In celebration of the World Bee Day (May 20), Prof. Stjepan Bogdan held an invited talk “Swarm Intelligence in Animal-Robot Interaction” at the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla  in Zagreb. Prof. Bogdan presented very interesting results of research done on bee communication channels and social behaviour of bees. The talk was a part of a special programme the Museum had prepared to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development.

On 21 May 2020 , LARICS team carried out dynamic median consensus experiments. Five aMussels were used to communicate underwater depth measurements trying to reach a common measurement value. The experiment was performed at Lake Jarun in Zagreb , and the results will be used to support a journal paper that is being prepared.

LARICS team is growing -   Jurica Goricanec has joined the lab! After graduating from the UNIZG-FER, Jurica worked in the industry developing and designing UAVs for different purposes, such as collecting geophysical information and carrying out inspections. He is currently also doing his Ph.D. at the UNIZG-FER under the mentorship of Prof. Stjepan Bogdan. We wish him a lot of successful projects and a stimulating work environment. Welcome, Jurica!

The Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems (LARICS) has become a partner in two new projects – the EU H2020 AeroWind project and the  Danieli Group project , for which grants agreements have been recently signed. Both projects have been kicked off in May 2020 , and all the project activities will be implemented over a period of 1 year (Danieli), and 1.5 years (AeroWind), respectively. LARICS has partnered up with Danieli Group to develop a pilot system that aims to show autonomous inspection of the process of steel elements production by using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The second project ‘Autonomous UAV inspection of wind turbine blades – AeroWind’ is a new EU project funded under the HORIZON 2020 programme. This project, built on previous research done by LARICS through FP7 project EuRoC, will focus on the implementation of novel methods for UAVs navigation and control, based on state-of-the-art technologies, increase in the speed and efficiency of wind turbine inspection, and a significant decrease in the cost of inspection and downtime of wind turbines.

A new chapter on 'Multi-rotor Systems, Kinematics, Dynamics, and Control of ' written by Stjepan Bogdan, Matko Orsag, and Paul Oh has been published in the Encyclopedia of Robotics . The subject matter covered in the chapter – kinematic and dynamic model of the multi-rotor system – is the first step towards any real application of aerial vehicles. This includes various surveillance missions that require an eye in the sky, like search and rescue missions, infrastructure inspection, archaeology, film industry, and many more. The Springer Reference Work Encyclopedia of Robotics addresses the existing need for an easily accessible yet authoritative and granular knowledge resource in robotic science and engineering. The encyclopedia is a work that comprehensively explains the scientific, application-based, interactive, and socio-ethical parameters of robotics. It is the first work that explains at the concept and fact level the state of the field of robotics and its future directions. You can read the chapter  here .

The new project “Heterogeneous autonomous robotic system in viticulture and mariculture (HEKTOR)” commenced on 13 March 2020 . It is a three-year project funded by European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and coordinated by the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing with Prof. Zdenko Kovacic as Project Leader. Project partners are the  University of Dubrovnik (Institute for Marine and Coastal Research) and the  University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture . Two UNIZG-FER laboratories are involved in the implementation of the project – Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems (LARICS) and Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) . The main objective of HEKTOR project is to provide a systematic solution for the coordination and cooperation of smart heterogeneous robots/vehicles (marine, land, and air) capable of autonomously collaborating and distributing tasks in open unstructured space/waters. HEKTOR is conceived as a modular and autonomous system, adapted for various missions in viticulture and mariculture with the anticipated possibility of human intervention while performing various work, inspection and intervention tasks.

In line with recommendation given by National Civil Protection Headquarters and Croatian Institute of Public Health, and in order to mitigate the spread of coronavirus disease, DroneDays 2020 is postoned until further notice. New dates have yet to be determined.

LARICS team particiapted in the international robotics competition MBZIRC held from 23 to 27 February 2020. The Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge ( MBZIRC ) is a biennial international robotics competition, organized by  Khalifa University . The competition is held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and is intended to be an ambitious and challenging set of tasks that aims to inspire innovative robotics solutions and technical excellence. LARICS team for the MBZIRC2020 was led by Frano Petric with supervision of professors Stjepan Bogdan and Matko Orsag, and consists of LARICS’ PhD students: Barbara Arbanas, Marko Car, Antun Ivanovic, Marsela Polic, Ivan Hrabar, Ivo Vatavuk, Lovro Markovic, Ana Batinovic, Antonella Barisic, Robert Milijas and Marko Krizmancic. Being the robotics laboratory, LARICS decided to do the challenges autonomously. Read all about LARICS' participation at MBZIRC at  http://larics-mbzirc.fer.hr/index.php/mbzirc2020/