Ivana Mikolić has been nominated as a finalist of the Project Management Awards 2019 for the best young project manager for the organization of the international interdisciplinary field workshop of maritime robotics and applications “Breaking the Surface (BtS)” . This is a unique award for project management in Croatia. The award is given by the Croatian Association for Project Management (full member of the International Project Management Association, IPMA) and IPMA Young Crew Croatia. The winners will be announced at the award ceremony at hotel Esplanade in Zagreb on December 17, 2019. More details at  IPMA Young Crew Croatia .

The new project “AERIAL Cognitive Integrated Multi-task Robotic System with Extended Operation Range and Safety (AERIAL-CORE)” commenced on December 1, 2019 . It is a four-year project funded under HORIZON 2020-ICT , and coordinated by the University of Sevilla (Prof. Anibal Ollero). FER (LARICS) is partaking as a project partner, together with other European partners. The main objective of AERIAL-CORE is the development of core technology modules and an integrated aerial cognitive robotic system that will have unprecedented capabilities on the operational range and safety in the interaction with people, or Aerial Co-Workers (ACW), for applications such as the inspection and maintenance of large infrastructures. The project will integrate aerial robots with different characteristics to meet the requirements of: Long range (several kilometres) and local very accurate (subcentimetre) inspection of the infrastructure capability; Maintenance activities based on aerial manipulation involving force interactions; and Aerial co-working safely and efficiently helping human workers in inspection and maintenance.  

This year LARICS team members are organizing again a robotic charity event , together with KSET and professors from the University George Mason (USA), with the goal to raise funds for the Association for improving the quality of life of poor and neglected children “Mali zmaj” . All the planned activities are taking place between December 15 and 19, 2019 at KSET and in the Faculty’s lobby. The programme of the ROBOWEEK is the following: on Sunday, December 15, 2019, from 8 to 11 p.m., on KSET’s stage, the visitors will have the opportunity to attend a unique performance of the ROBOBAND! Robots will be warming up the audience and spreading holiday cheer by playing different instruments, accompanied by FER’s professors and students; on Monday, December 16, 2019,  professors from the University George Mason (USA) will hold a lecture for FER’s graduate and postgraduate students, and a lecture for the general public to present their science popularization projects; on Thursday, December 19, 2019, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in FER’s lobby, at the ROBOTIC FOOD COURT , our well-known little robotic helpers Pepper, Franka and Baxter will be serving warm drinks and cookies, while primary and secondary school students will have a chance to attend interactive ROBOFUN workshops. The co-organizers of the event, University of George Mason professors are planning to hold a similar event in April 2020 at their University. We wholeheartedly invite you to join us in doing a good deed and spreading joy!

LARICS' PhD students Antonella Barišić  and Marko Car are currently attending the 2019 International Workshop on Research, Education and Development on Unmanned Aerial Systems, RED-UAS 2019 , held in Cranfield, UK, at the Cranfield University taking place from 25 to 27 November 2019. They have presented the following papers: Barisic, A., Car, M., Bogdan, S., (2019), Vision-Based System for a Real-Time Detection and Following of UAV Turkovic, K., Car, M., Orsag, M., (2019), End-Effector Force Estimation Method for an Unmanned Aerialmanipulator                   RED-UAS 2019 aims to bring together representatives from academia, industry or government agencies working in the rapidly expanding research area of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Focused interests of diverse groups involved in UAS research and development is discussed. Special emphasis is given to current and future research opportunities.                      

LARICS , LABUST and LAMOR did a great job representing UNIZG-FER at the University of Zagreb Fair 2019 held between November 21 and 23, 2019 at the Student Centre Zagreb, and at the Open Door Day at FER on Saturday, November 23, 2019. Future students and visitors had the opportunity to talk to the members of our laboratories, check the equipment, interact with Pepper, compete against Baxter in solving a Rubik’s cube, and try out navigating the autonomous surface platform H20mniX in an indoor pool! The visitors were also able to learn about the laboratories’ current projects, activities, and prospects of studying at FER.

The Faculty Council of FER awarded LARICS (Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems) with the Science Award for achieving internationally recognised results in the field of robotics in the past year. Head of Laboratory Prof. Zdenko Kovačić was honoured to receive this special award on behalf of LARICS.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the U.S. Embassy Zagreb organized the reception and a closed screening of the Apollo 11 Documentary Film at the Kaptol Boutique Cinema. Project leaders of grant projects funded by the Embassy Matko Orsag and Ivana Mikolic attended the event accompanied by the new addition to the project team Ana Golec. Deputy Chief of Mission Victoria Taylor hosted the reception and in the welcome address reminded us of two Croatian-Americans who were part of the Apollo 11 mission – Mike Vucelic and George Skurla.