Meet Our Members
Principal Investigators

A/Prof. Amir Patel
Director: ARU
Bio-Inspired Robotics, Biomechanics

Robyn Verrinder
Senior Lecturer
Autonomous Marine Systems

Dr. Paul Amayo
Senior Lecturer
Computer Vision,
Robotic Perception, Autonomous Vehicles

Dr. Joyce Mwangama
Senior Lecturer
Communications Networks

Dr. Stacey Shield
Lecturer
Trajectory Optimization & Simulation of Legged Locomotion
Collaborators

Prof. Edward Boje
Professor
Control Systems and Mechatronics

A/Prof. Fred Nicolls
Associate Professor
Image & Signal Processing, Computer Vision

Matt Church
Chief Technical Officer
Localization
PhD Candidates

Leanne Raw
PhD Candidate, Senior Lecturer
The Effects of Leg Morphology on Rapid Acceleration in Quadrupeds Systems and Mechatronics

Naoya Muramatsu
PhD Candidate
On the Neuromechanics of the Cheetah: Head-stabilization and Tracking of the Cheetah

Boitumelo Dikoko
PhD Candidate, Lecturer
Lightweight Multi-Session and Multi-Robot Mapping

James Hepworth
Senior Lecturer
Communications Networks
MSc Candidates

Joshua Harford
MSc Candidate
Trajectory optimization

Tristyn Ferreiro
MSc Candidate
Sea Ice characteristics extraction using SAR satellite images

Daniel Jones
MSc Candidate
Development and testing of a multi-modal sensor suite to observe ice in the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) of Antarctica

Damien Schutz
MSc Candidate
Understanding the cheetah tail using inverse optimal control

David Sephton-Poultney
MSc Candidate
Sea ice field characteristic extraction using LIDAR

Heather Wimberley
MSc Candidate
Control of bounding on hybrid pneumatic-electric quadruped

Dean Makoni
MSc Candidate
Investigation into Marin Robotics

Gavin Foster
MSc Candidate
Modelling and developing a comprehensive walk and run cycle for a planar bipedal robot

Kamryn Norton
MSc Candidate
Head-tracking and stabilization of the cheetah

Zaheer Dhunny
MSc Candidate
Harbour mapping using an unmanned surface vessel

Zubair Martin
MSc Candidate
Investigating the role of arms in biped robots (practically implementing an appendage to a biped to improve stabilization)

Immanuel Nanyaro
MSc Candidate
Vision only socially compliant navigation

Gerald Maswoswere
MSc Candidate
WildPose V3: Investigation into a long-range 3D motion capture system

Aidie Winter
MSc Candidate
Ship Hull Inspection through Underwater 3D Reconstruction

Agoritsa Spirakis
MSc Candidate
Investigation into the characterisation of pancake sea ice surface roughness using LiDAR and cameras

Umutesa Munyurangabo
MSc Candidate
Investigation into Vision-Only socially compliant navigation robot

Azraa Vally
MSc Candidate
DeepTrap: Remote Vital Signs Monitoring of Wildlife Using Low-cost Thermal Cameras

Shalom Abiodun
MSc Candidate
Spine design for a rapidly accelerating quadruped robot

Kauthar Du Toit
MSc Candidate
Using mmWave radar to remotely monitor muscle activity

Ché Habib
MSc Candidate
Multi-animal vital sign monitoring using radar

Sebastian Haug
MSc Candidate
Radar odometry for long-term robot navigation on the Voyager robot

Venny Hsiao
MSc Candidate
Active perception on an unmanned surface vehicle using neural implicit maps

Kian Li Wan Po
MSc Candidate
Electric Impedance Tomogrophy

Thabisa Maweni
MSc Candidate
Visual teach and repeat algorithm/system for navigation of autonomous mobile robots

Tshiamo Motaung
MSc Candidate
Synthetic animal pose data generation

Adam Mukuddem
MSc Candidate
3D scene graphs for agriculture and marine environment

Anand Nair
MSc Candidate
Modelling the wave induced dynamics of pancake ice in the Southern Ocean

Vuyo Ndayi
MSc Candidate
The effect and mitigation of adverse environmental conditions on container (un)loading operability in the Port of CPT

Zuhayr Parker
MSc Candidate
Contact and dynamic estimation of cheetahs in the wild

Theon Smith
MSc Candidate
Modelling the interplay between ice floes and ocean wave behavior in the Antarctic marginal ice zone

Ritvik Sojen
MSc Candidate
Neural methods for robotic mapping of large-scale marine environments

John Adam Speed-Andrews
MSc Candidate
Long term navigation of ground robots

Sarah Tallack
MSc Candidate
Photo-synthetically available radiance (PAR) measurement

Jacques Van Wyk
MSc Candidate
In-situ sensor platform for detection and monitoring of pollution events

Dylan White
MSc Candidate
Investigation into the application of Synthetic Aperture Radar for ice depth and structure sensing

Mpilonhle Zondi
MSc Candidate
Keyframe-based LiDER SLAM

Alumni: PhD Graduates
(currently: Lecturer, University of Cape)
(currently: Embedded Software Engineer, Lightyear)
(currently: Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch)

Alumni: MSc Graduates
(currently: Software Engineer, Kopernikus Automotive)
(currently: Hardware Development Engineer, S-PLANE)
(currently: Computer Engineer, Mineral Services Engineering)
(currently: Software Development Engineer, Amazon Web Services)
(currently: Embedded Software Engineer, Lightyear)
(currently: Senior Software Engineer, Digiata Technology Services)
(currently: Head of Hardware Engineering, Lumkani)
(currently: Senior Backend Developer, SnappCar)
(currently: Lecturer, University of Cape)
(currently: Electrical Engineer, ARUP)
(currently: Device Team Engineering Manager, Aruba)
