This year's ICRA is different! The major robotics conference has moved fully virtual due to the Covid19 pandemic. Below please find information on our presence in the conference. 

Session: Aerial Systems: Applications I
09:30-09:45, Paper MoA05.2  
Motion Primitives-Based Path Planning for Fast and Agile Exploration Using Aerial Robots
Authors: ​Mihir Rahul Dharmadhikari, Tung Dang, Lukas Solanka, Johannes Brakker Loje, Dinh Huan Nguyen, Nikhil Vijay Khedekar, and Kostas Alexis
Slack Channel: https://icra20.slack.com/app_redirect?channel=moa05_2
​Presentation Video:

Session: Aerial Systems: Applications II
11:30-11:45, Paper MoB05.2  
Learning-Based Path Planning for Autonomous Exploration of Subterranean Environments
Authors: Russell Reinhart, Tung Dang, Emily Hand, Christos Papachristos, and Kostas Alexis
Slack Channel: ​https://icra20.slack.com/app_redirect?channel=mob05_2 
​Presentation Video: 

Session: Aerial Systems: Mechanics and Control II
11:45-12:00, Paper TuB05.3  
The Reconfigurable Aerial Robotic Chain: Modeling and Control
Authors: ​Dinh Huan Nguyen, Tung Dang, and Kostas Alexis​
Slack channel: https://icra20.slack.com/app_redirect?channel=tub05_3
​Presentation Video: ​

Our paper:

• K. Alexis, "Lévy Flight Foraging Hypothesis-based Autonomous Large-scale Memoryless Search under Sparse Rewards", IEEE Aerospace Conference (AeroConf) 2019, Yellowstone Conference, Big Sky, Montana, Mar 7-14, 2020

Got the  Best Paper Award in the "Air Vehicle Systems and Technologies" Track. 

Our paper:

• Mihir Kulkarni, Nguyen Dinh Huan, Kostas Alexis, "The Reconfigurable Aerial Robotic Chain: Shape and Motion Planning", IFAC 2020 World Congress, Berlin, Germany, July 12-17, 2020

Got accepted. The video below allows for better understanding. 
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Our lab got 3 papers accepted at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2020 Conference to take place in Paris, France. We will present the following contributions:

• Mihir Rahul Dharmadhikari, Tung Dang, Lukas Solanka, Johannes Brakker Loje, Dinh Huan Nguyen, Nikhil Vijay Khedekar, and Kostas Alexis, "Motion Primitives-based Path Planning for Fast and Agile Exploration using Aerial Robots", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2020, May 31 - June 4 2020, Paris, France.
• Russell Reinhart*, Tung Dang, Emily Hand, Christos Papachristos, and Kostas Alexis, "Learning-based Path Planning for Autonomous Exploration of Subterranean Environments", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2020, May 31 - June 4 2020, Paris, France.
• Dinh Huan Nguyen, Tung Dang, and Kostas Alexis, "The Reconfigurable Aerial Robotic Chain: Modeling and Control", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2020, May 31 - June 4 2020, Paris, France.

Below we provide results from the relevant experimental evaluation studies.

Congratulations to Shehryar Khattak for successfully defending his PhD on "Resilient Multi-Modal Robot Localization in Perception Degraded Environments"! Committee included

• Prof. Dr. Kostas Alexis | UNR
  
• Prof. Dr. Margarita Chli | ETH Zurich
  
• Prof. Dr. George Bebis |UNR 
  
• Prof. Dr. Christos Papachristos |UNR
  
• Dr. JIhwan Yoon | UNR

Our group has received the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR) 2019 Best Paper Award for our contribution on: 

• 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 (Best Paper Award) 

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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