LARICS members attended the three-day Robotics Fair 2020 in Ljubljana that took place from 11th to 13th February 2020. Robotics is an international trade fair dedicated to industrial robotics and unmanned systems. The event offers the exhibitors a platform for presenting their range of robot technologies in both industrial and service robots sectors. The Fair was organised by ICM Slovenia . LARICS members attended the event as representatives of three UNIZG FER laboratories: LARICS, LABUST and LAMOR, under the common brand ROBOTICS FER, next to some of the top tech companies in this field. The visitors had an opportunity to learn about current projects of UNIZG FER's laboratories', their research, innovations and equipment. All the exhibitors also had excellent opportunities to strengthen their image, increase brand awareness and establish new business relationships. The content-rich accompanying programme included roundtable discussions, presentations and workshops.  

ESA-Croatia EO workshop 2020 "Space powering the Green Deal and the Digital Economy" will be held 5-6 March 2020 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing . The workshop is being jointly organised by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineer and Computing and the European Space Agency under the auspices of the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the EU. This workshop will be the opportunity to confront needs and solutions and it will gather policy makers, scientists, service operators and EO application specialists. More details about the workshop at croatianspace.info    

On 8 January 2020, Ivana Mikolic  held an invited talk within the 5th year course Organisation and Management at University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business . Ivana was invited by the Dr. Rebeka Danijela Vlahov together with Andrej Hanzir ( LEAP Summit ) to share knowledge and experience in managing EU projects. After the introductory presentations, a panel discussion was initiated between the guest lecturers and the students.

The Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems - LARICS (UNIZG FER) is looking to recruit 1 (one) employee for the position of a Researcher on the project  ASAP - Autonomous System for Assessment and Prediction of infrastructure integrity.  The ASAP project develops a system for autonomous inspection and prediction of the integrity of transport infrastructure, as part of intelligent transportation systems and logistics for maintenance, monitoring and management. The system includes experimental testing of buildings using robots and drones, as well as real-time wireless data collection. Post-processing combines experimental test results and numerical models to predict the service life and residual load-carrying capacity of structures, and enables data to be stored in a database for end-user needs. The advantage will be given to applicants who have experience in the synthesis and analysis of drones control algorithms . If you are interested in the position, please send a short application email with attached CV to this address by Thursday, 30 January 2020 (midnight). Candidates will be contacted shortly after their application for an interview.

On Thursday, 23 January 2020 , Prof. Felipe Gonzalez , Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia, will give a lecture on “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizing Wildlife Monitoring and Conservation” . The lecture will be held at 11 a.m. in room C-09-01 .   Dr. Gonzalez interest is in creating aerial robots, drones or UAVs that possess a high level of cognition using efficient on-board computer algorithms using advanced optimization and game theory approaches that assist us to understand and improve our physical and natural world. Dr. Gonzalez lead the Airborne Sensing Lab at QUT.  He is the co-author of several books in UAV based remote sensing and UAV based design based on evolutionary optimization and game strategies and as of 2018 has published nearly 130 refereed papers. He is also a Chartered Professional Engineer, Engineers Australia – National Professional Engineers Register (NPER), a Member Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), The IEEE, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Holder of a current Australian Private Pilot Licence (CASA PPL) and a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL from CASA).

On 15 January 2020, Prof. Stjepan Bogdan and Prof. Nikola Miskovic held an invited lecture called ‘Heterogeneous Mobile Robots Mapping the Present and the Past’ at the Time Machine Croatia Info Day . This event kindly invited the interested public and experts in the field of humanities, culture, science, history, IT and the research sector to learn more about the Time Machine project as well as the Time Machine Organisation. The Time Machine Project is by far the most ambitious and far-reaching project ever undertaken using Big Data of the Past. Revolutionising the way we experience European history and culture, the project is an international collaboration to build a map of European history that spans thousands of years.

On 2 January 2020, Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji list published an article on project Specularia (Structurized Ecological Cultivation with Autonomous Robots in Indoor Agriculture). Project team members Ivana Mikolić, Bruno Marić, Antun Ivanović, Matko Orsag and Marsela Polić explained in a nutshell the objectives of the project and its scientific, technical and implementational aspects. - Robotic systems can help small farms with farmland that is difficult for a family to cultivate. One of agricultural critical issues is lack of workforce, young people interested in ariculture. Robotics is a lifeline for our economy, said Project Coordinator Dr. Matko Orsag. You can read the article (in Croatian) here .

ROBOWEEK activites have been successfully finalized – Sunday (Dec 15, 19)  ROBOBAND concert at KSET; Wednesday (Dec 18, 19) lecture "Real-World Robotics: From Swarms to Entrepreneurship"  held by Prof. Daniel Lofaro (University of George Mason) and Prof. Neil Dantam (Colorado School of Mines); ROBOTIC FOOD COURT and ROBOFUN interactive workshops on Thursday (Dec 19, 19). Supported by the U. S. Embassy Zagreb , these events served to popularize robotics and spread holiday cheer, all for a good cause. The raised donations will be given to the Association for improving the quality of life of poor and neglected children "Mali zmaj" .  Check out photos in the Gallery .