Seminar: Insect – Machine Hybrid Robots: from Insect Study to Autonomous Robots for Search and Rescue, Dr. Thanh-Luan Nguyen, University of Leeds

Abstract 

Autonomous miniature robots are long-awaited in urban search and rescue to provide crucial functions such as navigation through narrow spaces, under rubbles, obstacle avoidance, victim detection, location report and communication. State-of-the-art technology has made mini-insect-scale robots that crawl or fly in untethered conditions. However, they are not capable of autonomous navigation inside an unknown environment. This is mainly due to the large physical dimensions and/or large power requirements to realize autonomous navigation, object detection and wireless communication. Insect-machine hybrid robot is a promising alternative approach combining the insect locomotion proficiency and robot controllability. In this talk, we will explore the autonomous navigation methods based on insect-machine hybrid robots.

Bio 

Dr Thanh-Luan NGUYEN is currently a Research Fellow at School of Computing, University of Leeds. He is working on Autonomous Control for pipeline inspection robots. In 2017, he was awarded his PhD degree in Robotics from the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.  He also received his B. Eng. and M. Eng. degrees in Mechatronics from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam. He also worked as a Research Fellow and a Group Leader at Cyborg Insect Research Lab, School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore before coming to Leeds in 2020.

For Teams link, contact robotics@leeds.ac.uk.