Dimitris P. Tsakiris

Principal Researcher, Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory (CVRL), Institute of Computer Science (ICS), Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH)

Faculty Member, Graduate Program in the Brain and Mind Sciences; Visiting Professor, Department of Computer Science; University of Crete

Address: Institute of Computer Science - FORTH Vassilika Vouton, P.O. Box 1385 GR-71110 Heraklion, Crete, GREECE

Phone: +30 2810 39 17 08 FAX: +30 2810 39 16 01 E-mail: tsakiris at ics dot forth dot gr

Former Positions:

Faculty Research Assistant
Intelligent Servosystems Laboratory
Institute for Systems Research
University of Maryland at College Park

Education:

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park.

Doctoral Dissertation: Motion Control and Planning for Nonholonomic Kinematic Chains.

(Advisor: Prof. P.S. Krishnaprasad.)

M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park.

Master's Thesis: Visual Tracking Strategies.

(Advisors: Prof. P.S. Krishnaprasad and Prof. Yiannis Aloimonos.)

Eng.Dipl. in Electrical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens.

Research

Research Interests:

Biologically-inspired robotics

Pedundulatory Locomotion of Polychaete-like Robots


The polychaete annelid marine worms propel themselves in a variety of challenging locomotion environments by a unique form of tail-to-head body undulations, combined with the synchronized action of numerous parapodial lateral appendages.
We call pedundulatory locomotion this combined parapodial and undulatory mode of locomotion.
Robotic analogues of this type of locomotion are being studied, both in simulation, and via experiments with biomimetic robotic prototypes, which combine undulatory movements of their multi-link body with appropriately coordinated parapodial link oscillations.
Extensive experimental studies of locomotion on sand demonstrate the potential of the NEREIS pedundulatory robotic prototypes, especially their rich gait repertoire and their enhanced performance compared to robotic prototypes relying only on body undulations.


NEREIS robot (early version) on sand.


NEREIS robot on sand.


NEREIS pedundulatory robotic locomotor of ICS-FORTH on sand.
Experimental studies on gait generation with and without parapodia,
and on closed-loop vision-based reactive behavior generation
(biomimetic centering behavior).


A related paper from the 2007 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'07) (to appear).
More related papers appear in the Publications section below.

A related movie of the NEREIS robotic prototype locomoting on sand (MPEG, 4.72 Mb).

A related description in Greek: Ρομποτικό σύστημα κυματοειδούς μετακίνησης ΝΗΡΗΪΣ.

Sensor-based undulatory reactive behaviors:
Movie of an undulatory robotic prototype locomoting on hard floor,
while performing corridor centering based on IR sensors (MPEG, 28.4 Mb).

Videos of experiments with earlier undulatory robotic prototypes (no parapodia)

and of corresponding simulation results with the SIMUUN undulatory locomotion simulator
of ICS-FORTH.

Undulatory Locomotion of Nonholonomic G-Snakes


A G-Snake prototype, the Roller Racer .

For an MPEG movie of a G-Snake prototype (3.6 Mb) click here.

Insect-like Centering Behavior


Panoramic Vision-based Corridor-following for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots






Movie of a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot
moving at the center of a corridor-like environment using panoramic vision.


Vision-based Stabilization of Nonholonomic Mobile Robots




The ANIS mobile manipulator of INRIA used in our experiments.

Robotic Motion Planning and Control

Nonlinear Geometric Control

Geometric Mechanics

Image Understanding and Computational Vision (Active and Purposive)

Publications

Individual listing of publications in electronic form.

Grants and Projects

EU IST Project VECTOR

EU IST Project MATHESIS

EU IST-FET Project BIOLOCH

EU IST Project WebFAIR (Web Access to Commercial Fairs through Mobile Agents)

EU IST Project TOURBOT (Interactive Museum Telepresence through Robotic Avatars)

Greek Ministry for Development Project ODIGOS (DRIVER/GUIDE)

EU IST Research Network VIRGO (Vision-based Robot Navigation)

Greek Ministry for Development Research Network KTISIVIOS (Automation and Robotics)

Events

Invited talk at the Honda Research Institute Europe in Offenbach/Main, Germany.
Title: "Bio-inspired Motion Control: computational tools and robotic prototypes".
Host: Dr. Yaochu Jin, November 9, 2006.


Invited talk at the IRIDIA Institute of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
Title: "Motion Control for Undulatory Robotics".
Host: Prof. Marco Dorigo, October 20, 2005.

Invited talk at the Control and Dynamical Systems lecture series
of the Institute for Systems Research of the University of Maryland at College Park.
Title: "Bio-inspired Robotic Motion Control".
Host: Prof. P.S. Krishnaprasad, July 20, 2004.

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Teaching

ICS-FORTH/York U. Summer School
Biomimetic Robotics

Summer 2006:

M-Th 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. (Mediterranean Studies Rm., FORTH)

M-Th 2:30 - 5:30 p.m. (Computer lab, FORTH)

Advanced undergraduate course (CSE4421 3.0)
of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering
of York University in Toronto, Canada.

HY590.75 Biomimetic Robotics

Spring 2007

Fall 2005: Tu-Th 3-5 p.m., Rm. B211 (White Building, Knossos Campus)

Fall 2004

Graduate course of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete.
Open to students of the Department of Applied Mathematics and
of the Interdepartmental Graduate Programme in the BRAIN and MIND sciences.

This course will consider the mechanical behavior and the motion control
of complex robotic systems inspired from biology.
Some examples of such systems are:
- robotic systems emulating the reptile undulatory locomotion,
- active perception systems inspired by the human oculomotor system and
- robotic systems inspired by the visual motion-based insect flight control system.
The course will draw on studies from computational neuroethology
and the computational neurosciences, in order to address biomimetic robot control
and the modeling of biological motion control systems.
More precisely, it will address topics related to:
- the kinematics and dynamics of robotic systems,
- the control of robotic systems, with emphasis on linear and non-linear control,
on sensor-based control, and on behavior-based control,
- the neural mechanisms for control of motion,
such as the central pattern generator neural networks
responsible for rhythmogenesis in biological systems.

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Last update: September 10, 2006.