Back to the future: Robotronica changed the course of Marisa’s history (by Medium)

QUT 2019 Robotronica’s story on Marisa Bucolo, one of our undergraduate students currently studying her Honours degree in Engineering (Mechatronics) at QUT.

“I’m developing the navigation algorithm for ‘Gizmo’ — a remote-controlled six-legged hexapod robot used for science and education demonstrations,” Marisa said.

“My thesis is to copy the Gizmo design and add extra sensors to get it walking on its own.”

Dubbed ‘Wizmo’ for its anticipated speed, Marisa’s robot will be capable of autonomous wandering without bumping into anything — or anyone.

Wizmo’s navigation algorithm is part of her honours thesis under the supervision of QUT Professor Jonathan Roberts.

Marisa introduced herself to CSIRO researchers while volunteering at the QUT-hosted International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2018 in Brisbane.

“CSIRO offered me a vacation research project working on their DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge entry. After the project they agreed to let me stay on and do my honours thesis,” Marisa said.

You can read the full story originally published by QUT Science and Engineering Faculty here.

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