Katarzyna Pobikrowska

Warsaw University of Technology

Katarzyna is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Warsaw University of Technology. There, she also received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering. Currently, her research interests are in modeling and control of Vertical Take-Off (VTOL) vehicles. In particular, she aims to study ways to reduce energy consumption of the vehicle through optimal control and trajectory optimization. She believes that through her work, she could achieve a reduction in battery size and extension of the flight range and time, which is currently an important issue for eVTOLs. The main aim of optimization is to derive an energy-optimal transition strategy under loose constraints, to allow the solver as much freedom as possible to search a wider design space. To grant that freedom, she prepared a high fidelity model of a Quad Plane based on the results from the wind tunnel tests. Outside work on her PhD, she works full time in the aerospace sector. Up until now, she has gained experience in structural design, composite manufacturing, programming, and measurements. Currently, she is working as a simulation flight dynamics and control engineer.