Staff profile

Fatemeh Rekabi Bana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University. She received her BSc (2009) and MSc (2011) in Aerospace Engineering, and a  PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics & Control) in 2020. Her PhD research was focused on the distributed robust planning and control of aerial robotic teams for area coverage missions

BackgroundBefore joining the faculty at Durham University in 2025, Fatemeh was a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) at Durham University's Department of Computer Science (2022–Present) and at the University of Manchester’s Electrical & Electronic Engineering Department (2021–2022). During her time as a PDRA at Durham, she led Work Package (WP-1) in the EU-H2020 RoboRoyale project, which resulted in a publication in  Science Robotics. Her work on the robotic system developed at Durham was highlighted by the Former Vice-President of the European Parliament, and the RoboRoyale robotic system was announced as the winner of the 6th Edge of Government Award at the World Government Summit 2024.

ExperienceHer research expertise is focused on:- Distributed Systems, Multi-Agent Robotics, and Swarm Intelligence. Her specific interests include:- Swarm Intelligence and Multi-Agent Robotic Systems for a Green Future- Distributed Robust Planning and Control for Autonomous Systems in Harsh Environments- Risk-Aware Robot Coordination She has a strong publication record, including papers in Science Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, and Swarm and Evolutionary Computation. She also actively contributes to the academic community as an Associate Editor for IEEE IROS 2025 and a reviewer for several high-ranked journals.

Conference Paper

• Unified Neuro-Adaptive Sliding Mode Control of Hexarotors with Unknown Disturbances
  
  Zahmatkesh, M., Pan, H., Zahmatkesh, M., Rekabi-Bana, F., Hu, J., & Arvin, F. (2025, September 2). Unified Neuro-Adaptive Sliding Mode Control of Hexarotors with Unknown Disturbances. Presented at 2025 European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR), Padova, Italy. https://doi.org/10.1109/ecmr65884.2025.11163349
• A Leader-Follower Collective Motion in Robotic Swarms
  
  Bahaidarah, M., Marjanovic, O., Rekabi-bana, F., & Arvin, F. (2024). A Leader-Follower Collective Motion in Robotic Swarms. In Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems: 25th Annual Conference, TAROS 2024, London, UK, August 21–23, 2024, Proceedings, Part II (pp. 281-293). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72062-8_25

Journal Article

• Lyapunov Stability-Driven Control Algorithm for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Coordination
  
  Rekabi-Bana, F., Bahaidarah, M., Marjanovic, O., & Arvin, F. (2025). Lyapunov Stability-Driven Control Algorithm for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Coordination. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1109/TASE.2025.3606553
• T-STAR: Time-Optimal Swarm Trajectory Planning for Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  
  Pan, H., Zahmatkesh, M., Rekabi-Bana, F., Arvin, F., & Hu, J. (2025). T-STAR: Time-Optimal Swarm Trajectory Planning for Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 26(8), 12532-12547. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2025.3557783
• Experimental Evaluation of Multi- and Single-Drone Systems with 1D LiDAR Sensors for Stockpile Volume Estimation
  
  Alsayed, A., Bana, F., Arvin, F., Quinn, M. K., & Nabawy, M. R. A. (2025). Experimental Evaluation of Multi- and Single-Drone Systems with 1D LiDAR Sensors for Stockpile Volume Estimation. Aerospace, 12(3), Article 189. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace12030189
• Autonomous tracking of honey bee behaviors over long-term periods with cooperating robots
  
  Ulrich, J., Stefanec, M., Rekabi-Bana, F., Fedotoff, L. A., Rouček, T., Gündeğer, B. Y., Saadat, M., Blaha, J., Janota, J., Hofstadler, D. N., Žampachů, K., Keyvan, E. E., Erdem, B., Şahin, E., Alemdar, H., Turgut, A. E., Arvin, F., Schmickl, T., & Krajník, T. (2024). Autonomous tracking of honey bee behaviors over long-term periods with cooperating robots. Science Robotics, 9(95), Article eadn6848. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adn6848
• Evolutionary optimization for risk-aware heterogeneous multi-agent path planning in uncertain environments
  
  Rekabi Bana, F., Krajník, T., & Arvin, F. (2024). Evolutionary optimization for risk-aware heterogeneous multi-agent path planning in uncertain environments. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 11, Article 1375393. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2024.1375393
• Swarm flocking using optimisation for a self-organised collective motion
  
  Bahaidarah, M., Rekabi-Bana, F., Marjanovic, O., & Arvin, F. (2024). Swarm flocking using optimisation for a self-organised collective motion. Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, 86, Article 101491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.swevo.2024.101491
• Unified Robust Path Planning and Optimal Trajectory Generation for Efficient 3D Area Coverage of Quadrotor UAVs
  
  Rekabi-Bana, F., Hu, J., Krajník, T., & Arvin, F. (2024). Unified Robust Path Planning and Optimal Trajectory Generation for Efficient 3D Area Coverage of Quadrotor UAVs. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 25(3), 2492-2507. https://doi.org/10.1109/tits.2023.3320049