Within NATO SfP project MORUS and EU project AeRoTwin, Lovro Marković and Marko Car attended the European Control Conference from 25th to 28th of June, 2019 in Naples, Italy . At the conference Lovro presented their paper titled Geometric Tracking Control of Aerial Robots Based on Centroid Vectoring . Their paper focuses on presenting the concept of geometric tracking control for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on variations in centerof gravity (CoG). The proposed UAV model has the ability to exploit its dynamic CoG as a means of stabilization and control. A mathematical model of such a system is used as a base for developing the nonlinear geometric tracking controller on the special Euclidean group SE(3). Finally, two unique UAV models, presented with a trajectory tracking problem, are simulated in a realistic simulation environment. Performance of the selected control terms is analyzed based on relevant simulation results.

The paper titled Centroid vectoring control using aerial manipulator: Experimental results was presented by Antun Ivanović at the international conference IEEE International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems within projects Specularia and AeRoTwin. The conference was held 11-14 June 2019 in Atlanta, USA . This paper addresses the issues of aerial manipulation and its dynamic center of mass variations by deriving a control principle capable of exploiting this disturbance as a means to stabilize the UAV. The UAV utilizes both rotors variations and centroid vectoring for attitude control and the control structure was further augmented with position control. The main focus is on experimental validation of the system.

The first edition of the two-day end-user aerial vehicles workshop DroneDays , held at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, Croatia, on 26 and 27 March 2019 , was a great success and exceeded all expectations. Over 200 participants listened to 17 lectures by aerial robotics experts from 7 countries, there were 9 demonstrations in the flying zone, and some 2000 visitors came to the company expo to learn about aerial vehicles and their applications. DroneDays was organized by AeRoTwin partner UNIZG-FER and LARICS as part of the EU H2020 project AeRoTwin. Read more about the exciting event in the detailed news.

AeRoTwin team member LARICS ' project manager Ivana Mikolić went on 29th March 2019 to the LEAP Summit in Zagreb , Croatia, where she held a lecture at the EU & ME Stage titled " Increasing robotics research excellence with the EU ". Ivana talked about her experiences in managing EU and Croatian projects, why they are important and how they can be used to advance our scientific and technological potential. Ivana also gave some recent examples of LARICS projects, such as AeRoTwin and DroneDays , to show how EU funding can successfully be applied in the context of robotics in Croatia and the EU.

Members of the AeRoTwin project team went to Bucharest, Romania, from 19 to 24 March, to take part in the European Robotics Forum 2019 . There they attended lectures and workshops, presented their work and some of the robots they work on, and brought their work closer to the public and the robotics community. Project team members who went to ERF2019 representing their institutions and AeRoTwin are the following: Mirko Kovac (Imperial College London), Anibal Ollero (University of Seville), Zdenko Kovačić, Matko Orsag, Ivana Mikolić, Antun Ivanović, Barbara Arbanas and Bruno Marić (UNIZG-FER LARICS). The event's programme can be found here .

Professor Stjepan Bogdan of LARICS went to Abu Dhabi to take part in the 2019 International Symposium on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence on March 10 and 11, where he held a lecture in the Aerial and Underwater Systems session. The lecture was titled "Aerial Robotics – manipulation and interaction with the environment" , dealing with the topic of present results in aerial robotics done in LARICS, particularly when it comes to the problem of controlling the force of interaction between an aerial vehicle equipped with a dexterous manipulator and the environment. You can find more info on the event, as well as a book of abstracts, by following this link .

LARICS team member asst. prof. Matko Orsag appeared on 7th March 2019 as a guest speaker for the Croatian National Television's show Dobar Dan, Hrvatska ("Good Day, Croatia") to talk about technological advancements in robotics, particularly aerial robotics , and to introduce the public to the upcoming two-day end-user workshop on aerial robotics, DroneDays , which is organized by the laboratory as part of the project AeRoTwin. The show also featured a segment on the laboratory and what LARICS members do for this field of technology. Prof. Pero Škorput from the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, who will appear at DroneDays as an invited lecturer, was also a guest in the show to talk about the future of traffic and transport. The whole show can be seen via the HRTi service (in Croatian; registration is necessary).

LARICS team members took part in the European Robotics League Emergency Local Tournament on 18-23 February in Seville, Spain, where they achieved great results - they won first place overall, as well as best ground team. During the five days of the competition, they worked on developing their ground and aerial robots, making them work together autonomously in various environments, and they also took part in the 1st AeRoTwin Training and 1st AeRoTwin Short Term Visit with project partners from the University of Seville and Technological Corporation of Andalusia . You can find a gallery from the tournament here .