Basheer Al-Tawil

About me

I am a robotics engineer based in Magdeburg, Germany. Since August 2023 I have been a PhD researcher in the Neuro-Information Technology group at Otto von Guericke University, supervised by Prof. Dr. Ayoub Al-Hamadi. I work on mobile robots that share space with people: mapping, perception, understanding what people do, and navigation.

Before the PhD I studied and worked in Türkiye. I studied mechatronics and then robotics engineering at İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University, built a 6-DoF robot arm and a CNC machine at FabLab İzmir, automated a laser cutter, founded a hydroponics start-up, and managed product development at an electronics company in Istanbul. I still like to take a machine from a kinematic sketch to working hardware, and my open-source projects show that side of my work.

Under the name AIBOMECH I publish tutorials on ROS, SLAM and computer vision, here and on YouTube, in English and Arabic.

Education and experience

  1. Aug 2023 – now

    PhD researcher, human-robot interaction

    Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany

    • Research on mobile robot navigation in environments shared with people.
    • Deep-learning methods for SLAM, action recognition and social navigation, validated on a PAL Robotics TIAGo.
    • Papers in Sensors, Robotics, Frontiers in Robotics and AI and Complex & Intelligent Systems.
  2. Apr 2022 – Jan 2023

    Product development manager

    Electronics company, Istanbul, Türkiye

    • Led three electronics products from concept to market-ready and ran the development laboratory.
  3. Jun 2020 – Jul 2022

    Founder and technical developer, iFarm

    İzmir, Türkiye

    • Built and validated a complete hydroponic automation system in Python, C and custom hardware.
    • Top 16 of 3,000+ projects at ClimateLaunchpad and one of 15 teams selected for Accelerate2030 Türkiye.
  4. Feb 2020 – Feb 2023

    M.Sc. Robotics Engineering

    İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University, Türkiye

    • Thesis: Automating farming operations using robotic technologies, supervised by Asst. Prof. Dr. Fatih Cemal Can.
    • Designed a 4-DoF agricultural arm with two grippers and a ROS ecosystem for greenhouse tasks.
  5. Nov 2019 – Feb 2020

    R&D engineer

    Lazer Market, İzmir, Türkiye

    • Developed a tape-feeding machine integrated with a CO₂ laser cutter, with its operator interface.
  6. Apr 2019 – Oct 2019

    Robotics engineer

    FabLab İzmir Municipality, Türkiye

    • Designed, manufactured and programmed a 6-DoF robot arm and a CNC machine from scratch.
  7. Oct 2014 – Sep 2019

    B.Sc. Mechatronics Engineering

    İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University, Türkiye

    • Thesis: a redundant, reconfigurable planar parallel manipulator with detachable 2-DoF serial arms, funded by TÜBİTAK 2209-A.

Awards and funding

  • 2022
    Accelerate İzmir, growth strategy validation programmeSelected for coaching-based scale-up support at Teknopark İzmir with iFarm.
  • 2021
    Accelerate2030 TürkiyeOne of 15 ventures chosen from 300+ applicants for the impact-scaling programme supported by BMZ, GIZ, UNDP and Impact Hub Istanbul.
  • 2020
    ClimateLaunchpad international competitionTop 16 of more than 3,000 projects worldwide with the iFarm hydroponic automation system.
  • 2020
    Bina Incubator competition, IstanbulTop 8 of 300+ projects in Türkiye.
  • 2019
    TÜBİTAK 2209-A research grantNational funding for the undergraduate graduation project in robotics.

Tools I work with

Robotics and navigation
ROS 2 Humble, ROS 1, Nav2, MoveIt, ORB-SLAM3, RTAB-Map, Gmapping, Gazebo, RViz, ros2_control, particle filters
Perception and deep learning
PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV, Open3D, PCL, YOLOv8, CLIP, BLIP, Transformers, Mamba, knowledge distillation, TensorRT
Programming
C++, Python, C, MATLAB, Bash
Hardware and embedded
PAL Robotics TIAGo, Jetson Nano and Orin, Raspberry Pi, STM32, Arduino, ASUS Astra RGB-D, Hokuyo LiDAR
Mechanical design
SOLIDWORKS, MATLAB Simulink, kinematic and dynamic analysis, 3D printing
Languages
Arabic (native), English (advanced), Turkish (advanced), German (beginner)

Service and volunteering

  • 2020
    Developer, COVID-19 mechanical ventilator projectVolunteer team in İzmir designing an open-source ventilator.
  • 2019
    President, Yemeni Student UnionElected by students across the universities of İzmir.
  • 2018
    International coordinator, İzmir Maker FairRepresented international companies at the annual exhibition.

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