Tara Bartlett BE (Hons 1) (Aeronautical(Space))
PhD Candidate at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics [03/2020 - 06/2024]
Topic: Real-time Bipedal Footstep Planning for Dynamic Traversability
Combining dynamic stability and traversability analysis into a computationally-feasible online calculation for bipedal systems
Interned at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 6 months: worked on the ground mobility component of the Sample Recovery Helicopters in the Mars Sample Return Campaign (2022-2023)
First Class Honours in Aeronautical (Space) Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia
Thesis: Hybrid Aerial-Ground Vehicle Autonomy in GPS Denied Environments (completed at NASA JPL as part of Team CoSTAR in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge)
C.V. | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | Github
Planetary exploration has fascinated me since early childhood. I aspired to be an astronaut until I discovered my passion for robotics during my undergraduate degree. I am currently a senior PhD student and would like to work on the development of robot autonomy for space exploration, allowing us to learn more about our universe and our place in it.
Publications
[1] William Reid, Tara Bartlett, Arthur Bouton, Marlin P. Strub, Michael Newby, Stephen Gerdts, Joshua Martin, Scott Moreland, and Ryan McCormick, Planning and Control for Autonomous Drives of the Mars Sample Recovery Helicopter. 2024 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), Big Sky, MT, USA, March 2024. [Not available online yet.]*
[2] Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi, Kyohei Otsu, Benjamin Morrell, et al. Nebula: Quest for Robotic Autonomy in Challenging Environments; Team CoSTAR at the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. arXiv:2103.11470, 2021.*
[3] David Fan, Rohan Thakker, Tara Bartlett, Meriem Ben Miled, Leon Kim, Evangelos Theodorou, Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi, Autonomous Hybrid Ground/Aerial Mobility in Unknown Environments. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Macau, 2019.*
[4] Thomas Lew, Tomoki Emmei, David Fan, Tara Bartlett, Angel Santamaria-Navarro, Rohan Thakker, Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi, Contact Inertial Odometry: Collisions are your Friend. The International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR), Hanoi, Vietnam, 2019.*
[5] Tara Bartlett: Hybrid Aerial/Ground Vehicle Autonomy in GPS-Denied Environments, University of Sydney Bachelor Thesis 2019 *
[6] The two papers directly above as poster presentations, Southern California Robotics Symposium (SCR), Los Angeles, CA, April 2019.
In Preparation
[7] Tara Bartlett, Ian Manchester, Real-time Bipedal Footstep Planning for Dynamic Traversability. Intended for IROS 2024.
[8] PhD Thesis: Computationally Simplified Representations of Traversability Problems, Dissertation submission date: 30th June 2024.
This thesis covers work on two projects: the Mars SRH Surface Mobility planning and control (see [1]), and the paper above, with implementation on a Cassie robot currently underway.
The underlying concept is the identification of possible representations of dynamically complicated systems or environments that allow for fast computation without sacrificing system agility or capability, or model fidelity.
Work Experience
2020 - Present: PhD Candidate at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics
Fast Traversal of Unstructured Terrain by a Bipedal Robot in Unfamiliar Environments
Supervisor: Professor Ian Manchester
Working on Cassie (bipedal robot developed by Agility Robotics)
I am working to combine dynamically-stable motion planning and traversability analysis into a computationally-feasible online/real-time algorithm.
My research involves learning about optimisation programs, bipedal robot modelling and stability, and testing on hardware and in simulation.
2022 - 2023: Visiting Student Researcher at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory* (6 months)
Member of the Ground Mobility team for the Sample Recovery Helicopter on the Mars Sample Return campaign
Worked on software development, integration, and testing of the mobility testbed; developed and streamlined testing procedures/user interfaces.
Gained familiarity with docker, python, bash, planning and mapping algorithms, system integration, running and streamlining hardware testing, data analysis, ROS networking and interfacing.
2019 - 2019: Research Assistant at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics
Working on Cassie (bipedal robot, as per the PhD)
Creating an infrastructure for long term development including: Safety protocols, Continuous integration (Gitlab), Data management, Battery management
Main task: creating a continuous integration environment in Gitlab which runs several simulations on control system code software updates before pushing to the master branch or uploading to the robot hardware
2019 - Present: C++/ROS, Space Engineering, Advanced Control + Optimisation, and Dynamics Tutor
Tutoring the Introduction to C++ and ROS course to 3rd year undergraduates
Helping students work with Turtlebots
Tutoring the space engineering course to third year undergraduates
Students learn about orbital mechanics - keplarian orbit models, orbit determination, GPS pseudorange calculations
A space robotics component - a mini thesis based on rover design and implementation, path planning and traversability, or docking and berthing algorithms tested on a UR5 robotic arm.
