Date: Friday, April 11, 2025

🕘 Time: 09:00 – ~17:30 CET

📍 Location: Inria Rennes (in person) & Online via Webex

Overview

We are delighted to announce an informal one-day workshop organized on the occasion of the visit to Inria Rennes by Prof. Moju Zhao and his team from the University of Tokyo. The event will focus on aerial manipulation research, showcasing recent results from Inria and international collaborators.

The workshop includes presentations from:

• Inria Rennes (including the ANR JCJC project FlyHandyBot)
  
  

• University of Tokyo (DRAGON Lab)
  
  

• LAAS-CNRS
  
  

• University of Grenoble Alpes
  
  

• University of Strasbourg
  
  

• University of Twente
  
  

This workshop is supported by the GdR TS3 thematic group “Heterogeneity and Complexity.”

Keynote Speaker

Prof. Moju Zhao (webpage)

Junior Associate Professor, University of Tokyo

Talk Title: Reconfigurable Aerial Robotics and its Extensive Applications

Abstract:

During the last decade, research on aerial robots has become significantly active. Among the developments of the platform, several mechanical designs have been proposed to offer reconfigurable capability for advanced maneuvering in midair. In this talk, Prof. Zhao will present the development of original articulated aerial robots, involving modular design methodologies, modelling and control, and motion planning. Several unique aerial applications such as snake-like maneuvering, aerial manipulation, and cross-domain transitions will also be introduced.

Bio:

Prof. Moju Zhao is currently a Lecturer (Junior Associate Professor) at The University of Tokyo. He received his Doctoral Degree from the Department of Mechano-Informatics, The University of Tokyo, in 2018. His research interests include mechanical design, modelling and control, motion planning, and vision-based recognition in aerial robotics. His main achievements are articulated aerial robots like DRAGON and SPIDAR, and he has received several awards, including the Best Paper Award at IEEE ICRA 2018.

Participation

📍 Attend in person:

Location: Inria Rennes – Campus de Beaulieu, Rennes, France

👉 Please request attendance by emailing: tommaso.belvedere@irisa.fr

💻 Attend remotely:

Join via Webex: Click here to join

Program

The workshop will begin at 9:00 and will include a mix of invited talks, keynote presentation, and interactive discussions.

9.00 - 9.20 Marco Tognon (Inria)

Introduction

9.20 - 9.27 Szymon Bielenin (Inria)

"Robust and Agile Transportation of Cable Suspended-Loads with Multi-Drone Systems"

9.27 - 9.34 Lluis Prior (Inria) 

    “Towards Tactile Servoing in Aerial Manipulators”

9.34 - 9.40 Valeria Braglia (Inria) 

    “Sensors-based Distributed Control of Multi-Drone Systems for Agile Cooperative Aerial Manipulation”

9.40 - 10.00     Lorenzo Balandi (Inria) 

“Aerial Robotics: dynamic control and practical challenges towards physical interaction”

10.00 - 10.20   Gianluca Corsini (CNRS)

"Telekyb3 - A research framework for aerial physical interaction and manipulation"

10.20 - 10.30   Julien Mellet (Inria)

"Transferring Omnidirectional Drone Technology to Industry for Maintenance and Inspection Applications"

10.30 - 11.00    Coffee Break

11.00 - 11.20   Tommaso Belvedere (CNRS-IRISA)

"Sensitivity-aware Tube MPC for Robust Quadrotor Control under Input Saturations

11.20 - 11.40   Jonas Soueidan (LAAS-CNRS) 

   “A nonlinear MPC for Physical Human-Aerial Robot Interaction in Collaborative Transportation Tasks”

11.40 - 12.00   Amr Afifi (University of Twente)

“Impact-Robust Whole Body Control with Applications to Aerial Manipulation”

12.00 - 12.30   Gianluca Corsini and Szymon Bielenin

Demos

12.30 - 14.00    Lunch Break

14.00 - 14.50   Moju Zhao (University of Tokyo)

"Reconfigurable Aerial Robotics and its Extensive Applications"

14.50 - 15.10   Junichiro Sugihara (University of Tokyo)

"Modular Robotics for Aerial Manipulation: Design, Control and Application"

15.10 - 15.30   Jinjie Li (University of Tokyo)

"Servo Integrated NMPC and Hand-Based Teleoperation for Overactuated Tiltable-Quadrotor"Servo Integrated NMPC and Hand-Based Teleo

15.30 - 15.50   Pierre Susbielle (CNRS, GIPSA-Lab) 

   “Pointillism Wall Painting Drone Using Bouncing Frequency Control”

Organizers

• Marco Tognon – Inria Rennes, marco.tognon@inria.fr 

• Tommaso Belvedere – CNRS-IRISA Rennes, tommaso.belvedere@irisa.fr
  
  

For any questions, feel free to reach out via email.

Impressions from the workshop