Thanks for visiting the Intelligent Robotics and System Optimization Laboratory (IRoSOL) at Michigan Technological University. Our research focuses on real-time actions for coordinating multiple heterogeneous robotic systems in various applications, such as surveillance, monitoring, search and rescue, power generation, transportation, and manufacturing. Our goal is to advance operational strategies for multiple heterogeneous autonomous vehicle systems with effective global coordination of the vehicles and local control of each vehicle.
Highlighted News from IRoSOL
Our lab members, Kaushik Kannan and Jungyun Bae, have published our recent research, "MTU-LLM: LLM-based Multi-Robot Task Allocation and Path Planning for Heterogeneous Robots in Search and Rescue Operations," in the peer-reviewed journal AI, Computer Science and Robotics Technology.
Dr. Bae presented research talks at the Workshop on Smart Robots for Sustainable and Resilient Future of Agriculture and the Workshop on Cloud and Fog Robotics for Adaptive and Scalable Robot Applications at UR2025 held in College Station, TX.
Our MDARD project was featured in MTU Magazine 2025. You can read the story here!
Our project has been introduced in UPword, a local magazine. Here is the link to the story.
Our lab members, Abhishek Patil, Myoungkuk Park, and Jungyun Bae's recent research on coordinating multiple tethered underwater robots has been published in Intelligent Service Robotics with the title "A heuristic for task allocation and path planning of multiple tethered underwater robots considering workload balance." Here is the SharedIt link for the paper if you are interested in reading it.
Our lab member Hyeseon presented our research on vehicle routing with heterogeneous robotic fleets at the INFORMS annual meeting 2024 in the vehicle routing and last-mile delivery session in Seattle, WA, on 10/20/2024. This was the first conference presentation of the outcome of our MDARD project.
Dr. Jungyun Bae received the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems Achievement Award during the MTU Computing showcase 2024, Showcase C+X. The award is for significant research impacts in improving climate resilience using modular robotic fleets and for serving as an inspiration and role model to young women pursuing STEM careers. The new link is here!
Our lab members, John J. Langan and Jungyun Bae, published a paper on sensing harmful algal blooms in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. The title is " Advancements in the Programmable Hyperspectral Seawater Scanner Measurement Technology for Enhanced Detection of Harmful Algal Blooms." You can find the paper here!
UpNorthLive News interviewed Dr. Jungyun Bae about our project sponsored by the MDARD. You can watch the news here!
IRoSOL got a Farm Innovation Grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development with the project "Improving climate resiliency and economic return of Michigan's labor-intensive produce using low-cost, modular robotic fleets." The announcement is here!
Our lab member, Abhishek Patil, has been awarded a finishing fellowship and a Dean's award for an outstanding scholarship. Congratulations, Abhishek! Fellowship recipient interview Outstanding scholarship announcement
Our lab member, Zongguang Liu, has been awarded a Dean's Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching for teaching the MEEM4705/5705 Robotics and Mechatronics lab sessions, designed and taught by Dr. Myoungkuk Park. Congratulations, Z! announcement
Dr. Bae had an invited presentation for our recent research results, "Solving a Multiple Tethered Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (T-AUV) Routing Problem Toward Entanglement-Free Navigation," at INFORMS2023 in Phoenix, AZ, on 10/17/2023. Abhishek also presented his new work at the same conference, "Coordinating Tethered Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (T-AUVs) towards Entanglement-Free Navigation," on 10/16/2023.
Our lab member, Zongguang Liu, presented our recent research on entanglement-free navigation for a tethered AUV and got 3rd place in The Showcase [AI] on 10/6/2023. Congratulations to Z! link
Our lab member Abhishek Patil presented our recent research work, "Coordinating Tethered Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (T-AUVs) towards Entanglement-Free Navigation," at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023) within the Planning for Distributed and Multi-robot Systems II session, followed by a poster presentation in Detroit, MI, on 10/3/2023.
Dr. Bae presented our recent research results, "Scheduling Multiple Tethered Underwater Robots (TURs) to Avoid Entanglement of Tethers," at Ubiquitous Robots (UR2023) in Honolulu, HI, on 6/26/2023.
Dr. Bae presented our recent research results, "A Heuristic for Multiple Heterogeneous Mobile Robots Task Assignment under Various Loading Conditions considering Workload Balance," at the 23rd Annual IEEE International Conference on Electro Information Technology (EIT2023) at Lewis University, Romeoville, IL, on 5/19/2023. The authors are Zongguang Liu, Myoungkuk Park, and Jungyun Bae. The paper can be found here.
Our lab members Abhishek Patil, Myoungkuk Park, and Jungyun Bae wrote the paper "Coordinating Tethered Autonomous Underwater Vehicles towards Entanglement-Free Navigation," which was published at MDPI Robotics in the special issue Collection in Honor of Women's Contribution in Robotics. You can find the details here.
The paper "Neuroevolution Application to Collaborative and Heuristics-Based Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Cohort Simulation at Uncontrolled Intersection," which Dr. Bae has co-authored, is published at MDPI Eng. The research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) award number DE-EE0009209, led by Dr. Robinette. Dr. Bae is the co-PI on this project. You can find the details here.
Dr. Bae had an interview with Korea Foundation for Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology. The interview series “she did it” introduces Korean women scientists and engineers in various fields. She participated in the series as a Korean female roboticist to introduce robotics to the young generation. The articles in the series can be found here1 and here2.
Our group's graduate student, Hyeseon, received the Dean's Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award by teaching the lab sessions for MEEM4707 Autonomous Systems. She was devoted to the course to teach them technical aspects of autonomous navigation and help out the students who were in need. Congratulations, Hyeseon! You may refer to the page.
Our group's undergraduate student Niccolo won second place in the Computing[mtu] Showcase! He started to work in our lab in Fall22 and did a great job within a short period with help from our Ph.D. student Abhishek. The title is "Performance Measurement of Trajectory Tracking Controllers for Wheeled Mobile Robots." More details can be found here.
Dr. Bae presented research work on coordinating multiple heterogeneous AVs during the INFORMS annual meeting in Indianapolis, IN, on 10/16/2022. The presentation title is "A Heuristic For A Multiple Depot Heterogeneous Autonomous Vehicle Routing Problem Considering Workload Balance." In addition, she served as the session chair for the "OPT/Integer and Discrete Optimization Flash Session."
The paper "Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Cohort Speed Control Optimization via Neuroevolution," which Dr. Bae has co-authored, is published at IEEE Access. The research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) award number DE-EE0009209, led by Dr. Robinette. Dr. Bae is the co-PI on this project. You can find the details here.
The paper "Real Time Predictive and Adaptive Hybrid Powertrain Control Development via Neuroevolution," which Dr. Bae has co-authored, is published at MDPI Vehicles under the special issue " Feature Papers in Vehicles." The research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) award number DE-EE0009209, led by Dr. Robinette. Dr. Bae is the co-PI on this project. You can find the details here.
Our Laboratory
Multiple Foot print robots for pre-testing
The lab is equipped with eight motion capture cameras from OptiTrack to track the location of the robots