Swarm Intelligence Systems (SIS)

Hilton Tnunay, Ph.D.

Hilton is the research director and a researcher at Beehive Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (BIRL). His research interests cover robotics, cooperative control of multi-agent systems, sensor fusion, and visual navigation. Hilton earned his Bachelor of Engineering degree from Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia. During his undergraduate, he joined the UAV formation control research group, where he designed a formation control algorithm for UAVs exploiting the well-established potential field method. His works were published as scientific articles in international conferences and scientific journals. Upon completing his undergraduate study, Hilton received support from the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) to pursue his doctoral degree in control systems at The University of Manchester. His doctoral study was focused on distributed coordination and estimation algorithms for robotic sensor networks. Hilton's contributions were particularly notable in devising distributed algorithms addressing cooperative motion control challenges in robots, specifically focusing on coverage control problems in unknown environments through distributed optimisation and Kalman-based estimation. His results were published in scientific journals under the IEEE and Elsevier, covering topics like bearing-based formation control, affine formation control, and fixed-time formation control. Notably, during his PhD, Hilton also secured first place in the Venture Out Research Category in 2017, along with notable placements in the Imagine Cup competitions in 2018 held by Microsoft. In 2020, after completing his PhD, Hilton became a full-time CTO at Beehive Drones, a company he co-founded in 2018. He was involved in developing Otaklebah drone middleware, visual control and navigation of quadcopters and Navier Delivery Systems, a website-application-based drone delivery system. In 2021, Hilton assumed the role of a postdoctoral researcher at the COPERNIC group in GIPSA Lab, France, where his research focused on trajectory generation and formation control of multiple quadcopters for surveillance and object tracking. Since January 2022, Hilton has become a postdoctoral researcher in the Geomatics Section of the Faculty of Engineering Technology at KU Leuven, Belgium. In this role, he is involved in the Deep Sewer project, a project aiming to develop a sensor module for automatic sewer mapping and inspection and digital twins sewer networks. In 2022, Beehive Drones initiated the establishment of Beehive Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (BIRL), where Hilton became the Research Director and a researcher in the field of swarm intelligence.

Intelligent Control and Navigation Systems (ICNS)

Kadek Dwi Wahyuadnyana, S.Si., M.T.

Kadek, a PhD candidate in the Engineering Physics Department-ITS, specializes in developing intelligent control algorithms for robotic systems. Beyond his academic pursuits, he maintains a full-time role as a robot researcher at Beehive Drones, a startup dedicated to advancing drone technology. Beyond robotics, Kadek applies his control expertise to contribute to energy sustainability. In 2021, he secured a full scholarship from GSEP Canada (through the ESED program), a company committed to sustainability and renewable energy, for the Master's program he is enrolled in. Next, in 2023, Kadek and his team earned a gold medal in a paper competition focusing on electricity, EVs, solar and grid systems, and renewable energy integration. With a deep understanding of mathematics, physics, and engineering, Kadek seamlessly integrates these three domains to generate innovative ideas for academia and the broader community interested in control systems.

Intelligent Sensing and Perception Systems (ISPS)

Ardyas Nur Aufa, S.T., M.T.

Ardyas is a researcher with a passion for navigation systems, a strong academic background in engineering physics, and a keen interest in visual navigation, computer vision, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics. He has a Bachelor of Engineering Physics from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) (2020) and a Master of Engineering Physics from ITS (2022). Driven by curiosity and a desire to contribute to the advancement of technology, Ardyas has embarked on a promising career as a researcher at Beehive Drones, where he is actively engaged in the development of innovative navigation solutions for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). His research expertise encompasses a diverse range of areas, including the design of smart control systems for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the development of visual identification systems based on AI, and the implementation of visual simultaneous localisation and mapping (VSLAM) for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These experiences have equipped him with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the field of navigation systems, enabling him to make significant contributions to the development of cutting-edge technologies.