Undergraduate and graduate students on internships with AA4CC

Several of our excellent undergraduate and graduate students are spending their summer vacation with us, working on assigned (and paid) projects. These are almost exclusively unrelated to their school duties. Namely, Martin Gurtner is working on design and implementation of algorithms for estimation of relative angular velocity which will outperform the currently used algorithms at low angular velocities. The motivation is to improve a performance of a friction compensator. No doubt this project is aligned with our long-term work on inertial stabilization platforms. Jiří Figura explores the potential benefits of using piezos in our dielectrophoresis-based micromanipulation setups. Maybe we will combine the wave-based manipulation with DEP-based one or at least the piezos will alleviate the stiction-related issues. Marek Hudec is building an experimental optoelectric laboratory setup mimicking the kinematics and dynamics of X-ray active/adaptive optics. We hope to be able to identify some control challenges (and propose their solution) once having the platform on our laboratory bench. Filip Svoboda is helping us with implementation of decentralized relative localization of autonomous quadcopters using ultrasonic transmitters/receivers. Our long-term dream to see the platforms flying truly autonomously, with no help of Vicons and other external aids. Jan Machek and Jan Moravec give us a hend with implementing a bechmark system for distributed control of vehicular platoons which consists of 50 slotcars (Carrera). Petr Pahorecký and Josef Novák use AR.Drone 2 platforms to explore its suitability for research in advanced control of the line of sight of the onboard camera. Jakub Tomášek is investigating the use of  photoconductive polymers for optically induced dielectrophoresis. Through his work we started collaborate actively with the researchers from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry at Academy of Sciences, namely with Dr. Věra Cimrová. Finally, Tomáš Michálek is improving our dielectrophoresis-based micromanipulation platforms in several aspects. The results of their work will be presented at the end of the summer. Stay tuned.