Traci Sarmiento, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, earned second place in the graduate oral presentation category during Student Research Week (SRW) 2017.
Sarmiento’s presentation, “Flying Animal Inspired Autonomous Flight with a Small Unmanned Rotorcraft in a Restricted Maneuverability Environment,” centered on the use of small unmanned aerial rotocrafts for indoor disaster environments. She discussed how these rotocrafts can be used to assess damage in various disaster situations, help search for survivors and potentially avoid further damage. She also shared the challenges with using the aerial systems in these scenarios.
“My research is inspired by flying animals because they outperform the state-of-the-art in autonomous, collision-free flight on small unmanned aerial systems,” Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento works with Dr. Robin Murphy, Raytheon Professor and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue.
Student Research Week 2017 was held March 27-31. The mission of SRW is to recognize and celebrate student research at Texas A&M by providing an opportunity for students to present research and to foster an environment where participants can learn about the innovative research occurring at the university.
“The best part about SRW was learning about the research being conducted by the other participants,” Sarmiento said.