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Nicholas Barbara
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Postdoctoral Research Associate
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Postdoctoral Researcher
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Dynamics and Neural Systems Group |
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University of Sydney
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The University of Sydney
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Engineer and researcher with a passion for solving challenging problems and making complex systems come to life.
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I love working at the intersection of theory and application, which has lead to my research on control systems, robust reinforcement learning, and time-series analysis. I also dabble in space engineering and astronomy.
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I'm a researcher with a passion for solving challenging problems and making complex systems come to life.
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I love working at the intersection of theory and application, which has lead to my research on control systems, robust reinforcement learning, and time-series analysis, with a little bit of space engineering and astronomy on the side.
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In my spare time you'll find me outdoors, probably either hiking, on a cricket field, or somewhere quiet with a good book.
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In my spare time you'll find me outdoors, probably either on a cricket field or somewhere quiet with a good book.
I am currently a postdoc in the <ahref="https://dynamicsandneuralsystems.github.io/">Dynamics and Neural Systems Group</a> within the University of Sydney.
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I completed my PhD at the Australian Centre for Robotics (<ahref="https://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/our-research/robotics-and-intelligent-systems/australian-centre-for-robotics.html">ACFR</a>) in 2025, where my research involved developing new ML tools for learning robotic controllers with mathematical guarantees of stability and robustness.
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I completed my PhD at the Australian Centre for Robotics (<ahref="https://www.sydney.edu.au/engineering/our-research/robotics-and-intelligent-systems/australian-centre-for-robotics.html">ACFR</a>) in 2025, where my research involved developing new ML tools for learning control systems with mathematical guarantees of stability and robustness.
My research often leads me towards more theoretical flavours of science and engineering. However, my interest in developing fundamental theory stems from a desire to enable greater autonomy in real-world systems, so I try to get hands-on with hardware whenenever I have the time. Below are a few interesting projects that I've worked on over the years.
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My research often leads me towards more theoretical flavours of science and engineering, mostly with the aim of developing fundamental theory which can enable greater autonomy in real-world systems. To keep me grounded, I try to get hands-on with hardware whenenever I have the time. Below are a few interesting projects that I've worked on over the years.
Youla-REN policies augment an existing stabilising controller with a recurrent equilibrium network (<ahref="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10179161">REN</a>) to improve performance while preserving stability. I started by designing a classical swing-up controller, combining an energy-pumping controller with an LQR, and added an extended Kalman filter for state estimation.
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Youla-REN policies augment an existing stabilising controller with a recurrent equilibrium network (<ahref="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10179161">REN</a>) to improve performance while preserving stability. I started by designing a classical swing-up controller, combining an energy-pumping controller with an LQR, and added an extended Kalman filter (EKF) for state estimation.
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Putting it all together with RENs, deep RL, and <ahref="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8202133?signout=success">domain randomisation</a> results in the swing-up policy in the GIF.
I joined the <ahref="https://github.com/agilityrobotics/cassie-doc/wiki">Cassie</a> team as a side project during my PhD to help with designing, testing, and implementing locomotion and balancing policies.
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Along the way, I learned a lot about interfacing, robotic software engineering (e.g., <ahref="https://www.ros.org/">ROS</a>), and advanced state estimation. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to get hands-on with a range of interesting control architectures based on inverse kinematics and <ahref="https://andreadelprete.github.io/teaching/2019_PhD_obrc/3_task_space_control.pdf">task-space inverse dynamics</a> control.
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Along the way, I learned a bit about interfacing, robotic software engineering (e.g., ROS), and advanced state estimation. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to get hands-on with a range of interesting control architectures based on inverse kinematics and <ahref="https://andreadelprete.github.io/teaching/2019_PhD_obrc/3_task_space_control.pdf">task-space inverse dynamics</a> control.
During my Bachelor's thesis, I had the opportunity to design and build a vibration control test-bed for <ahref="https://www.nearmap.com/au?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic">Nearmap</a>, an aerial imaging company based in Sydney.
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Over the course of six months, I: (1) built a piezoelectric cantilever beam system; (2) modelled the system analytically, with FEA, and via system identification; (3) designed active damping controllers with positive position feedback and LQG control; and (4) implemented the controllers in real-time on an <ahref="https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm32-32-bit-arm-cortex-mcus.html">STM32</a> microcontroller.
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Over the course of six months, I: built a piezoelectric cantilever beam system; modelled the system analytically, with FEA, and via system identification; designed active damping controllers with positive position feedback and LQG control; and implemented the controllers in real-time on an <ahref="https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm32-32-bit-arm-cortex-mcus.html">STM32</a> microcontroller.
One of my earliest research positions was as part of a team of students working to a develop a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) star tracker for attitude determination on small satellites. At the time, there were very few commercial star trackers that were small yet accurate enough for CubeSats. Our goal was to develop our own, in-house instrument for deployment on University of Sydney satellites.
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One of my earliest research positions was as part of a team of students working to a develop a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) star tracker for attitude determination on small satellites. At the time, there were very few commercial star trackers that were small yet accurate enough for CubeSats. Our goal was to develop our own in-house instrument for deployment on University of Sydney satellites.
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