Colloquium "Combining Aerial Robotics and Mechatronics"

Abstract:

One of the aims within the ACROSS project is bringing together researchers from different areas of research. In this colloquium, we will present a possible collaboration between two SRDs (Strategic Research Domains), namely, SRD2 (MELAB) and SRD4 (LARICS). In this joint effort we will bring together the knowledge from optimal control, reinforcement learning and modeling and control of complex mechatronic systems. More specifically, we will present how the research from the area of aerial manipulation using small scale UAVs, conducted by Ivana Palunko, can be combined with the research in the area of modeling and control of gantry cranes conducted by Šandor Ileš.

CV:

Ivana Palunko is a postdoctoral researcher in the Research Centre for Advanced Cooperative Systems (ACROSS) at the Department of Control and Computer Engineering, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). She graduated from FER with a Masters degree (Dipl.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering in 2007., majoring in Control Systems. In August 2008, she enrolled in the Ph.D program, the Control Systems major, at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, NM. Her research is mainly oriented in the field of modeling and control of unmanned aerial vehicles. The tools utilized in her research are: modeling of nonlinear systems, nonlinear control, Lyapunov stability, adaptive control, bifurcation theory, optimal control, reinforcement learning, optimization theory. These tools are applied to problems in the area of load transportation using aerial robots. She defended her Ph.D dissertation in August 2012

Šandor Ileš (Osijek, 1985) is research assistant at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb. He received his master degree (dipl. ing.) in Electrical Engineering, majoring in Control, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) in 2009. Currently he is enrolled in the PhD study at the same faculty and he is member of the MELAB group at the Department of Electrical Machines, Drives and Automation at FER.