LABUST' PhD students Anja Babić, Nadir Kapetanović and Igor Kvasić attended IEEE-OES and MTS OCEANS 2019 Marseille Conference & Exhibit held from 17th until 20th June and presented our newest research results.

Anja Babić, as the Chairwoman of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (IEEE OES) Student Branch Chapter (SBC) University of Zagreb was chosen to be on the panel of judges for the OCEANS 2019 Student Poster Competition.

Nadir Kapetanović presented his paper Side-Scan Sonar Data-Driven Coverage Path Planning: A Comparison of Approaches in a poster session and Igor Kvasić presented the preliminary results of his PhD thesis research in the paper titled Convolutional Neural Network Architectures for Sonar-Based Diver Detection and Tracking.

Dr. Edin Omerdić from the University of Limerick, Ireland, presented a joint research paper titled Multi-Modal Supervision Interface Concept for Marine Systems as a result of collaboration of University of Zagreb and University of Limerick through the H2020-TWINNING project EXCELLABUST.

They also participated in workshops, tutorials and lectures and got the chance to discuss the newest marine robotics topics from their research fields with world-renowned experts from both academia and industry.

The Croatian Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes (Agencija za mobilnost i programe Europske unije) has published a brochure titled Horizon 2020 Success Stories in Croatia, which features two of our H2020 projects - EXCELLABUST and subCULTron! We are proud to have taken part in these successful projects and we invite you to take a look at the brochure and read about subCULTron and EXCELLABUST, as well as other stories about successful projects in our country.

The H2020 project "Twinning coordination action for spreading excellence in Aerial Robotics - AeRoTwin", the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and Centre of Research Excellence DATACROSS organized the Innovation management training on the topic of

"EU and Business R&D Project Management".

The training was held from 5th to 7th December 2018 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) and given by following speakers: Vesna Torbarina (Croatian Chamber of Economy), Manuel Jiménez Díaz (Morera&Vallejo Group, Spain), Silvia de los Santos (CTA, Spain) and Matko Barišić (ABB, Norway). 

During the three days of the workshop,  participants learned a lot about H2020 projects, how to manage them, what expert profiles are, how R&D management works in a big company and how to choose the right calls for our EU projects.

Nikola Mišković, Antonio Vasilijević, and Đula Nađ participated at 2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Underwater System Technology: Theory and Applications (USYS’18) held from 1st until 3rd December 2018 in the International Academic Exchange Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China. Nikola Mišković gave a plenary talk entitled “Cooperative and not-so Cooperative Marine Robotics” and Antonio Vasiljević presented the paper named “Autonomous Surface Vehicles as Positioning and Communications Satellites for the Marine Operational Environment - Step toward Internet of Underwater Things”.

At the Workshop on Marine Robots, which was held in the scope of the conference, Antonio Vasilijević gave an invited lecture named “Human Hearing and Marine Robotics” and Đula Nađ gave an invited lecture named “From Underwater Localization towards Diver-Robot Interaction”.

USYS’18 was an excellent occasion for LABUST team to disseminate our current R&D activities and to meet researchers, scientists, engineers, as well as industrial professionals from Asia. 

The University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) hosted the Open Door Day on 24th November 2018. Igor Kvasić, the new member of LABUST team presented ongoing research activities and equipment. The event aimed at prospective students, their parents, and teachers to learn about the UNIZG-FER experience, to become familiar with available courses, research facilities and to talk to the current students, lecturers and researchers.

On 22nd of November 2018, Nikola Mišković, Vice Dean for Science at UNIZG-FER and Mihaela Vranić, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at UNIZG-FER took part in the daily TV show "Dobro jutro, Hrvatska" (Good morning, Croatia at Croatian national television) as guests, where they announced the Open Door Day event at UNIZG-FER and talked about academic and research activities at the Faculty. 

Nadir Kapetanović participated in BLUEMED – 5th biannual project meeting held from 12th to 13th November 2018 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. BLUEMED partners discussed project progress and issues. Nadir presented a progress report on WP4 testing activity - preparatory activities in pilot sites (Cavtat, Baia, Peristera, and Amaliapolis). After the meeting, project consortium visited the museum “Department of Archaeology in the western wing of the Saint Blaise Franciscan Monastery” in Pridvorje, Konavle.

On 15th of November 2018, Ivana Mikolić and Matko Orsag from LARICS took part in the daily TV show "Dobro jutro, Hrvatska" (Good morning, Croatia at Croatian national television) as guests, where they talked about the European Robotics Week 2018, and how it will be manifested in Croatia.

