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

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