Prof. Salua Hamaza is Assistant Professor in Aerial Robotics & Director of the BioMorphic Intelligence Lab at TU Delft, Netherlands. She is also Research Fellow at Imperial College London, Aerial Robotics Lab.
Her research focuses on aerial manipulation. Her robotic solutions take inspiration from biological systems for flying and interaction tasks, aimed at design robot with built-in embodied intelligence.
CNN features the research of the Biomorphic Intelligence lab!
Veni grant for ‘Aerial Robots in a Tangible World:
Drones with the Sense of Touch Act upon Their
Surroundings’
Salua Hamaza new Faculty Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Biomorphic Intelligence Lab Attends IROS 2024 in Abu Dhabi
A Biomorphic Whisker Sensor for Aerial Tactile Applications
ALBERO: Agile Landing on Branches for Environmental Robotics Operations
AI #3: Is it a bird? Is it a drone?
On November 15, 2024, after five years of intensive research and competition, the ETHBiodivX team, which included TU Delft Aerospace researchers Salua Hamaza and Georg Strunck, achieved an outstanding milestone: winning the XPRIZE Rainforest Bonus Prize for outstanding effort in co-developing inclusive technology for nature conservation.
The BioMorphic Lab were at the International Micro Air Vehicle (IMAV) Conference in Bristol from September 16th to 20th 2024. IMAV is special since it is not only a conference, but also a drone competition! This year’s theme revolved around wildlife preservation, stimulating teams to use drones in support of wildlife by observing them in varying situations! The competition was divided in an indoor and an outdoor part. The BioMorphic Lab participated and won in the indoor competition, with support from the TU Delft Robotics Institute !
Our planet faces a great climate and ecological crisis. By protecting our forests, we are not only preserving a self-sustained way to capture emissions, but also, we are nurturing an important buffer against climate change. To help forests thrive, scientists are gathering ecological insights related to biodiversity and climate in forests at micro and macro scale, to incentivize immediate climate actions.
By combining innovative designs in embodied intelligence, robotics engineering can advance past the limits of traditional flight control via perception. Our research is set out to meet ecology needs, boosting biodiversity, integrating knowledge from multidisciplinary academics, entrepreneurs, and local communities and ultimately advise policy makers all around the world on what and where to take actions. TU Delft joins this mission to advance impact for a better planet and society.
The research group at the BioMorphic Intelligence Lab headed by Salua focuses on enhancing drones’ autonomy by exploring new morphologies that enable higher mobility and versatility. This includes drones with limbs capable of climbing trees, building nests, cleaning forest floors, or collecting samples of foliage, bark, water, and soil.
Aerial robots are now ubiquitous. Thanks to their nimbleness, manoeuvrability, and affordability, drones are used in many sectors to monitor, map, and inspect. As a next step, flying robots offer more when interacting with their surroundings via anthropomorphic-like manipulation capabilities.
The BioMorphic Intelligence Lab, part of the TU Delft AI Labs programme, aims to tackle robustness and efficiency challenges for interacting drones, using biologically inspired solutions for both the 'body' and the 'brain' and applying embodied intelligence and neuromorphic AI techniques.
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