We did it together! Thanks to your votes, our Laboratory has been selected as one of 20 candidates for Innovation Radar Prize 2018 finals. The great finale will be held in the scope of ICT 2018 event in Vienna (4-6 December 2018) where the jury will decide the winner of each of the five categories. LABUST is competing in category “Excellent Science” - cutting-edge science underpinning tomorrow's technological advances. As a finalist, we will deliver a 3-minute pitch about our innovation, organisation and plans to our EU funded innovation deliver impact in the marketplace. The jury, a panel made of professionals with a track record in entrepreneurship and investment will award the most impressive pitch for each category and also choose the winner of the 2018 Innovation Radar "Grand Prix" Prize. The winners will be announced on the 6th of December in a special award ceremony on the closing day of ICT 2018.

LABUST will be taking part in ERW 2018 under the robotics@fer.hr brand, together with our colleagues from LARICS and LAMOR! We will participate in the University of Zagreb Fair (22-24 November 2018) and present our work, equipment, projects, as well as opportunities for potential undergraduate, graduate and PhD students, researchers, teachers etc. Also, our laboratory will be open to the public during the Open Day event at UNIZG-FER (24th November 2018) and will show the visitors what it is like to work in our three laboratories. We are looking forward to these events and hope to see you there!

The OCEANS 2018 Charleston conference was held from 22-25th October 2018, bringing together 1,500 of the world’s leading marine professionals to network, collaborate, and learn about cutting-edge research, innovations, technologies, and applications in the marine technology and engineering fields. The member of CRIS team Petar Trslić took part in the conference Technical Sessions programme,  presenting two papers: “Long-term, inspection class ROV deployment approach for remote monitoring and inspection” (main author Petar Trslić) and “Voxel map based collision detection for underwater manipulators” (main author Matija Rossi). Petar also used this occasion to promote the EXCELLABUST Marine Robotics database. We are looking forward to next OCEANS in Marseille from 17-20th of June 2019.

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Dr. Edin Omerdić from Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems, University of Limerick will hold a tutorial on

"a real-time embedded evaluation board NI myRIO and its applications"

The two-day tutorial will start on Thursday, November 15, 2018,  at 14:30 in the Gray Hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, and continue the next day on Friday, November 16, 2018, at 14:00 in the same place.

More about the speaker and the tutorial is available in detailed news content and here.

Antonio Vasilijević participated in the EUMR project meeting held on 30th September 2018, during the Breaking the Surface (BtS) workshop in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. Latest Work Package and deliverable progress were discussed as well as the work plan for the forthcoming period. Special attention was given to the first TNA (transnational access) call, just opened in the scope of the EUMR.

Partner UdG presented an animation video for the TNA promotion. The video is available here.

EUMR project has been also presented in the scope of BtS workshop by António Sérgio Ferreira (UPorto) with a lecture EUMarineRobots: The “Oprah” of Marine Robotics.

In the scope of the 10^th edition of Breaking the Surface, we organised an Innovation Tuesday, the whole day program dedicated to lectures about the creation of corporate spin-offs, on how to attract investments and tips and tricks in building international businesses. Robotics experts and entrepreneurs shared their experience in commercializing robotics-related technologies with the rest of interested participants.

Innovation Tuesday was held on 2nd of October while Breaking the Surface was held from 30^th September until 7th October in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. More than 200 participants from marine robotics field and its applications - marine biology, maritime archaeology, maritime security, geology, oceanology etc. participated in BtS programs. 

As part of Innovation Tuesday, lecturers from various aspects presented their experience and knowledge. 

Innovation Tuesday (INNOVA) lectures:

• Yvan Petillot, Heriot-Watt University, (UK): The ORCA Hub: Offshore robotics for certification of assets
• Scott Reed, SeeByte, (UK): The evolution of smart software within maritime robotics
• Daniel M. Lofaro, George Mason University, (USA):  Robots in politics and business
• Paul Oh, University of Nevada Las Vegas, (USA): Consumer robotics in the age of acceleration
• Miriam Rueda,  Asociación Emerge, (Spain): Protoatlantic – A European accelerator program of the marine sector
• Marc Carreras, IQUA Robotics, (Spain): IQUA Robotics: Past, present, and future
• Iain Vincent, Planet Ocean Limited / ecoSUB Robotics Limited, (UK): Democratising the AUV: ecoSUB Robotics – from concept to commercial reality
• Enrique Gonzalez Sancho, Nido Robotics, (Spain): Entrepreneurship in marine robotics
• Marin Bek, H2O Robotics, (Croatia): Experiences in building an international business
• James Ives, XOCEAN, (Ireland): Unmanned ocean data collection
• António Sérgio Ferreira, Laboratório de Sistemas e Tecnologia Subaquática (UPorto), (Portugal): EUMarineRobots: The “Oprah” of marine robotics

Filip Mandić, Anja Babić, Ivan Lončar and Barbara Arbanas from the Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems held a tutorial on underwater measurements using aMussel at Breaking the Surface workshop on 5th October 2018. The tutorial emerged from the work on H2020 project subCULTRon. In the tutorial, they showed how to program an aMussel platform to sink to the bottom, make an underwater measurement, transmit it acoustically to an aPad, return to the surface after a predefined time and SMS measurements to a cell phone. 

