28/05/25 - ICRA 2025 -

I had a great time attending ICRA 2025 in Atlanta.

This year, I had the pleasure of presenting our latest research: "Inverse Kinematics on Guiding Vector Fields for Robot Path Following". It was a great opportunity to share our research and receive feedback from the robotics community.

Beyond the technical sessions (and outside them ^_^), I had the opportunity to reconnect with familiar faces — colleagues and friends from past conferences and summer schools — and to meet many brilliant new researchers working in the field.

Looking forward to the next one!

15/03/25 - Strong crosswinds? No problem -

Strong crosswinds? No problem. Watch as our fully autonomous fixed-wing drone navigates through strong crosswinds with remarkable stability and control. Thanks to our custom guidance system, the aircraft performs controlled lateral drift, maintaining its desired trajectory even when pushed sideways by wind.

This demonstration highlights a key capability for robust, real-world drone autonomy, especially in unpredictable weather conditions.

28/01/25 - The Inverse Kinematics (IK) GVF -

I'll be presenting at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA) our latest research work: Yu Zhou, Jesús Bautista Villar, Weijia Yao, Hector Garcia de Marina, "Inverse Kinematics on Guiding Vector Fields for Robot Path Following".

The novel IK-GVF framework presented in this paper provides full control over transient motion during path following and enables the induction of a desired behavior. In the simulation below, we demonstrate how it induces an oscillatory motion around the desired path.

📄 Link to the paper
🎥 Quick explanatory video and experiments

24/12/24 - CDC 2024 -

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the CDC 2024 in Milano, where I presented our work, "Resilient Source Seeking with Robot Swarms". 

It was my first time at CDC, and I was thrilled to engage with experts and peers whose research closely aligns with mine. The conference provided a fantastic platform for discussions, exchanging ideas, and exploring new perspectives. I left feeling inspired and more connected to the control community.

A big thank you to everyone who stopped by my presentation and shared their thoughts. Your insights and feedback mean so much!

📄 Link to the paper

15/08/24 - Flying over a weather station on a lake -

Today, we flew over a calibrated weather station on a nearby lake to take scientific data. This experiment will assist a team of physicists at the University of Granada to estimate the local wind using fixed-wing drones at different altitudes.

In addition, we have the pleasure of hosting Yu Zhuo! He is a Ph.D. student from INRIA in Lille, France, who assisted Héctor García de Marina and me during the operation. Yu, under the supervision of Professors Andrey Polyakov and Gang Zheng, is researching Guiding Vector Fields for autonomous vehicles. During his visit, we plan to integrate some of his work into the guidance of our UAVs.

02/08/24 - MRS Summer School 2024 -

I recently attended the MRS Summer School 2024, where I had the incredible opportunity to meet numerous PhD students and professionals in the field of Multi-Robot Systems. Additionally, I had the privilege of attending several talks by some of the most renowned researchers in field.

This enriching experience has greatly contributed to my professional development, and I highly recommend this summer school to anyone in the field. I would definitely attend again!  

19/06/24 - CITIC Coffee 2024 -

Today was the annual CITIC Coffee event, where the entire researcher community of CITIC UGR gathered to present their work and engage in discussions regarding their last scientific advancements and potential collaborations. This year, our presentation focused on the work we showcased at ICRA 2024, titled "Behavioral-based circular formation control for robot swarms."

15/05/24 - Presenting my work at ICRA 2024 -

Today, I had the opportunity to present our latest work "Behavioral-based circular formation control for robot swarms" at ICRA 2024 during the "Multi-Robot Systems V" session.

20/03/24 - Another cool day with the rovers -

Today we were back at the airfield, but this time to test our new "Behavioral-based circular formation control for robot swarms" with our fleet of M0mOmoNster trucks. The first steps to get this algorithm on the air.

23/02/24 - My first ICRA ^_^ -

I am excited to share that our paper "Behavioral-based circular formation control for robot swarms" has been accepted at ICRA 2024!! 🍣

In this paper, we explore how a swarm of robots can orbit a convex path without collisions while maintaining constant but different speeds. Inspired by tornado schooling fish, our decentralized control strategy leverages a scalable overtaking rule, a guiding vector field, and an adaptive control barrier function to ensure smooth and safe motion.

📄 Link to the paper
🎥 Experiments with a fleet of rovers

17/12/23 - We are on the TV!! -

The regional TV channel Canal Sur joined us during a flight day to record a science documentary about our current research in the field of imperfect robot swarms. They asked us a bundle of interesting questions, enabling us to provide didactic information to the general public about this fascinating field of robotics.

Huge thanks to the team at ConCiencia. Working with these highly skilled professionals has truly been a pleasure.

The science documentary is available online, only in Spanish :(

09/11/23 - My first steps in geometric control -

I am currently delving into 3D heading controllers in SO(3). My final objective is to formally prove that our resilient source-seeking algorithm for robot swarms is effective when the dynamics of the individuals exist in a 3D space. 

Check out this simulation!!

12/10/23 - Jin Chen joins us in a flight day -

Such a cool flight day!! The Ph.D. Student Jin Chen comes to visit us from the University of Groningen. We not only exchanged ideas about formation control but also paid a visit to the flying club and showed him how our control algorithms work in the air. 

Oh... And we also filmed a cool video. Check it out!!

26/05/23 - My first scientific poster presentation!! -

We presented our last work "Resilient source seeking with robot swarms" at CITIC Coffee 2023. This event was thoughtfully organized by the Research Centre for Information and Communication Technologies (CITIC) at the University of Granada (UGR). Furthermore, it offered a valuable platform for us to engage with fellow researchers, exchange ideas, and foster collaborations within the academic community of CITIC-UGR.