Hello! 👋

I'm Toluwalope Dada

Robotics Engineer

About Me

A self learning robotics engineer, with research interest in building hybrid and non-hybrid fixed-wing VTOL Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Boasting professional experience in automation, automobile repair, maintenance operations, supply chain, fleet management with a graduate mechanical engineer foundation.

CAD Hardware Integration Machine Learning Programming Robotics Simulation UAV Development

Projects

01

Simulation of fixed-wing VTOL UAVs in uncertain environment

A Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) simulation project integrating PX4 firmware, Gazebo physics simulator, ROS2 middleware, and QGroundControl for fixed-wing VTOL UAV development.

LinuxC++PythonROS2PX4Gazebo HarmonicQGC
02

Machine Learning Development Pipeline for UAV Simulation

A complete ML development workflow for UAV systems, collecting and logging 100+ hours of flight data plus 10,000+ camera frames (ROS2/Gazebo).

LinuxC++PythonDockerROS2PX4Gazebo HarmonicQGC
03

Design of a quad-tiltrotor Fixed-Wing VTOL CAD and Simulation

Model of a complete hybrid VTOL UAV in Onshape and SolidWorks (1.5m span, 4kg MTOW) with quad-tiltrotor architecture optimized for general purposes use.

OnshapeSolidworks

Experience

Robotic Engineer

Tdad Logistic Network

Jan 2026 - Present
  • Designed a comprehensive testing framework combining software-in-the-loop (SITL) simulation with Gazebo, executing 1000+ automated test scenarios covering diverse weather conditions, sensor failures, and GPS-denied environments
  • Single engineering member of an aerial logistics startup, overseeing controls, perception, and embedded systems through Agile development cycles, delivering major feature releases including autonomous landing system and multi-drone coordination within a simulation environment

Embedded Systems Trainee

Kadosh Mechatronics

Dec 2025 - Jan 2026
  • Integrated ROS2 middleware with PX4 via Micro XRCE-DDS bridge and connected QGroundControl for real-time mission planning and telemetry monitoring.
  • Identified and resolved control system bugs during simulation that could cause in-flight failures if undetected.
  • Testing a simulation build of a cost-effective Software-in-the-Loop test platform using Arduino Uno and PX4 Pixhawk, aimed at reducing hardware testing costs.
  • Developing a custom C firmware for Arduino to emulate 6-DOF IMU and GPS signals, establishing serial communication with Pixhawk at 100Hz update rate.

Machine Learning Trainee

Kadosh Mechatronics

Sept 2025 - Jan 2026
  • Pioneered the trainee program of machine learning for engineering professionals. Leveraging the training for developing an ML model for a fixed-wing VTOL drone.
  • Designed an end-to-end SITL pipeline integrating PX4 firmware, Gazebo physics simulator, ROS2 middleware, and QGroundControl for autonomous drone development.
  • Integrated YOLOv5 computer vision model with Gazebo camera plugin for autonomous landing site detection during simulated GPS-denied scenarios.
  • Creating an automated SITL testing framework evaluating ML controllers across 1,000+ flight scenarios with varying weather, payloads, and failure modes.

Education

Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control Specialization

Northwestern University

2025 - Present
  • Configuration space topology and representation, velocity constraints, task space and workspace.
  • Rigid-body motions, rotation matrices, angular velocities, and exponential coordinates of rotation.
  • Homogeneous transformation matrices, twists, screws, exponential coordinates of rigid-body motion, and wrenches.
  • Velocity kinematics using the space Jacobian and body Jacobian, statics of open chains, singularities, and manipulability.

Autonomous Aerospace Systems

Università di Napoli Federico II

2025 - Present
  • Introduction to the concept of Unmanned Air Vehicle UAV and Unmanned Aircraft System UAS.
  • System Representation of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), UAS System Architecture and Simulation models.
  • Principles of guidance, path management and path following for autonomous aircraft.
  • Integrated navigation systems for autonomous aerospace systems, GPS/INS and Dead Reckoning.
  • Fundamentals of target tracking systems, object detection and tracking for sensing and avoidance systems.
  • Design Models and Open-loop dynamics, Autopilot Design, and Altitude-control State Machine.

Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Federal University of Technology Akure

2021 - 2025
  • Completed 500+ hours of coursework including engineering design, engineering mathematic etc.
  • Began to build a 10+ portfolio project template with an engineering blog to educate others in automation.
  • Designed and implemented an hardware integration of software controlled welding platform.
  • Carried out novel arc welding jobs on my project and and started to learn to program in C, C++ and python.

Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Federal University of Technology Akure

2014 - 2019
  • Served as the departmental football coach, leading the department to a third place finish in the university wide prestigious Vice-Chancellor's competition.
  • Worked in a team of 5 engineering students to design and fabricate a model of a portable table-top paper cutting machine for use in offices.
  • Oversaw a weekly prayer meeting for one session (eleven months) at the university chapter of the Foursquare Student's fellowship, engaging over 250 students in active participation.