NSO

Nate S. Osikowicz
 
NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Penn State University
PhD student, Aerospace Engineering, Robotic Systems

Control and Analysis of Stochastic Systems (CASS) Lab
Rock Climbing Guide, Penn State Outdoor Adventures Center

Research Interests:
My primary research interests are in robotic manipulation and vehicular autonomy. I would like to identify and control complex engineering systems by realizing their natural dynamics through data-driven analysis. One particular application area that interests me is robotic manipulation. This has led me to study tensegrity system dynamics in my M.S. thesis at Penn State. I am eager to continue learning and creating at the cutting edge of technology and hope to extend this work towards other engineering systems, such as online reachability analysis for UAVs or bio-inspired robotics.
 
Personal Interests:
As a rock climbing guide, I am continually humbled and inspired by movement in the mountains. From these experiences, I aim to identify robotic systems with human-like abilities, primarily to aid us in our exploration efforts. In my spare time, I'm usually tinkering with vehicle hardware and embedded systems. Through (sometimes painful) quarrels with the hardware, I ended up building an autonomous UAV that I hope to continue improving for eventual use in Search & Rescue settings.
Stay tuned for research papers, robotics software & climbing trip reports.