SOE PhD student wins award at the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Conference

24 Feb 2026

Contratulations to Kong Zhang, a fourth-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering and Architecture of UCC who received the Runner-Up Award in the Best Poster Competition for PhD students at the 2026 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) UK & Ireland Chapter Conference. The conference was hosted by Prof. Gerry Lacey at Maynooth University, with the first prize awarded to Imperial College London. The IEEE RAS UK & Ireland Chapter conference was held in Ireland for the first time, and attended by IEEE RAS UK & Ireland Chapter Chair Prof. Mary He, 2 keynote speakers: Prof. Cecilia Laschi from National University of Singapore and Prof. Katja Mombaur Karlsruhe from Institute of Technology, Germany

His research focuses on the development of UAV-based robotic systems for tackling very challenging remote contact inspection of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs). The award-winning poster presents the design of a novel 6-DOF aerial hybrid cable-driven parallel manipulator, together with its mathematical modeling, dynamic analysis, and experimental validation. The proposed system aims to enhance the safety, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of offshore wind turbine inspection and maintenance operations. This achievement highlights UCC’s continued contributions to robotics innovation and offshore renewable energy research for addressing key challenges.

Kong Zhang is supervised by Prof Guangbo Hao,  (UCC), Prof. Vikram Pakrashi (UCD), and Dr. Jimmy Murphy (UCC), in collaboration with Dr. Philip Long (ATU). His research is supported by the SEAI REMOTE-WIND project (Grant No. 21/RDD/613), which focuses on advancing robotic technologies for offshore renewable energy infrastructure.