LARICS researchers Antonella Barisic and Ana Batinovic attended 2022 ICRA - International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Philadelphia, USA . The largest in-person robotics conference was held May 23-27 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Antonella Barisic presented the paper “ Sim2Air - Synthetic Aerial Dataset for UAV Monitoring ” (A. Barisic, F. Petric, S. Bogdan). Ana Batinovic presented the paper  “ A Shadowcasting-Based Next-Best-View Planner for Autonomous 3D Exploration ” (A. Batinovic, A. Ivanovic, T. Petrovic, S. Bogdan). The presentations were followed by a poster session. Our researchers also participated in the " RAS Lunch with Leaders ” and “ Women in Engineering " events. The papers can be found on the Publications page and the video materials are available on our Youtube channel .  

Last week, on Tuesday, 24th of May 2022, we had a final review meeting for the AeRoTwin project, where we reported to the project officer Mr. Antonio Scarafino and the external reviewer Mrs. Jolanta Mallon on all the activities done within the project. The overall assessment of the project was very positive, and both the project officer and the external reviewer gave us valuable feedback on what could be done to better disseminate and report the project results. As this is the last official event for the project, we would like to thank our project partners Aerial Robotics Lab from the Imperial College London, Technological Corporation of Andalusia - CTA and Robotics, Vision and Control Group from the University of Seville for their great efforts in making the AeRoTwin project a real success story. It has been a pleasure working with you and we look forward to new such opportunities in the future!

On 26th of May 2022 , the local newspaper Jutarnji list featured a story about the art installation called “Is this life?” . Croatian artist Hrvoje Hiršl , who had conceived the idea behind the installation and is the project initiator, has been closely collaborating with the University of TU Delft in Netherlands and the LARICS lab from FER at the University of Zagreb. The Universities provided technical and engineering support for implementing the artistic ideas envisioned in the project. LARICS member Marko Krizmančić oversaw the development and control of a spherical robot. Marko applied the expertise from his previous work on spherical robots for which he was awarded a Rector’s award together with Antonella Barišić. The team from LARICS was led by assistant professor Tamara Petrović Ph.D.   The full article is available here , while the pdf version can be downloaded here (in Croatian).   

After two challenging COVID years, the annual Croatian  Science Festival , an event aiming to bring science closer to the general public, finally took place live and in all its glory from  2nd to 7th May 2022 . The main theme of this year's festival was celebrating and learning everything about  life . Topics ranged from its definition to its preservation, from molecular biology, chemistry and psychology to advanced technologies and beyond. As our lives are quickly becoming unimaginable without robots, LARICS also participated as part of the  robotics@fer.hr  brand in collaboration with LABUST and LAMOR. Jelena Vuletić, Marijana Peti, Dario Stuhne, Marko Križmančić, Matko Orsag and Stjepan Bogdan prepared an interactive exhibition to showcase two fascinating projects that aim to improve life through smart agriculture and better environmental monitoring:  Specularia  and  WatchPlant . Marko also gave a presentation on the WatchPlant project, including its mission, concept, and current technological advances. More photos from the festival can be found in the gallery .

We are pleased to announce that our Professor Stjepan Bogdan has been elected as the new FER vice-dean for Research and Innovation. His mandate will start in October this year. We wish him the best of luck in his new role! :D https://www.fer.unizg.hr/novosti?@=2vntn

April 12, 2022 - Natalia Ivanjko, Katarina Mužina, Ana Novačić, and Marsela Polić are this year's scholarship holders of the National Scholarship Program " For Women in Science " organized by L’Oréal Adria and the Croatian Commission for UNESCO at the Ministry of Culture and Media. The scholarship program has been running in Croatia for sixteen years, and by decision of leading Croatian scientists, four scholarships in the amount of 5,000 euros are awarded to the four best Croatian scientists under 35 from the field of natural sciences, including interdisciplinary fields, which are in the final year of their Ph.D. studies. Congratulations Marsela! More info on the link: https://min-kulture.gov.hr/vijesti-8/svecano-dodijeljene-stipendije-nacionalnog-programa-stipendiranja-za-zene-u-znanosti/22187

On March 11, 2022 LARICS researcher Marsela Polić successfully defended her doctoral dissertation and received a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering. Marsela’s thesis is entitled “Soft robotic manipulation in agrotechnical procedures based on machine and deep learning”.

Antun Ivanović and Lovro Marković (UNIZG FER) visited the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) for a week in February 2022. While at the facilities, they worked closely with Prof. Mirko Kovac (ICL), EMPA researchers David Häusermann​, Fabian Wiesemüller​, and Cedric Portmann, and ICL researchers Bahadir Kocer, Lachlan Orr, and Oscar Pang. They have continued the collaboration established by Bahadir Kocer's visit to UNIZG FER in February 2020. The team is collaborating on the development of an aerial robotics team for autonomous construction. They are developing planning and control algorithms and exploring new materials and adhesives to enable efficient and robust autonomous construction with a team of drones. During their stay, they have been working on integrating aerial systems from the two groups and preparing for ICL's upcoming visit to UNIZG FER for further experimental verification in preparation for a joint publication.