrets of flapping-flight and use this understanding to develop advanced robotic birds.

An example of robots that interact with their environments includes multi-rotor vehicles that manipulate the environment e.g. inspect structures physically, move objects around, write on surfaces etc. Another example includes bird-like robots that interact with the air around it in order to fly and perform amazing maneuvers.

Thesis

The thesis addresses different theoretical and practical problems regarding this class of interactive aerial robots. The practical part of the thesis focuses on the emerging field of aerial physical interaction. An extensive survey of fully-actuated multi-rotor aerial vehicles is presented which highlights a wide range of suitable designs for developing a flying end-effector capable of physically interacting with the environment.

More information

Ramy Rashad is a scientist in the research group Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM). His supervisor is prof.dr.ir. S. Stramigioli from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS).

drs. J.G.M. van den Elshout (Janneke)
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