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SUMMARY:Embracing the positive side of constraints: how we grasped novel s
 cientific opportunities in aerial robotics
DTSTART:20250707T150000
DTEND:20250707T160000
DTSTAMP:20260315T154421Z
UID:ba61c365dad75fc2fb769a7328381e436f9a6d476d2f5b8e1b627a09
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Antonio Franchi\nIn this brief talk\, I will present an 
 integrated overview of intriguing scientific findings on the control of ae
 rial robotic systems developed by our team in recent years. The common the
 me will be the presence of unilateral constraints on some variables of the
  problem\, such as forces or velocities appearing the dynamical system. \
 nAmong other things\, I will demonstrate:\n1) How unilateral constraints o
 n the input of multirotor systems lead to surprising yet explainable resul
 ts\, such as the lack of robustness to rotor failure in a standard hexarot
 or\;\n2) How interesting analogies emerge between aerial robotics and the 
 grasping problem\, including the requirements for designing and controllin
 g omnidirectional multirotors\;\n3) How static pose control of a cable-sus
 pended load can be achieved even by multiple non-stop forward-flying carri
 ers\, under some non-trivial conditions.\nThe solutions to these problems 
 are deeply rooted in concepts that are staples of traditional robotics res
 earch\, such as kinematic redundancy resolution and the self-motions of ma
 nipulators\, the grasp matrix of robotic hands\, and the motion planning o
 f Dubins paths\, just to mention some of them. These supposedly “old” 
 concepts are given new light\, dimension\, meaning\, and perspective throu
 gh their application in a completely different domain than their original 
 context.\nI will also use this overview as a springboard to share my persp
 ective on the future of scientific research in aerial robotics\, including
  its pitfalls and opportunities.\n\nShort bio\nAntonio Franchi holds a joi
 nt appointment as Full Professor in Aerial Robotics Control at the Univers
 ity of Twente (EEMCS Faculty\, RAM department)\, Enschede\, The Netherland
 s\, and Full Professor at the Sapienza University of Rome (DIAG department
 )\, Rome\, Italy. He is an IEEE Fellow.\n\nIn the past he has been a Perma
 nent Researcher at CNRS and a Senior Research Scientist at the Max Planck 
 Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. He received the master de
 gree (summa cum laude) in Electronic Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in S
 ystem Engineering from Sapienza University of Rome\, Italy. He received th
 e French HDR degree (Accreditation to Supervise Research) from the Nationa
 l Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse. He has been a visiting student at the
  University of California at Santa Barbara.\n\nHis main research interests
  lie in the robotics area\, with a special regard to control and estimatio
 n problems and applications ranging across motion and physical interaction
  control\, decentralized control/estimation/coordination\, haptics\, and h
 ardware/software architectures. His main areas of expertise are aerial rob
 otics and multiple-robot systems.\n\nHe published approximately 200 papers
  in international journals\, books\, and conferences and gave more than 10
 0 invited talks in international venues. His works and activities received
  several international awards such as the IEEE 2024 ICUAS best paper award
 \, the Best Robotics PhD Thesis advised in France in 2019\, the 2018 IEEE 
 RAS Most Active Technical Committee Award\, the 2010 IEEE RAS ICYA Best Pa
 per Award\, among others.\n\nHe has been Senior Editor of the Internationa
 l Journal of Robotics Research\, Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions
  on Robotics and Senior Editor for IEEE ICRA\, associate editor of the IEE
 E Robotics & Automation Magazine\, IEEE ICRA\, IEEE/RSJ IROS and the IEEE 
 Aerospace and Electric Systems Magazine.  He is the co-founder and emerit
 us co-chair of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Multiple Robot Systems\
 , http://multirobotsystems.org/.\n\nHe has been PI in several projects foc
 used on aerial robots and multi-robots\, such as\, e.g.\, EU Horizon AutoA
 ssess\, EU H2020 Aerial-CORE\, the EU H2020 AEROARMS\, ANR PRC ‘The Flyi
 ng Co-worker’\, and JCJC ANR MuRoPhen.\n\n 
LOCATION:BC 420 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BC%20420
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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