Alexis Costas
|
From now on I am a Full Professor at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) at Trondheim, Norway. NTNU is a hub for robotics in Europe so please visit our lab webpage to see what we are up to! Before joining NTNU, I was an Associate Professor the University of Nevada, Reno and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, where I got tenured at the end of 5-th year of work. Prior to that I had been working as a Senior Researcher at the Autonomous Systems Lab (ASL) of ETH Zurich led by Prof. Roland Siegwart. I obtained my PhD on Unmanned Systems Control and Collaboration under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Tzes, at the Anemos Group of the University of Patras in Greece.
My research goal is to contribute towards establishing true navigational and operational autonomy for robotics and especially aerial sytems. I particularly focus on the fields of Control and Optimization, Path-Planning and autonomous navigation. Within my research endeavour I had the opportunity to see my efforts and contributions becoming a key component of several major research projets. I also truly enjoy the design and development of new robots and I have a personal preference on aerial systems with advanced dynamic properties. |
I was born in Crete in 1984, where I grew up until I moved to Patras to continue with my engineering studies. I believe in teamwork and collaboration, novelty, hard work and open sharing of ideas, multi-discipline research cooperation and the necessity to put our efforts into the service of the society.
I have worked and organized a variety of large-scale research projects, including (for a complete list of projects please check here):
- NRI: Collaborative Research: Multi-Modal Characterization of DOE-EM Facilities – this National Robotics Initiative project is funded by DOE and aims to provide new autonomous robotic systems to monitor, inspection and multi-modal (Rad/Chem/3D) map nuclear facilities. It is the product of the collaboration of our lab at UNR and the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.
- AEROWORKS project ( Collaborative Aerial Robotic Workers ), Horizon 2020 ICT programme, Organization of the proposal (accepted), Technical director, Responsible for ETH Zurich and leader of the Project Aerial Robotic Manipulation Control Work Packages and main role in path-panning for Inspection Operations.
- ICARUS, aiming to develop the technologies for multiple and highly heterogeneous (aerial, ground, marine) robots for search and rescue applications. The developments of our team also contribute to the goals of another European Project called SHERPA.
- AtlantikSolar, a project internally organized by ASL and funded via several investor channels and private-sector collaborators. AtlantikSolar aims to prove that small UAVs may have extreme endurance using solar-power and special design. Essentially, the developed UAV has the capability of continuous flight over several days and a relevant demo of crossing the Atlantic Ocean will be organized!
- AIRobots, which investigated the theoretical and technological tools necessary to accomplish the mission of aerial infrastructure inspection through vision and physical interaction. AIRobots sucessfully accomplished its goals by March 2013.
Get more information in the Projects page, or get an overview of my Research and Publications.
