LARICS members Robert Milijas and Jurica Goricanec attended ICUAS 2021 that took place in Athens, Greece from 15 until 18 June, 2021. Robert presented the paper A Comparison of LiDAR-Based SLAM Systems for Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Jurica Civil infrastructure data acquisition in urban environments based on multi-UAV mission . Both papers were results of research and activities done within LARICS projects ENCORE, ASAP and AEROTWIN.                

LARICS members actively participated in this year's edition of ICRA -  International Conference on Robotics and Automation but only virtually. The conference was held May 30 - June 5, 2021  at the brand new magnificent Xi’an International Convention and Exhibition Center in Xi’an China.  Ana Batinovic presented the paper "A Multi-Resolution Frontier-Based Planner for Autonomous 3D" (A. Batinović, T. Petrović, A. Ivanovic, F. Petric, S. Bogdan). Marsela Polic presented the paper "Compliant Plant Exploration for Agricultural Procedures With a Collaborative Robot" (M. Polic, M. Car, F. Petric, M. Orsag).  Antun Ivanovic virtually attended the Aerial Robotics Workshop (paper title: "Precision Airdrop Challenges with Multirotor UAVs", A. Ivanovic, M. Orsag) together with Bruno Maric and Marsela Polic. Lovro Markovic presented the paper "Adaptive Stiffness Estimation Impedance Control for Achieving Sustained Contact in Aerial Manipulation" (L. Markovic, M. Car, M. Orsag, S. Bogdan). Ivo Vatavuk presented the paper "Precise Jump Planning Using Centroidal Dynamics Based Bilevel Optimization" (I. Vatavuk, Z. Kovacic).

LARICS members paricipated in the first edition of Dronijada that took place on June 5 , 2021 in Varaždin. The event was organized by  LERAMIS ,  Aeroklub Varaždin  and  Croatian International Airshow Varazdin , and featured FPV races, commmercial drone fly zone, and exhibiton. LARICS memebrs took this opportunity to promote project AeRoTwin, and the upcoming DroneDays 2021, as well as the other activities of the lab and their equipment.  

At the event "Robotics and AI in Society: Impacts and Questions Raised", organized jointly by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and the Embassy of Portugal in Croatia , on May 20, 2021 , an interesting exchange of expert opinions and quality discussion between scientists and members of the academic and diplomatic community. The gathering was welcomed by H. E. Ambassador of Portugal Paula Leal da Silva, and Dean of FER, Prof. Gordan Gledec. The program was led by an experienced researcher Fausto Ferreira, from the Department of Automation and Computer Engineering. Presentations by Prof. Pedra Lime, from the Superior Técnico Institute of the University of Lisbon and Tomislav Bracanović from the Zagreb Institute of Philosophy, were followed by the round table on the implications of introducing artificial intelligence in our daily lives, with special emphasis on its impact on our jobs. The round table was moderated by the Vice Dean for Research, Prof. Nikola Mišković, and attended by Prof. Stjepan Bogdan , Prof. Lime and Tomislav Bracanović. Recording of the event is available on FER’s YouTube channel .  

To kickoff the Conference on the Future of Europe, the Office of European Parliament in Croatia and the Croatian Parliament have organized a thematic event called "The Conference on the Future of Europe: Vision of Croatia" . The emphasis of the event was placed on digital and green technologies, promoting successful stories and discussing a more equitable economy and education. UNIZG FER's Center for Artificial Intelligence , represented by professor Loncaric, was invited to showcase its efforts to digitally transform the Croatian society. Professor Loncaric was accompanied by LARICS team (professor Kovacic, Frano Petric and Ivan Hrabar) and our robot Pepper that became the first robotic member of the Croatian Parliament by interrupting the talk of Gordan Jandrokovic, the Speaker of the Parliament ( Pepper, MP ). Pepper also had a more amicable interation with professor Loncaric, who used the opportunity to invite companies from Croatia to contact the Center for Artificial Intelligence to discuss the transfer of technologies being developed at the Faculty.  The event generated a lot of interest in the media (check the  PRESS  section),   so we hope that the invitation of professor Loncaric will spark some future collaborations with the industry. We thank the Office of European Parliament in Croatia and the Croatian Parliament for the invitation, and Mrs. Renata Skalabrin for organising the event and accomodating all Pepper's requests.

This year's edition od Aerospace and Defense Meetings (A&DM) event is featuring a workshop , organized and held by AeRoTwin project partners, prof. Stjepan Bogdan, prof. Mario KOvač, prof. Anibal Ollero, and Silvia de los Santos . Covering different otpics, the partners are giving their respective talks on May 27, 2021, on the second day of the event. More details available  here . "Matchmaking Program for the Aerospace and Defense Industries" The 2021 edition of A&DM turns into a fully-digital event. The event will be held on 26th and 27th of May 2021 and gather the aerospace international community through pre-planned online B2B meetings, live conferences & replay videos and a virtual exhibition. EDIT: The workshop was successfully finalized, with project partners giving following presentations: Prof. Sjepan Bogdan (UNIZG FER): Autonomus Inspection of Wind Turbine Blades Prof. Mirko Kovac (ICL): Physical Artificial INtelligence for Infrastructure Drones Prof. Anibal Ollero (USE): Aerial Robots for Inspection and Logistics   Press release: ADM Sevilla 2021

Two LARICS student groups have become the recipients of the 2020 Rector Award . Borna Zbodulja, Jakov Vulama and Petar Ljubotina, mentored by prof. Zdenko Kovačić , won the award for their work ' Pepper as a welcome manager at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing' , while Filip Bradarić, Marko Cavalli, Ivona Krajačić and Jelena Tabak , together with Andrea Rebec from the  Faculty of Architecture, mentored by assoc. prof. Matko Orsag , won the award for their work ' Workshop for children: "Robofun" . The abstracts of their works can be found here . Congratulations to the students and their mentors!

The 1st AIRPHARO workshop on Aerial Robotic Systems Physically Interacting with the Environment will be held October 4-5, 2021 at Ilirija Resort, Biograd na Moru, Croatia. Since this two-day event is taking place in Croatia, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society is organizing the workshop together with LARICS. AIRPHARO workshop is the successor of the workshops on Research, Education and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (RED-UAS) . The workshop will focus on a high growth area of both research and industry, the use of aerial robots for physical interaction with people and the environment. For more details, please visit AIRPHARO 2021 .