On 20 May 2019, during the Croatian Academy of Engineering (HATZ) General Assembly, LARICS team member and Asst. Prof. Matko Orsag was awarded a Young Scientist Award "Vera Johanides" , which is a recognition of his rich contribution to science and the field of engineering - We would like to congratulate our colleague on his success and wish him even more success in the future!

On 20-24 May 2019, the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2019) was held in Montreal, Canada, and three of our Lab's members took part in it. Prof. Stjepan Bogdan went to the conference to take part in the workshop titled " The Future of Aerial Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities " as a speaker on the topic of “Full Autonomy in Aerial Manipulation”, while Barbara Arbanas and Goran Vasiljević presented their work and the results of the subCULTron project within the Marine Robotics section of the event. Take a look at a couple photos from the event in the detailed news!      

Yesterday, 4th June 2019, the TV show " Školski sat " aired on Croatian National Television (HRT 2), the episode was titled " On robots and humans " with the topic of robotics. Our Lab's Matko Orsag and Frano Petric took part in the show together with the humanoid robot Pepper , and they discussed how robots work with people, how they might help us in the future and what questions might arise in this process. The show also featured segments about the fund-raising event we had for Christmas, as well as our work with robots in the Laboratory. Take a look at the episode via this link (in Croatian)!

LARICS members took part in another Festival of Science in Zagreb , an event aiming to bring science closer to the general public which was held from 8th to 13th April 2019 . The main topic of the festival was colors, but it also included many other interesting and innovative branches of technology, including robotics. This is why the robotics@fer.hr brand , which consists of LARICS, LABUST and LAMOR, also took part in the event and had workshops and an exhibition. Matko Orsag, Frano Petric and Barbara Arbanas represented our Laboratory at the event.

On 24 April 2019 , members of LARICS working on our Specularia project went to Agrivi , a company applying the newest software and technological innovations to agriculture. Matko, Ivana, Antun and Marsela talked to them about which agricultural crops and cultures they should use as part of the project and which activities can be done with the individual plants in their various stages of growth. They also learned a lot about Agrivi's work and how they use these innovative technologies, which they could also apply to the project in a number of ways.

Asst. Prof. Matko Orsag was invited to be a speaker in the panel discussion titled "The Future of Agriculture in the EU" organized by the Economics Clinic ( Ekonomska klinika ) as part of the "My voice in the EU" ("Moj glas u EU") event, held on 24 and 25 April 2019 in Zagreb. Together with other speakers at the panel discussion, he talked about his research field, particularly the Specularia project and the application of robotics in agriculture, as well as about future plans, trends and expectations in agricultural sciences and practical applications. Together the speakers answered the listeners' questions. More info on the event can be found here .

LARICS' Matko Orsag took part in the Zagreb Energy Congress - ZEC 2019 , organized by the IEEE Student Branch University of Zagreb on 10-14 April, 2019 at our Faculty. He held a lecture titled " Robots in Service of Human Kind " during the Academy Day of the event and told the attending students and listeners about what robots are doing for humans and what they could potentially do in the future, particularly in relation to agriculture and our Specularia project, but also in relation to the energy sector. LARICS was a silver sponsor of this event. You can read the lecture abstract and see a few pictures in the detailed news.

Members of LABUST and LARICS working on the subCULTron project used a sunny day in Zagreb to conduct field experiments with the aPads and aMussels . They went to the lake Jarun and tested the robots in a realistic environment, all in preparation for an upcoming anoxia workshop, which will be held in the Venice Lagoon in July of 2019. Take a look at a couple of pictures from lake Jarun!