Marko Bjelonic wins Hans-Eggenberger-Prize
Marko Bjelonic, postdoctoral researcher at the Robotic Systems Lab of Professor Marco Hutter at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering of ETH Zurich, receives the Hans-Eggenberger-Prize for his doctoral thesis in wheeled-legged robotics.
In his research, Marko Bjelonic is developing a wheeled-legged robot. The wheels attached to its legs allow the robot to be both efficient on flat ground and agile on challenging terrain. The combination of legs and wheels might be a solution for any real-world application requiring rapid and long-distance mobility skills, for example in autonomous logistics and data collection.
For his doctoral thesis “Planning and Control for Hybrid Locomotion of Wheeled-Legged Robots” Bjelonic has now received the Hans-Eggenberger-Prize 2022 by the Hans-Eggenberger-Foundation. This annual award is given to outstanding researchers at Bachelor’s, Master's or Doctoral level. Shima Rajabali from the Department of Physics was also honored for her thesis. Both winners received a prize money of CHF 5000 each.
Bjelonic is continuing his research as a postdoctoral researcher at the Robotic Systems Lab and at the Swiss-Mile company. Their aim is to develop robots that are able to take heavy loads from humans and deliver them autonomously on a wide variety of terrains.