Robotics Institute Germany’s Post

What an honor! My brilliant PhD student Bruno Ferrarini has won the runner-up award for the The Queen Mary UK Best PhD in Robotics Competition. This prize is presented on an annual basis to the best PhD thesis in the area of robotics in the United Kingdom. The award decision this year was made based on the reviews from an excellence committee consisting of top roboticists from around the world (Tamim Asfour, Maren Bennewitz, Yiannis Aloimonos, Cecilia Laschi, Giulio Sandini, Aude Billard, Jose' Santos-Victor, Carme Torras, Takayuki Kanda, Veronique Perderau, Jee-Hwan Ryu, Serena Ivaldi, Matteo Fumagalli, Alessandra Sciutti, Kazuo Kiguchi, Rania Rayyes, Shinichi Hirai, Ruwan Gopura and Isuru Godage). Bruno was co-supervised by Prof Klaus McDonald-Maier at the University of Essex. A special thanks to Prof Michael Milford for his continuous support and guidance throughout Bruno's PhD research. We could not have done this without you, Michael Milford! Bruno's PhD thesis titled "Improving Visual Place Recognition in Changing Environments" made significant contributions to the field by proposing novel binary neural networks for solving the visual place recognition problem for resource-constrained robotic systems (such as drones). Parts of his PhD thesis were published in the form of research papers at top venues, such as IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and IEEE IROS conference. #award #phd #computerscience #robotics #visualplacerecognition #vpr #essex #southampton #qut #uk #australia

ACENTAURI team is thrilled to announce the arrival of Professor Rafael Murrieta-Cid ! 🌟 Professor Murrieta, from Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas (CIMAT), is joining the team as visiting researcher to work on his project on robot motion planning with sensory feedback and learning. His research focus on improving sampling-based motion planners, which are known to be the most efficient techniques for finding collision-free trajectories for complex robotics systems in environments with obstacles. However, those methods assume a known and static map and they don't offer trajectory correction online. To overcome these limitations, Professor Murrieta is investigating a joint approach including visual servoing, also including sensor feedback to release the constraint of an already known environment. Additionally, he will explore the possibility of merging that approach with learning-based techniques. It is an honor to welcome Professor Murrieta and to share our knowledge reciprocally to push the boundary of robotics together. If you want to join as well the team or you need more information, please visit our website https://lnkd.in/eJmhTJca. #Research #Robotics #MotionPlanning #VisualServoing

I am thrilled to announce that I have successfully defended my Master's thesis in Robotics. Here is a brief overview of the key ideas and findings from my research: My research work focused on enhancing the locomotion and loco-manipulation capabilities of a snake robot named COBRA, which stands for Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator. Specifically designed to explore hard-to-navigate lunar craters suspected of containing frozen water, COBRA could significantly contribute to identifying these frozen deposits, paving the way for future lunar colonization. To address the simulation-to-reallity gap observed with the COBRA platform, I developed a reinforcement learning-based framework called "Model Matching". This framework fine-tunes the simulator model to minimize the discrepancies between the real robot and its simulated counterpart in the Webots simulator, using data from the actual robot. As a result, the fidelity of the Webots simulator has significantly improved. Additionally, I developed a controller for loco-manipulation tasks within the Webots simulator. Loco-manipulation involves the robot performing locomotion to manipulate objects in its environment, a complex challenge as it requires solving both locomotion and manipulation simultaneously. With the proposed controller, COBRA achieved an impressive success rate of 94.3% in loco-manipulation tasks. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Alireza Ramezani, and my co-advisor, Dr. Gunar Schirner, for their exceptional guidance throughout my thesis. Additionally, I extend my thanks to Dr. Michael Everett for attending my thesis defense and signing my thesis. I am also deeply thankful to my labmates including Adarsh Salagame, Kruthika Gangaraju, Aditya Bondada, and others, for their invaluable support in conducting physical tests, managing hardware components, and contributing to the development of solutions to various challenges. Feel free to delve into my comprehensive thesis report at https://lnkd.in/d4TzYNtJ for an in-depth exploration. Additionally, a summary of my research at Silicon Synapse Lab is available here: https://lnkd.in/gJx9-UNP. #Robotics #Engineering #DeepLearning #ReinforcementLearning #MachineLearning #Thesis #SnakeRobot #RoboticsResearch #ComputerScience #ElectricalEngineering #SimulationToReality #RobotLocomotion #BioInspiredRobotics #MoonExploration #STEM #Research #ArtificialIntelligence #Automation

Never stop researching: Introducing the MAESTRI project! 🦾    Prensilia is proud to be part of the MAESTRI project, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network (MSCA-DN) initiative which brings together universities and companies to train the new kind of experts in the emerging domain of magnetic soft robotics.  Within this collaboration, Prensilia will host a PhD to work on the development of a robotic hand capable of adjusting local stiffness through an externally applied magnetic field! If this sounds peculiar don’t worry, it's just the marvels of science in action! 😂     #research #science #project #horizon #MSCA #EU #European #funding #robotics #robotichand #Prensilia #grasping #innovation    MAESTRI is funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe research and innovation programm (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Doctoral Networks, Grant agreement #101119614). 

