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About

Evan Ulrich is a pioneering researcher in bio-inspired robotics, specializing in micro and nano aerial vehicles. His work focuses on understanding and replicating the flight dynamics of natural systems, particularly the samara (winged seed) and ornithopters—flapping-wing vehicles modeled after birds. Ulrich’s major contributions include the development of the first robotic samara nano air vehicle, detailed in his highly cited 2010 paper “From falling to flying: the path to powered flight of a robotic samara nano air vehicle” (76 citations). This work demonstrated how a passive falling seed could be engineered into an actively controlled, powered flying robot, revealing key similarities between natural and mechanical flight dynamics. He further advanced control theory for these asymmetric, all-rotating platforms, developing linear models for heave and pitch control in hovering and helical turns (papers with 48 and 26 citations, respectively). Ulrich also contributed to system identification of ornithopters (64 citations), helping bridge the gap between biological flyers and small aerial robots. His research has laid critical groundwork for covert, maneuverable micro air vehicles, inspiring a new class of flight-capable robots.