PEOPLE
The research group of the Unmanned Vehicles Robotarium Systems lab is mainly composed of researchers, scientific personnel and graduate (Ph.D. and M.Sc.) students. Since its creation in 2004, the Lab has trained several students working on diverse areas of unmanned vehicle systems. If you would like to know about our past projects and the students that worked on such developments please check our "Former Students" webpage.
The current team members of the lab are listed below ( R&D Fellows: 3 ; Ph.D.: 9 ; M.Sc.: 3 ; B.Sc.: 2 ):
Principal Investigator:

Dr. Alex Ramirez-Serrano, P.Eng.
Professor / Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering / Director UVS Robotarium Lab.
Office: MEB-523
Laboratory (Robotarium): EEEL-124 & EEEL-125
Certifications:
-
Post-Doc, Control & Robotics - Argonne National Laboratory - U.S.A. (2002)
-
Ph.D., Mechanical & Industrial Eng - University of Toronto (UofT) - Canada (2000)
-
M.Sc., Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence - Monterrey Tech (ITESM) - Mexico (1996)
-
M.Sc., Mechanical & Aerospace Eng - Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) - U.S.A. (1993)
-
B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering - Univ. Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM) - Mexico (1992)
Post-doctoral / R&D Fellows:

Maryam Taherinezhad
11/2023-present

Project: Control allocation formulations for INDI control architectures applied to highly maneuverable UAVs with dynamic coupling.

Wei Jia
01/2023-present
Student, Northwestern Polytechnic

Project: Locomotion control of humanoid robots via smart ROS software with advance body posture adaptation.

Mohammed Arafat
01/2024-06/2024
Student, Military technical College

Project: Electronic navigation and guidance system capable of running INDI control strategies via a Pixhawk 6C autopilot.
Ph.D. Students

Melina Varguez R.
01/2020-present
Student in BIomendical Eng.

Thesis: Bio-engineering humanoid motions.
Develop bio-engineering motion adaptation approaches for humanoids maneuvers.

Marshall Staples
04/2018-present
Co-supervisor Dr. Chris Hugenholtz

Thesis: Sniffer drone.
Develop UAV navigation methodologies for the detection of fugitive emissions.

Pablo Segura Parra
09/2019-present
Co-supervisor: Dr. Ma. Lobato Calleros Student at the Univ. Iberoamericana

Thesis: Human-robot interaction (HRI) study.
Study & development of HRI interaction mechanisms for industrial applications.

Abdallah Dayhoum
09/2022-present

Thesis: Unsteady Aerodynamics of Rotary Wings.
Non-linear unsteady aerodynamic investigation of rotary wings.

Sherif M. Hassan
01/2021-present
Student in the Dept. of Elect. Eng.

Thesis: Navigation of autonomous vehicles.
Integrated guidance, navigation, and control of a highly-maneuverable transitional UAVs.

Hossein Keshavarz
05/2021-present

Thesis: Perceptive whole-body planning.
Whole-body planning for multi-legged robots in 3D confined unstructured confined spaces.

Chanhong Park
01/2022-to start
Co-supervisor: Dr. Mahdis Bisheban

Thesis: Control of highly maneuverable VTOL.
Control/Path planning of thrust vectoring drones for operation in GPS-denied confined spaces.

Amir Gholami
01/2021-present

Thesis: Multi-contact control of legged robots.
Control of acrobatic biped & quadruped robots operating in unstructured spaces.

Mahyar Ashkvari
05/2022-present

Thesis: Full-body motion planning of hybrid robots
Modeling, control, and planning of search & rescue multi-legged robots for confined spaces.
M.Sc. Students

Keilan Pieper
02/2023-present
Co-supervisor: Dr. Craig Johansen

Thesis: Control of a supersonic UAV.
PID & INDI control architecture assessment for small scale supersonic UAVs.

Anastasia Johnson
09/2021-present

Thesis: Locomotion transition of hybrid robots.
Develop locomotion transition strategies for hybrid robots operating in confined spaces.

Stefan Van de Mosselaer
09/2023-present

Thesis: Aggressive locomotion of legged robots.
Aggressive locomotion for high-speed 14+ DOF quadruped robots to overcome large obstacles
B.Sc. Students

Abhinav Srinivas
5/24/2023-8/16/2023

Project: ROS software for Humanoids.
Software for a life-size humanoid robot using ROS (GUI and Sensor data acquisition).

Sudharsan Senthilraja.
5/16/2023-8/8/2023

Project: Oscilating landing platform for UAVs.
Highly Maneuverable Landing Platform for UAVs.
“Nothing is impossible !"
In this research lab. we aim to develop technologies to ensure that unmanned vehicles can deal with unexpected situations (changes, errors, etc.) or tasks that challenge their sensing, modeling, planning, adaptation, or movement envelopes.
We are working to realize fully autonomous robots with effective human-robot interaction capabilities
for operations in unstructured hazardous confined GPS-denied spaces.
Dr. Alex Ramirez-Serrano
Director of the Unmanned Vehicles Robotarium laboratory