Research

My current primary research interests concern application of machine (deep) learning learning, computer vision, interferometry and data fusion to optical multispectral and SAR satellite imagery aiming for automated large-scale extraction of insights and patterns of life.

RESEARCH TOPICS (last 15 years): 

• Deep learning , computer vision and signal processing applied to multispectral optical nad SAR satellite imagery @ SpaceKnow, Inc.

• Sensory-motor interaction and data fusion in legged robots.(ICRA 2011, IEEE T-Robotics 2013, RAS 2014)

• Multimodal data fusion for robots in Urban Search & Rescue environment.(ICRA 2012, ICRA 2013, IEEE/ASME T-Mechatronics 2015, JFR 2015, Autonomous Robots 2015, RAS 2016, IEEE/ASME T-Mechatronics 2019)

• Autonomous safe exploration and adaptive traversability (ICRA 2014, ICRA 2015, IROS 2016, IEEE TIE 2017)

ORGANIZATION & MANAGEMENT:

• Co-founder of the Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems

• Co-chair of the initiative Robots underpinning future NATO operations, which was in 2011 promoted by NATO STO to Research Task Group SAS-097 and its activity ended in 2014:

What were the SAS-097 major accomplishments? SAS-097 helped to integrate several CZE universities to work collaboratively on robotics/autonomous systems and with the CZE industry. Due to SAS-097 the CAFR (Centre for Advanced Field Robotics) was established to cooperate both nationally and internationally with CMRE, TARDEC (Tank Automotive Research and Development Centre), and several NATO Centers of Excellence (CoE). In cooperation with NATO Modeling & Simulation CoE two international workshops MESAS'14 and MESAS'15 were held in Rome and Prague, respectively. Robotic prototypes were developed - one of them, the TAROS (Tactical Robotic System), was presented during several international events. Furthermore, SAS-097 consolidated links with the NATO ACT CD&E (Concept Development and Experimentation) program. The experiment of “Tactical Autonomous Reconnaissance” was incorporated into the ACT CD&E POW 2016 and approved to help test the NATO future concept associated with the development of operational (counter) autonomous weapon systems in the two next years period. SAS-097 also supported the MCDC 2013-14 (Multinational Capability Development Campaign) lead by USA and aimed at autonomous systems, and within a new campaign MCDC 2015-16 helps to elaborate CUAxS (Counter Unmanned Autonomous Systems) effort. SAS-097 was active not only in the field of technology, but also addressing the legal, human, ethical, and operational issues.

DATASETS:

• Indoor & Outdoor experiments performed as part of the NIFTi project, shared here as bagfiles for ROS: Vicon Room Experiments