Bahar Haghighat Awarded NWO Vidi Grant for Innovative Research on Robotic Inspection of Steel Infrastructure

Dr. Bahar Haghighat, researcher at ENTEG, has been awarded the prestigious NWO Vidi grant for her pioneering project:

Aging steel infrastructure can develop hidden damage that leads to costly repairs or dangerous failures. This project develops a new system of miniature robots that move across steel structures to detect signs of structural damage. Working together as an intelligent swarm, the robots analyze vibration signals to identify potential defects and adapt their inspection strategy in real time. By combining robotics and artificial intelligence in a compact and autonomous system, this approach makes infrastructure inspection faster, safer, and more reliable, helping extend the lifespan of critical structures while reducing maintenance costs and risks to human inspectors.

About the NWO Vidi Grant
The NWO Vidi grant is part of the Dutch Research Council’s (NWO) Talent Scheme, supporting experienced researchers in developing innovative research lines and building their own research groups. Nine researchersof the University of Groningen are recognized in this year’s Vidi round. Here you can read more about it.

Read about Bahar's ongoing research in this blog.