Saltire Scotland Travel Fellowship ✈️

Grant award of up to £10k to fund a research visit of up to 6 months at a partner institute in the EU - my personal award was for a 3 month project which was granted £5k of funding. These awards were on an application basis and the selection criteria covered the candidates ability, benefits to all stakeholders involved and the level of impact the project could have. This was part of the SUPA Saltire Scotland Emerging Researcher Scheme.

The project revolved around applying advanced control methodologies to soft manipulators in the context of underwater vehicles, something that has sparsely been attempted before. The aim is to greatly improve the reliability of operations by exploiting the naturally robust properties of soft materials, thus reducing the risk of equipment damage.

This research was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Cosimo Della Santina at TU Delft, The Netherlands.