During the last 2 months we have provided multiple talks on Field-hardened Robotic Autonomy, namely at Duke University (U.S.), NTNU (Norway), Stanford University (U.S.), internally at UNR (U.S.), and as industry workshop speaker. We thank all those that hosted our talks. Below, a youtube video of our presentation at Stanford University. 
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Two papers accepted at ICAR2019: 

• T. Dang, S. Khattak, F. Mascarich, K. Alexis, "Explore Locally, Plan Globally: A Path Planning Framework for Autonomous Robotic Exploration in Subterranean Environments", 19th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), Belo Horizonte - Brazil, December 2-6, 2019
• K. Alexis, "Resilient Autonomous Exploration and Mapping of Underground Mines using Aerial Robots", 19th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), Belo Horizonte - Brazil, December 2-6, 2019

Our IROS 2019 submission

• T. Dang, F. Mascarich, S. Khattak, C. Papachristos, K. Alexis, "Graph-based Path Planning for Autonomous Robotic Exploration in Subterranean Environments", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019, Macau, China

was accepted! Check out the video of results. 
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Our FSR paper:

• T. Dang, F. Mascarich, S. Khattak, H. Nguyen, N. Khedekar, C. Papachristos, and K. Alexis, "Field-hardened Robotic Autonomy for Subterranean Exploration", Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR), 2019, Aug. 29-31, Tokyo, Japan

Was accepted! 

Dr. Kostas Alexis received the University's College of Engineering Excellence Award for 2019. 

The following papers were recently accepted: 

• C. Papachristos, S. Khattak, F. Mascarich, T. Dang, K. Alexis, "Autonomous Aerial Robotic Exploration of Subterranean Environments relying on Morphology-aware Path Planning", International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 11-14, 2019, Atlanta, GA, USA
  
• T. Dang, S. Khattak, C. Papachristos, K. Alexis, "Anomaly Detection and Cognizant Path Planning for Surveillance Operations using Aerial Robots", International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 11-14, 2019, Atlanta, GA, USA
  
• S. Khattak, F. Mascarich, T. Dang, C. Papachristos, K. Alexis, "Robust Thermal-Inertial Localization for Aerial Robots: A Case for Direct Methods", International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 11-14, 2019, Atlanta, GA, USA

Our paper:

• S. Khattak, C. Papachristos, K. Alexis, "Visual-Thermal Landmarks and Inertial Fusion for Navigation in Degraded Visual Environments", IEEE Aerospace Conference (AeroConf) 2019, Yellowstone Conference, Big Sky, Montana, Mar 2-9, 2019

Was awarded the Best Paper Award in the "Air Vehicle Systems and Technologies" Track of the IEEE Aerospace Conference 2019. Special congratulations to our PhD Candidate Shehryar Khattak! 

Our group releases new results on autonomous subterranean exploration using aerial robots. 

Our group completed a multi-day field testing event in underground mines and demonstrated full exploration autonomy of underground drifts and headings using aerial robots. Indicative images are shown below.

Our lab got multiple papers accepted at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Specifically, the following:

• S. Khattak, C. Papachristos, K. Alexis, "Keyframe-based Direct Thermal–Inertial Odometry", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2019, May 20-24, 2019 Montreal, Canada
• F. Mascarich, C. Papachristos, T. Wilson, K. Alexis, "Distributed Radiation Field Estimation and Informative Path Planning for Nuclear Environment Characterization", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2019, May 20-24, 2019 Montreal, Canada
• N. V. Khedekar, F. Mascarich, C. Papachristos, T. Dang, K. Alexis, "Contact-based Navigation Path Planning for Aerial Robots", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2019, May 20-24, 2019 Montreal, Canada

In addition, our group co-organizes a workshop 

• A. Ollero, G. Antonelli, G. Loianno, K. Alexis, M. Chli, "The Future of Aerial Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities", Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2019, May 20-24, 2019 Montreal, Canada

Video results from our accepted papers follow
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