UAV Design & Propulsion · Motion Planning & Control
I work on motion planning and safety-certified control for autonomous vehicles, from sampling-based global planners to NMPC with control barrier functions. My research is grounded in five years of hands-on UAV hardware work, where I now lead propulsion development.
Graduated with an MS in Robotics and Intelligent Machine Engineering, CGPA 3.95 / 4.0.
"Obstacle Avoidance for Marine Robots", a hybrid planning and control framework for USVs. Watch the 3-minute summary
On MCS-Connect, a bidirectional path planner with adaptive inter-tree attraction. Publications
On the field with the propulsion team for catapult launch and flight testing of a fixed-wing UAV. Watch
University of Pennsylvania, via Coursera. View certificate
My research focuses on how autonomous vehicles decide where to go and how to get there safely: path planning in cluttered environments, trajectory optimization, and model predictive control with formal safety guarantees. I hold an MS in Robotics and Intelligent Machine Engineering from NUST, where my thesis built a full planning and control stack for unmanned surface vehicles.
Before robotics, I trained as an aerospace engineer (BS, Institute of Space Technology, cum laude), with coursework in flight and spacecraft dynamics and control. For almost five years at NaqCoDE Technologies I have worked on fixed-wing UAVs, and I now lead the propulsion team. That work keeps my research grounded in real vehicle dynamics, actuators and hardware limits.
I am seeking funded PhD opportunities in robotics, motion planning and control for aerial and marine autonomous systems.
Outside engineering I draw and paint, mostly Arabic calligraphy and graphite portraits. A selection is on the Art tab.
RRT family, bidirectional and kinodynamic planning, B-spline optimization, COLREGs-aware navigation, statistical benchmarking
NMPC (acados), control barrier functions, IMM tracking, disturbance observers, flight and spacecraft dynamics
ROS 2, Gazebo, SLAM, Python, MATLAB, embedded C / C++, Git, LaTeX
Piston engines, micro turbines, solid rocket motors, propeller matching, CFD, FEA, FSI (ANSYS)
A hybrid global and local planning and control framework for unmanned surface vehicles in cluttered, dynamic marine environments, with safety certified at the control layer. Supervised by Dr. Khawaja Fahad Iqbal.
Architecture
Ongoing Projects
Research · Planning · Journal paper under review
A bidirectional sampling-based global planner for USVs in cluttered water. Two Sunlight-style trees grow toward each other under an adaptive inter-tree attraction, with an obstacle-proximity penalty that keeps paths away from walls. Tuned by Bayesian optimization, and benchmarked over 14,400 runs against the Sunlight Algorithm, Sunlight-Connect, RRT-Connect, Informed RRT* and BIT* on custom maps, MovingAI mazes and real archipelagic charts, with Welch tests and Cohen's d for every scenario. Current work extends the planner with formal completeness and optimality analysis.
Embedded Control · Propulsion
Converting a carbureted two-stroke UAV engine to electronic fuel injection with a self-built microcontroller ECU for closed-loop fuel and ignition control.
Mobile Robotics · ROS 2
Mapping, localization and autonomous navigation of a TurtleBot3 Waffle in ROS 2 Humble. Graph-based occupancy-grid mapping with slam_toolbox, localization against the saved map, and Nav2 path planning to goal poses, then re-run with Gaussian noise injected into the sensor model to study how localization degrades.
Manipulation · Control
An application module inspired by liquid-metal pouring in foundries, one of the dull, dirty and dangerous jobs robots should take over. Inverse kinematics gives the joint angles for each waypoint, smooth joint trajectories are generated between them, and an Arduino drives the servos to pick up a cup, pour into a second cup and return home.
Machine Learning · Signal Processing
Classifying heart-sound recordings as normal or abnormal using the PhysioNet/CinC 2016 dataset. Features such as zero-crossing rate, MFCCs and spectral statistics are extracted with librosa and fed to a gradient-boosting classifier. The trained model is served through a small Flask web app where a user uploads a recording and receives a prediction.
