“I had always been interested in engineering and building things, even from a very young age!”
I work in the Autonomous Systems Group (ASG), part of SET, RAL Space, and have a very varied and interesting job! I primarily work on hardware design and continual developments for a number of interesting and varied projects for the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA).
This requires me to have a deep understanding of mechanical and electronics principles as well as an up-to-date knowledge of what is cutting-edge in the robotics industry. Other roles I fill involve planning and conducting field trial work for robotic systems and flying ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAVs) as part of those activities.
I get to develop and integrate technologies onto robotic platforms in a way that makes a positive impact on people’s lives, primarily in the agricultural industry. Through ASG’s past, present and future work in agri-tech, we hope to increase the feasibility of utilising robotics in the industry to monitor plant health and potentially actively participate in farming activities in the near future.
There are several things I love about my job.
I studied Robotics & Cybertronics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Maths, Physics, Technological Studies, Computing at Queensferry High School, Edinburgh.
I had always been interested in engineering and building things, even from a very young age!
My passion for both robotics and space really came from my awareness of the emerging potential of robotics as I was growing up, and from NASA’s successes with exploration missions to Mars. As I progressed through high school, I discovered I really enjoyed mechanical and electrical topics in tech studies as well as computing, making the choice of studying robotics at university very easy -- it turned out that it was a really good fit for me!
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