Project partners finally gathered for the 2nd edition of DroneDays 2021 that took place in Biograd na Moru, Croatia . The aerial robotics workshop was held on the 4th and 5th of October, organized by LARICS team . Each partner participated by giving lectures and presenting their work through tutorials and hands-on implementing project activities. Expert lectures were given by: Prof. Mirko Kovac (ICL) on Multi-modal Aerial Robotics for Environmental Sensing and Construction Prof. José Ramiro Martines de Dios (USE)  on Heterogenous Aerial Robot Cooperation for Inspection and Maintenance Tutorials and hands-on were given by: Silvia de los Santos (CTA) on Technology Transfer Actions and Key aspects for the creation of a successful spin-off André Farinha, Constança Rosas and Mirko Kovac (ICL) on The intricacies of looking underwater with a drone – A dual agent system for aerial and underwater operations Ashutosh Choubey (ICL) on   Commercialisation of university based R&D projects Julio L. Paneque and  Raúl Tapia (USE) on Heterogeneous Robot Cooperation The event was successful with 90 registered participants, 16 lectures, 6 demonstration flights, and 200 visitors of the exhibition area where 7 companies presented their products and services.  Photos of the event are available in the gallery of the DroneDays official website .

LARICS members Robert Milijas and Jurica Goricanec attended ICUAS 2021 that took place in Athens, Greece from 15 until 18 June, 2021. Robert presented the paper A Comparison of LiDAR-Based SLAM Systems for Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Jurica Civil infrastructure data acquisition in urban environments based on multi-UAV mission . Both papers were results of research and activities done within LARICS projects ENCORE, ASAP and AEROTWIN.                

LARICS members actively participated in this year's edition of  ICRA -  International Conference on Robotics and Automation  but only virtually. The conference was held  May 30 - June 5, 2021  at the brand new magnificent Xi’an International Convention and Exhibition Center in Xi’an China.  Ana Batinovic  presented the paper "A Multi-Resolution Frontier-Based Planner for Autonomous 3D" (A. Batinović, T. Petrović, A. Ivanovic, F. Petric, S. Bogdan). Marsela Polic  presented the paper "Compliant Plant Exploration for Agricultural Procedures With a Collaborative Robot" (M. Polic, M. Car, F. Petric, M. Orsag).  Antun Ivanovic  virtually attended the  Aerial Robotics Workshop  (paper title: "Precision Airdrop Challenges with Multirotor UAVs", A. Ivanovic, M. Orsag) together with Bruno Maric and Marsela Polic. Lovro Markovic  presented the paper "Adaptive Stiffness Estimation Impedance Control for Achieving Sustained Contact in Aerial Manipulation" (L. Markovic, M. Car, M. Orsag, S. Bogdan). Ivo Vatavuk  presented the paper "Precise Jump Planning Using Centroidal Dynamics Based Bilevel Optimization" (I. Vatavuk, Z. Kovacic). Stjepan Bogdan participated as a speaker at the Workshop on Aerial Robotics with the paper "The flying Cartographer: Using a graph SLAM method for a long-term UAV navigation"  

LARICS members paricipated in the first edition of Dronijada that took place on June 5 , 2021 in Varaždin. The event was organized by  LERAMIS ,  Aeroklub Varaždin  and  Croatian International Airshow Varazdin , and featured FPV races, commmercial drone fly zone, and exhibiton. LARICS memebrs took this opportunity to promote project AeRoTwin, and the upcoming DroneDays 2021, as well as the other activities of the lab and their equipment.  

At the event "Robotics and AI in Society: Impacts and Questions Raised", organized jointly by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and the Embassy of Portugal in Croatia , on May 20, 2021 , an interesting exchange of expert opinions and quality discussion between scientists and members of the academic and diplomatic community. The gathering was welcomed by H. E. Ambassador of Portugal Paula Leal da Silva, and Dean of FER, Prof. Gordan Gledec. The program was led by an experienced researcher Fausto Ferreira, from the Department of Automation and Computer Engineering. Presentations by Prof. Pedra Lime, from the Superior Técnico Institute of the University of Lisbon and Tomislav Bracanović from the Zagreb Institute of Philosophy, were followed by the round table on the implications of introducing artificial intelligence in our daily lives, with special emphasis on its impact on our jobs. The round table was moderated by the Vice Dean for Research, Prof. Nikola Mišković, and attended by Prof. Stjepan Bogdan , Prof. Lime and Tomislav Bracanović. Recording of the event is available on FER’s YouTube channel .  

To kickoff the Conference on the Future of Europe, the Office of European Parliament in Croatia and the Croatian Parliament have organized a thematic event called  "The Conference on the Future of Europe: Vision of Croatia" . The emphasis of the event was placed on digital and green technologies, promoting successful stories and discussing a more equitable economy and education.  UNIZG FER's Center for Artificial Intelligence , represented by professor Loncaric, was invited to showcase its efforts to digitally transform the Croatian society. Professor Loncaric was accompanied by  LARICS team (professor Kovacic, Frano Petric and Ivan Hrabar) and our robot Pepper  that became the first robotic member of the Croatian Parliament by interrupting the talk of Gordan Jandrokovic, the Speaker of the Parliament ( Pepper, MP  ). Pepper also had a more amicable interation with professor Loncaric, who used the opportunity to invite companies from Croatia to contact the Center for Artificial Intelligence to discuss the transfer of technologies being developed at the Faculty. The event generated a lot of interest in the media (PRESS section), so the invitation of professor Loncaric will hopefully spark some future collaborations with the industry. 

This year's edition od Aerospace and Defense Meetings (A&DM) event is featuring a workshop , organized and held by AeRoTwin project partners, prof. Stjepan Bogdan, prof. Mario KOvač, prof. Anibal Ollero, and Silvia de los Santos . Covering different otpics, the partners are giving their respective talks on May 27, 2021, on the second day of the event. More details available  here . "Matchmaking Program for the Aerospace and Defense Industries" The 2021 edition of A&DM turns into a fully-digital event. The event will be held on 26th and 27th of May 2021 and gather the aerospace international community through pre-planned online B2B meetings, live conferences & replay videos and a virtual exhibition. EDIT: The workshop was successfully finalized, with project partners giving following presentations: Prof. Sjepan Bogdan (UNIZG FER): Autonomus Inspection of Wind Turbine Blades Prof. Mirko Kovac (ICL): Physical Artificial INtelligence for Infrastructure Drones Prof. Anibal Ollero (USE): Aerial Robots for Inspection and Logistics   Press release: ADM Sevilla 2021

The 1st AIRPHARO workshop on Aerial Robotic Systems Physically Interacting with the Environment  will be held  October 4-5, 2021  at Ilirija Resort, Biograd na Moru, Croatia . Since this two-day event is taking place in Croatia, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society is organizing the workshop together with LARICS. AIRPHARO workshop is the successor of the workshops on  Research, Education and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (RED-UAS) . The workshop will focus on a high growth area of both research and industry, the use of aerial robots for physical interaction with people and the environment. For more details, please visit  AIRPHARO 2021 .