Thomas O'Brien

I am an ambitious PhD student with a deep interest in general-purpose robotics. My academic and research endeavours have been centered around the development of control techniques to enable robots to interact with their environment in a safe and robust manner to achieve complex tasks.

Professional Experience

2020-2024 : Robotics Researcher

Team leader at Newcastle Robotics Research Laboratory

University of Newcastle
2023-2024 : Software Engineer

Machine learning vision systems to enhance rail network operations

4AI Systems
2023-2023 : Research Assistant

Rail line detection within 3D point cloud data

University of Newcastle
2021-2022 : Mechatronics Engineer

Development of a drain camera system (embedded system and real-time operating system)

Varley
2018-2021 : Software Engineer

Design and development of websites and custom software applications

Enrichedhealthcare

Education

2022-2024 : PhD

Mechanical Engineering - 'Passivity based methods for complex-robot environment interactions'

University of Newcastle
2018-2021 : Bachelor (Honours)

Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering (First Class Honours)

University of Newcastle

Teaching

2022- : Tutor

AERO3600 - Embedded Control Systems

University of Newcastle
2022- : Tutor

MCHA3500 - Mechatronics Design

University of Newcastle

Talks

2023

Exponentially Stable Regulation of Mechanical Systems to a Path

IFAC2023

Awards and Scholarships

2017

College Principals Award.

Callaghan College Jesmond
2017

Principles Award of Excellence for Chemistry, Maths, Physics, Software and Engineering Studies

Callaghan College Jesmond
2017

Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence in Year 12

University of Newcastle
2021

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Commendation List 2018, 2019 and 2020

University of Newcastle
2021

College Commendation List - College of EngineeringScience and Environment

University of Newcastle
2022

Higher Degree by Research (HDR) scholarship at the University of Newcastle

University of Newcastle

Software

2023

tinyrobotics - A lightweight, fast and versatile C++ library for robotics

2023

urdf-visualizer - A web based robot visualizer using three.js

2023

NUbots codebase - Development of locomotion, localisation, state-estimation and behaviour systems for humanoid robot