When I’m not knee-deep in code, you’ll find me playing with quantum robots because who needs a regular hobby when you can combine quantum computing with swarm robotics for fun? 😄👾 Exploring Quantum Swarm Robotics 🚀 Innovative Research in Quantum Swarm Robotics In the ever-evolving field of robotics, integrating quantum computing with swarm robotics is paving the way for groundbreaking advancements. 🔍 The Problem: Path Planning in Swarm Robotics Swarm robotics, inspired by natural systems like ant colonies or bird flocks, involves multiple robots working collaboratively to achieve a common goal. Path planning in such systems is a complex challenge due to the dynamic interactions and constraints within the swarm. Traditional algorithms can struggle with efficiency and scalability, particularly as the size of the swarm or the complexity of the environment increases. 🌐 Quantum Path Planning: A New Frontier In recent research, inspired by recent advancements Source (https://lnkd.in/dgeAMTEt), I have explored how quantum computing can address these challenges. Quantum computing offers unique advantages through superposition and entanglement, enabling faster and more efficient exploration of complex solution spaces. 💡 Future Directions This research opens up exciting possibilities for future work, including: Real-World Applications: Translating quantum-enhanced swarm algorithms into practical applications across various industries. Algorithm Refinements: Further refinement of quantum algorithms to tackle even more complex path planning challenges. Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Exploring collaborations with other fields to harness the full potential of quantum and swarm robotics. source: https://lnkd.in/dgeAMTEt #QuantumRobotics #SwarmRobotics #PathPlanning #QuantumComputing #RoboticsResearch #Innovation #TechAdvancements #AIandRobotics #FutureOfRobotics #QuantumTech #RobotPathfinding #CuttingEdgeTech #RoboticsCommunity #ScienceAndTech #TechHobbies

Two full days of intense and fruitful meetings and discussions. The #INVERSE project has officially started this week with the kick-off meeting. 🚀 All partners of the international project, funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Università di Trento, gathered in our city to take stock of next steps. 🎯 INVERSE (EU Project) is the acronym of "INteractive robots that intuitiVely lEarn to inVErt tasks by ReaSoning about their Execution", and it will take on the challenge endowing robots with the cognitive capabilities needed to synthesise, monitor, and execute inverse plans from direct tasks defined in terms of human-understandable instructions and procedures. The project, coordinated by Matteo Saveriano of the Department of Industrial Engineering, will last 4 years. It is the result of the collaboration among the Idra interdepartmental laboratories of robotics of the University of Trento, which also include the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science - UniTrento DISI. 🔄 INVERSE involves ten other organisations from different European countries that include universities, research centres, institutions, and companies. These are: CREATE Consortium of Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy), Universität Wien (Austria), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Mondragon Unibertsitatea (Spain), Boğaziçi University (Turkey), Centro Ricerche Fiat (Italy), Konecranes (Finland), Steinbeis Europa Zentrum (Germany), and MTU CIVITTA Foundation (Estonia). ➡ Stay updated on the progress of the project by following the website: https://lnkd.in/d3pgSpWb (under construction). Read more about INVERSE here: https://lnkd.in/dNxq5XUB #robotics #ai #smartmanufacturing

The "No AI About Us Without Us" initiative, now part of SAFER’s portfolio, aims to enhance traffic safety for Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) with reduced mobility. Led by researchers at REVERE - Resource for vehicle research at Chalmers lab, this project will develop automated road monitoring and active safety systems to address the critical safety needs of VRUs across various traffic environments. By analysing motion patterns and identifying safety challenges, the project will create an open-source dataset using Revere’s advanced research vehicle, SnowFox. This data will help build an AI-enabled, inclusive, and infrastructure-aware traffic monitoring system, ensuring technological robustness and user-centered design. Running until December 2025, the project is financed by Vinnova and AoA Transport with a budget of 2 MSEK. Partners include Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) at Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmers Industriteknik, Social Work at University of Gothenburg, and Boid. Yinan Yu from Chalmers University of Technology is the project leader. This initiative marks a significant step towards safer, more inclusive road environments for all users, see details here: https://lnkd.in/dXwyEN_T. 🚗💡 #Trafficsafety #AI #Inclusion #Roadsafety #Mobility

A short reminder that we are actively looking for a new professor to complement our research and teaching activities in the field of AI and robotics. There are still two weeks left to apply. The deadline is February 16th, 2024. https://lnkd.in/erg5TGNn Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! #robotics #ai #artificialintelligence #autonomoussystems

👩🏻💻 Don't miss out on this webinar! 🧑🏽💻 We're thrilled to invite you to our upcoming webinar: "ROPCA - From Idea to Product". 📅 Date: 05.07.2024 🕒 Time: 11:00 ⏳ Duration: 1 hour Our speaker: 🎙️ Thiusius Rajeeth Savarimuthu: Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer at ROPCA, Professor for Robotics at Syddansk Universitet - University of Southern Denmark. He brings a wealth of expertise and experience in the field of robotics, driving innovation and making the development of ARTHUR a reality. In this session, we will cover: 🤖 The initial concept and inspiration behind ARTHUR 🤖 The challenges and breakthroughs encountered along the way 🤖 The cutting-edge technology that powers ARTHUR 🤖 Insights into the technical development process Whether you're a robotics enthusiast, a tech professional, or simply curious about the innovation process, this webinar promises to offer valuable insights and inspiration. To participate in the webinar, you must register using the following link: https://lnkd.in/dmPm6V6v Please note that you must register to participate in the webinar. Registration is possible until 05.07.24 until 10:30. After successful registration, the webinar is automatically displayed in the Outlook calendar. #Webinar #Robotics #Technology #StartupJourney #ARTHUR #ROPCA #TechTalk #HealthcareInnovation #Rheumatology #letsrevolutionizerheumatologycare

I am thrilled to announce the first edition of our Workshop: AI-CogDev - "Architecting Intelligence: Exploring Intersections in Cognitive Robotics and Developmental Learning" It will be held at the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL 2024) in Austin, Texas, USA, and virtually. Looking at babies to make better robots requires expertise in many fields, yet these often feel like separate bubbles. The AI-CogDev workshop aims to bridge the gap between these amazing research fields. Expert or newcomer, it doesn’t matter: if you share that same vision, join the discussion and share your ideas! The call for papers is still open 📢 🔗 https://lnkd.in/esRUSaY4