Planning
Implemented F-RRT* and Q-RRT* on image-based maps with real-time visualization and metric tracking, benchmarked kinodynamic planners on Dynobench unicycle environments, and built the bidirectional search-tree visualizer used to validate MCS-Connect on multi-convex, S-corridor and nested U-trap geometries.
Planning · Optimization
Gaussian-process Bayesian optimization (expected improvement) over the planner's cost-function parameters, minimizing mean search time, followed by one-dimensional sensitivity sweeps around the optimum to show which parameters matter and how flat the optimum is. Three analysis modes and paper-quality figure output.
Human-Robot Interaction
Customized a NAO humanoid to greet and guide visitors for the NUST-Coventry Human-Robot Interaction Lab.
Almost five years of fixed-wing UAV development, from aerodynamic integration and flight controls to leading the propulsion team. This is where I learned how engines, propellers and actuators set the limits a planner and controller have to respect.
Piston-Prop
Designed and built thrust-stand test benches for small piston engines, used for break-in, tuning and propeller matching. Outdoor runs measure static thrust and RPM against throttle so the engine-propeller pair can be matched to the airframe across its flight envelope.
Gas Turbine
Ground testing of micro turbojet engines on an instrumented stand: start-up sequence, thrust and temperature readings, and integration checks ahead of installation on high-speed platforms.
Solid Rocket Motors
Built an automated modelling and simulation environment that links grain geometry, internal ballistics, nozzle sizing, case thickness and weight and balance, then drives them with an optimizer against mission constraints so that many motor configurations can be evaluated quickly. Leading coupled fluid-thermal-structural analysis of the motor and its components through to static testing.
Aircraft Design · BS Final Year Project
Conceptual design of a battery-electric aircraft: weight, battery and component sizing of a baseline, then optimization with a sizing-matrix plot constrained by range, rate of climb and take-off distance. The optimized design was modelled in CATIA and checked with CFD, aerodynamic, propulsion, battery and performance analyses.
Integration
CFD-driven design of air inlets, nacelles and cooling ducts for propulsion integration on fixed-wing airframes.
Performance
Range, endurance and climb estimates built from propulsion test data and aerodynamic models, used to size and select propulsion for each platform.
Aeroelasticity
Coupled fluid-structure interaction in ANSYS to study structural response and aeroelastic behavior of lifting surfaces.
Flight Controls
Designed the complete manual control linkage for flaps, ailerons, rudder and elevator, with kinematic and inverse-kinematic analysis from stick to control surface.
Engine Control · In progress
My own conversion of a carbureted two-stroke UAV engine to electronic fuel injection, with a self-built microcontroller ECU. It is where my propulsion and control work meet. See in Projects
Flying
Hands-on time on the sticks keeps me honest about what real vehicles do. Here, a quadcopter flown up to the office window.
Journal Articles
Under review
M. A. Irfani, K. F. Iqbal, Y. Ayaz, M. S. Nazir, K. Faraz
Theses
M. A. Irfani. MS Thesis, SMME, NUST, 2026. Supervisor: Dr. Khawaja Fahad Iqbal.
CGPA 3.95 / 4.00. Thesis: Obstacle Avoidance for Marine Robots (Grade A).
CGPA 3.58 / 4.00, cum laude. Coursework included spacecraft dynamics and control.
Obstacle Avoidance for Marine Robots, SMME, NUST.
Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad.
One line on what it was for.
Drawing and painting have been my way of thinking with my hands since school. Most of my work is Arabic and Urdu calligraphy, alongside graphite portraits and the occasional landscape. The pieces below are the ones people have liked most; the full collection, including reels of recent work, is on Instagram.
Quranic verses and names in ink, acrylic and, once, glitter. Click any piece to enlarge.
Graphite portraits, mostly from reference photographs, and one aircraft.
Watercolour and acrylic landscapes.
