Lara Laban

Lara Laban is a PhD Researcher affiliated with Lund University's School of Aviation (LUSA) and the Department of Automatic Control at Lund University. She is part of the LTH Profile Area: AI and Digitalization and the ELLIIT initiative. Her research focuses on enhancing autonomous UAV mission planning, integrating modified RRT* algorithms with non-linear model predictive control (NMPC) for obstacle avoidance in complex environments.

Education and Background: Lara’s academic journey includes studies in automatic control and robotics, though specific degree details are not provided. Collaborations include WARA Public Safety, where she conducted autonomous flight demonstrations in locations like Gränsö Slott and Lund Golf Course. She is also a WASP (Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program) affiliated PhD student.

Research Themes: Her work bridges automatic control and artificial intelligence, addressing challenges in autonomous UAV navigation, beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations, and airspace integration with manned/unmanned aircraft. Key technical areas include path planning, nonlinear systems, and real-time optimization.

Teaching and Outreach: Lara has been a teaching assistant for courses such as Automatic Control Basics (FRTF05), Non-Linear Systems (FRTF05), and the project course FRTN70. She co-supervised a master’s thesis on minimizing network utilization in multi-agent systems. She contributed to the Robotics Week for Schools 2023 and organized an AI Lund Lunch seminar on UAV path planning.

Labs and Projects: Active in the RobotLab LTH and the UAS@LU project (2021–2025), focusing on autonomous flight systems. Her research involves field experiments at LTH Kemicentrum and collaboration with industry partners like WARA Public Safety.