Advanced Control and Optimisation:
Teaching students robotic control algorithms
2018 - 2019: Visiting Student Researcher at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory* (6 months)
Member of the Caltech-MIT-JPL Guidance and Control team for the DARPA Subterranean Challenge
Designing and implementing collision avoidance, traversability analysis, and methods for navigating without localisation for a hybrid ground-aerial vehicle in a range of environments with varying complexity, simulation development
Gaining familiarity with C++, Point Cloud Libraries, sensor integration, local planning and mapping algorithms, testing my algorithms in real time on hardware
My research was also towards my undergraduate thesis:
Hybrid Aerial/Ground Vehicle Autonomy in GPS-Denied Environments
Wall following with collision avoidance, ground mode
Aerial wall following in a representative environment
Hybrid wall following and collision avoidance through a maze
Processed proton, electron, alpha particle, and x-ray data from ACE and GOES satellites
Created a graphing interface in Unity, C#
Completed a literature review on space weather effects and storm warning algorithms
Large project (roughly 6000 lines of code)
Space weather graphing interface**
2018 - 2018: School/University Tutor, Tutoring for Excellence, Sydney (5 months)
Private tutoring for primary, high school, and university students
Key Skills and University Projects
Key Skills
Proficient in C, C++, C#, Robot Operating System (ROS), Git Version Control, Unity Game Development, MATLAB, Object-Oriented Programming
Some experience with Julia and Python, Gazebo, and Mujoco
Familiar with Linux, Windows, and Apple operating systems
Completed several research projects during my undergraduate degree
2016 - 2018: Aerial International Racing of Unmanned Systems (AIRUS)
AIRUS (Aerial International Robotic Racing of Unmanned Systems) is an international collaboration between students at The University of Sydney and Texas A&M University working to make international drone racing competitions a reality. We hoped to start up a competition where two universities work together in an international partnership, competing against other pairs of universities on identical race courses. The drones would be manually piloted in real time from another country.
My work involved:
International collaboration for development of hardware and software for an internet-based UAV teleoperation system, using the MAVLink protocol sent over UDP with Node.js
Contributing to the development of the drone hardware systems and communication systems.
Gained significant experience with drones, testing, and software system design and development
2016 - 2017: Advanced Aerospace Research Projects 1&2
Design of delay compensation software for a pilot flying the AIRUS system, implemented in C++ and Qt (user interface design tool)
Final goal was to create a usable interface, able to communicate efficiently and reliably with other components of the AIRUS system, while predicting the movement of a UAV based on the latest available control and telemetry data
Resulting interface takes keyboard input, and runs a simple quadcopter simulator with simulated delays
2017: Space Engineering 2; 1U-CubeSat Solar-Sail Satellite Design
Stowed configuration
Deployed configuration
1 unit CubeSat designed to deploy a solar sail of 2.7m x 2.7m.
My work was on the mylar solar sail (payload) in which we used an origami-based method to store the sail and used rolled measuring tape as the spring mechanism to deploy the sail
The tape was also the support structure, forming strong beams once deployed
The satellite was designed to be launched on a high-altitude balloon
2016: Advanced Engineering; Business Project
Team lead in a subject which involved developing an idea for a start up.
Multidisciplinary team, designed a unique device for dispensing pills for those with memory deficiency.
Designed, presented, and defended a business proposal for this idea to be developed with an small-business incubator
2015: Advanced Engineering; Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Challenge 2015
Designed a facility for an underdeveloped settlement which would use solar arrays to charge batteries which would power a UV water purification system and provide the remaining power to the grid
Full research and development proposal written and presented to EWB officials, subsystem demonstration and 3D models created
Leadership Experience
Please see my C.V. for more detail.
2022: School of Aero/Mech (AMME) Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Crew, Founding Member
As a postgraduate research student, I was a founding member of the engineering postgraduate student society, creating opportunities for students to connect socially and professionally. Organiser of:
The first annual Engineering HDR Student Conference at our university
A series of social and professional networking events, allowing students to present their research in a supportive environment, form collaborations with people in other areas, and connect with the wider engineering community.
Ran mental health and research student orientation workshops
2017 - 2018: Chair of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Lead a committee of around 15 people organising events such as seminars, panels, trips to aviation museums for the freshman cohort, open days etc.
Member of the AIAA Sydney Student Branches committee and the AIAA Sydney Section; contributing to events such as student-industry networking nights (around 200 attendees), conference trips (such as the International Astronautical Congress)
2016 - 2018: AIRUS Team Leader
General management of international team, recruiting and training new members, committed to development of the system
2016 - 2018: Sydney Women in Aerospace Engineering (SWAE) Executive Committee
Assisting in the running of committee meetings, keeping minutes of all meetings, managing membership of the society, general organisation of regular activities and special events
2015 - 2017: AIAA USSB 2nd Year Representative, Secretary
Assisting in the running of committee meetings, keeping minutes of all meetings, managing membership of the society, general organisation of regular activities and special events