Robotics
YES. I CAN.
The robotics group is part of the Control Engineering Group at the Division of System and Signals at LuleĂĽ University of Technology that focuses in real-life driven applications in the areas of:
HOW TO BECOME MORE THAN A DREAMER
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Collaborative Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
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Robotic Vision
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Unmanned Ground Vehicles
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Inspection Robotics
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Bio-Inspired Robotics
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Human Oriented Robotic Enhancements
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Machine Learning for Robotics
ROBOTICS In the robotics group, the driving force behind all of our activities, is the vision in bringing robotics in the everyday life, creating a continuous impact in the humans’ well being and significantly closing the gap between advanced theory and real world applications. Our aim is to make our dreams reality and we are fully working to implement the future now.
Welcome to the robotics group! George Nikolakopoulos Professor on Robotics and Automation
ROBOTICS
HOW TO BECOME MORE THAN A DREAMER
Collaborative Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) The robotics group envisions a novel aerial robotic team that will possess the capability to autonomously conduct infrastructure inspection and maintenance tasks, while additionally providing intuitive and user-friendly interfaces to human-operators. The collaborative UAVs consist of multiple heterogeneous collaboraive aerial robotic workers, a new class of UAVs, equipped with dexterous manipulators, novel physical interaction and co-manipulation control strategies, perception systems and planning intelligence.
Ongoing Related Projects The group is currently coordinating the H2020 ICT project entitled AEROWORKS (www.aeroworks2020.com), one of the biggest projects in Europe in the area of UAVs for aerial inspection and maintenance of aging infrastructures, since the beginning of 2015.
Bio-Inspired Robotics The Robotics group’s efforts reside in the development and control of bio-inspired robotic mechanisms designed to mimic humans and other biological entities, in an effort to study the underlying mechanisms that describe and affect the kinetic and kinematic attributes of living beings.
ROBOTICS
Human-oriented Robotic Enhancements A current research interest of the Robotics group is the utilization of alternate technologies, with the most promising example of pneumatic artificial muscles, for actuation of robotic setups intended for the enhancement of human kinetic abilities. Ultimate goal is the future use of such innovative equipment for the undertaking of multiple force-intensive motion scenarios via the incorporation of exoskeletal and rehabilitation robotics.
HOW TO BECOME MORE THAN A DREAMER
Robotic Vision Robotic Vision is a rapidly developing area in robotics that aims towards the utilization of computational algorithms on image data for enabling a proper perception of the environment, smooth path planning, obstacle avoidance, material handling, interaction with other robots and humans, and in general to increase the robustness and the safety of the robotic workers. The group is actively working in the field of robotic vision and more specifically in concepts towards the creation of novel algorithms for environmental perception and aging infrastructure inspection, as well as robotic vision for mines. The group’s activity in this area is funded by multiple research grants.
ROBOTICS
Inspection Robotics One of the main aims of the Robotics group is the development and utilization of robotic setups for enabling the aerial inspection and interaction with the aging infrastructure. Such robotic solutions span from the utilization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for the inspection and maintenance of industrial infrastructures, buildings, etc. to suction robots based on innovative vortex technologies for the inspection and repair of airplane shuttles.
Ongoing Related Projects The group is currently receiving funding form the prestigious H2020 Future and Emerging Technologies (FETopen) through the innovative project Conpinnova (http://compinnova.eu), and the H2020 ICT grant AEROWORKS, one of the biggest project in aerial robotics in Europe (http://www.aeroworks2020.eu/).
HOW TO BECOME MORE THAN A DREAMER
Unmanned Ground Vehicles The robotic group is working in the area of UGVs in close collaboration with the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) towards the development of an autonomous UGV for search and rescue missions. These developments are based on a real scale Toyota Land Cruiser and the overall project will aim in demonstrating the ability of the resulting cyberphysical systems in real life use cases. The group’s activity in this research area is being funded by the ARTEMIS R5-COP project (http://r5-cop.eu/en/).
ROBOTICS
Machine Learning for Robotics The area of Machine Learning for Robotics studies algorithms that will allow a robot to acquire novel skills or adapt to a changing environment or to an alternating aim of a mission to be accomplished. These learning capabilities are of paramount importance for allowing a robust and autonomous operation of the robot, while at the same time pose a complex problem that involves high-dimensionality, real time constraints, image processing, motor control, etc. The robotics group activities in this area are currently focusing in object perception and handling, vision for manipulation and machine learning path planning for ground and aerial robots.
HOW TO BECOME MORE THAN A DREAMER
YES. I CAN.
ROBOTICS
LuleĂĽ University of Technology, Graphic Production, Melina Androulaki, 2016
CONTACT INFORMATION George Nikolakopoulos Professor on Robotics and Automation Institution of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering geonik@ltu.se, www.gnikolak.com +46 (0)920 491298
ltu.se