Research interests, publications
My research interests are sensor fusion and state estimation for dead reckoning, localization and navigation of unmanned ground vehicles in harsh indoor and outdoor environments.
Thanks to EU-funded projects NIFTi and TRADR, I had a chance to work on hardware and software which was consulted and tested by fire brigades of Italy, Netherlands and Germany. We have learned what possible sensor failures to expect and how to keep providing position and pose estimates in that situation.
The Northern Robotics Laboratory (NORLAB) pushes robotic research further to north towards the harsh conditions of Canadian winter. The robots have cross deep snow, blizzards change shape of terrain and reduce visibility.
The problems for localization, mapping and navigation are - in some sense - similar to those met during search and rescue missions. Sensors may be blinded by snow (~smoke), the deep snow (~unstable debris) is difficult to traverse, parts of the environment can change during the deployment of the robotic system. Let's see what can be done about it :)
List of publications
Journal papers:
Adolfsson D.; Karlsson M.; Kubelka V.; Magnusson M.; Andreasson H.; "TBV Radar SLAM – Trust but Verify Loop Candidates", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2023
Kubelka, V.; Dandurand, P.; Babin, P.; Giguère, P.; Pomerleau, F.; "Radio propagation models for differential GNSS based on dense point clouds", Journal of Field Robotics, 2020
Kubelka, V.; Reinstein, M.; Svoboda, T.; , "Tracked Robot Odometry for Obstacle Traversal in Sensory Deprived Environment", IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 2019
Kubelka, V.; Reinstein, M.; Svoboda, T.; , "Improving multimodal data fusion for mobile robots by trajectory smoothing", Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2016
Simanek, J.; Kubelka, V.; Reinstein, M.; , "Improving multi-modal data fusion by anomaly detection", Autonomous Robots, 2015
Kubelka, V.; Oswald L.; Pomerleau, F.; Colas F.; Svoboda T. and Reinstein, M., "Robust data fusion of multimodal sensory information for mobile robots," Journal of Field Robotics, 2015
Simanek, J.; Reinstein, M.; Kubelka, V., "Evaluation of the EKF-Based Estimation Architectures for Data Fusion in Mobile Robots," Mechatronics, IEEE/ASME Transactions on, 2015
Conference articles:
Kubelka V.; Fritz E.; Magnusson M.; "Do we need scan-matching in radar odometry?", accepted for ICRA 2024
Andres Galeote-Luque A.; Kubelka V.; Magnusson M.; Ruiz-Sarmiento J-R.; Gonzalez-Jimenez J.; "Doppler-only Single-scan 3D Vehicle Odometry", accepted for ICRA 2024
Vaidis M.; Dubois W.; Guénette A.; Laconte J.; Kubelka V.; Pomerleau F.; "Extrinsic calibration for highly accurate trajectories reconstruction", ICRA 2023
Kubelka, V.; Vaidis, M.; Pomerleau, F.; "Gravity-constrained point cloud registration", IROS 2022
Deschênes, S.-P.;Baril, D.; Kubelka, V.; Giguère, P.; Pomerleau, F.; "Lidar Scan Registration Robust to Extreme Motions", 18th Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, 2021
Vaidis, M.; Giguère, P.; Pomerleau, F.; Kubelka, V.; "Accurate outdoor ground truth based on total stations", 18th Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, 2021
D. Baril et al.; "Evaluation of Skid-Steering Kinematic Models for Subarctic Environments", 17th Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, 2020
Dandurand, P.; Babin, P.; Kubelka, V.; Giguère, P.; Pomerleau, F.; "Predicting GNSS satellite visibility from dense point clouds", 12th Conference on Field and Service Robotics, Tokyo, 2019
Babin, P.; Dandurand, P.; Kubelka, V.; Giguère, P.; Pomerleau, F.; "Large-scale 3D Mapping of Subarctic Forests", 12th Conference on Field and Service Robotics, Tokyo, 2019
Jirků, M.; Kubelka, V.; Reinstein, M.; "WiFi localization in 3D," International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, 2016
Šalanský et al., "Touching without vision: terrain perception in sensory deprived environments", Proceedings of the 21st Computer Vision Winter Workshop, Slovenian Pattern Recognition Society, 2016
Kubelka, V.; Reinstein, M., "Combining Complementary Motion Estimation Approaches to Increase Reliability in Urban Search & Rescue Missions," Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems, Springer International Publishing, 2014, 1, 347-356
Reinstein, M.; Kubelka, V.; Zimmermann, K., "Terrain adaptive odometry for mobile skid-steer robots," Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013 IEEE International Conference on , vol., no., pp.4706,4711, 6-10 May 2013
Kubelka, V.; Reinstein, M., "Complementary filtering approach to orientation estimation using inertial sensors only," Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2012 IEEE International Conference on , vol., no., pp.599,605, 14-18 May 2012
Field reports:
Baril, D. et al.; "Kilometer-scale autonomous navigation in subarctic forests: challenges and lessons learned", Field Robotics, 2022
T. Rouček et al., "System for multi-robotic exploration of underground environments CTU-CRAS-NORLAB in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge", Accepted to Field Robotics, 2021
T. Rouček et al., "Darpa subterranean challenge: Multi-robotic exploration of underground environments", International Conference on Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems, 2019
I. Kruijff-Korbayová et al., "Deployment of ground and aerial robots in earthquake-struck Amatrice in Italy (brief report)," IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR), Lausanne, Switzerland, 2016