The 11th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems, Robotics, and Vehicles – CAMS 2018 was held from 10th to 12th September 2018 in Opatija, Croatia. Our Laboratory was one of the organizers of the scientific conference which assembled around 100 participants from all around the world.

Anja Babić presented two papers: Autonomous Docking and Energy Sharing between Two Types of Robotic Agents (authors: Anja Babić, Filip Mandić, Goran Vasilijević, and Nikola Mišković) and Heuristics Pool for Hyper-Heuristic Selection During Task Allocation in a Heterogeneous Swarm of Marine Robots (authors: Anja Babić, Nikola Mišković and Zoran Vukić)

Justin M. Kennedy (Queensland University of Technology) was awarded for the Best student paper.

The 12th IFAC CAMS conference will be held from 18 to 20 September 2019 in Daejeon, Korea.

LABUST team (Z. Vukić, Đ. Nađ, M. Marković and N. Kapetanović) participated in an exercise called CORKEX 2018 in Cork, Ireland from 23 July to 28 July 2018 within the project Expanded Underwater Robotics Ready for Oil Spills - e-URready4OS. The exercise was carried out onboard the Irish Naval Vessel “Le Roisin” and it was operated from the Naval Base, Haulbowline, Co Cork. The exercise was coordinated by the Irish Coast Guard. Main objectives of the exercise were to expand the already existing URready4OS fleet (from 5 to 12 assets) -  provide training to new vehicles teams joining the fleet, to demonstrate the capability of the current URready4OS system and to provide training and transfer of knowledge. Main participants of CORKEX 2018 were the University of Porto, University of Zagreb, University of Cartagena, University of Cyprus, University of Girona and University of Balearic Islands, Irish Naval Service and Irish Coast Guard.

Breaking the Surface (BtS) workshop, which brings together a significant part of the marine community will be held from 30 September until 7 October 2018 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. On 2nd October 2018., in the scope of the BtS, the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute of the University of Girona along with IQUA Robotics is organizing a workshop to discuss the adoption of conventions in the underwater ROS community. If you plan to attend the underwater ROS workshop please fill this confirmation form and here you can find for more information about the meeting.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", ACROSS CoE - Centre of Excellence for Autonomous and Cooperative Robotic Systems, IEEE Croatia Robotics and Automation Chapter and  ZCI-DATACROSS will organize the lecture:

"From knowing where you are to understanding where you are"

which will be held by Prof. Patric Jensfelt, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, July 11, 2018, starting at 11:00 in the Gray Hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

You can find out more about the lecturer and the seminar in the detailed news content.

MORUS, CROMARX, EXCELLABUST, subCULTron, and EUMR projects had a poster presentation at the 26^th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation – MED 2018. The conference held tutorials, workshops, presentations, and lectures that covered a wide range of topics on control systems, automation, and robotics. The conference was held from 19 to 22 June 2018 in Zadar, Croatia.

Nikola Mišković and Ivana Mikolić participated in EUMR project meeting held on 13th June 2018 during the EMRA'18 workshop. In the meeting, they discussed on the latest deliverable phase and reviewed the proposed timeline and process. Each project partner gave a review of its activities for the previous period and presented working plans for the forthcoming period. 

MORUS, PLADYFLEET, and EUMR projects were presented at EMRA'18 workshop. MORUS project was presented by Professor Stjepan Bogdan from Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems. The PLADYFLEET project was presented as part of RAWFIE project by Stathes Hadjiefthymiades from the University of Athens. The EUMR project was presented by António Sérgio Ferreira from the University of Porto.

The 5th edition of the EMRA workshop took place in Limerick, 12 -13 June 2018. The EMRA’18 was organised by University of Limerick and CRIS under EU projects "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and "EUMR - EUMarineRobots".

The SWARMs (Smart and Networking Underwater Robots in Cooperation Meshes) project consortium organised the final project conference on Novel Solutions for Underwater Vehicles in Autonomous Sea Operations. The conference was held on 11th of June 2018 as an introductory event to the EMRA'18 workshop and was co-hosted by the Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems.

The primary objective of the SWARMs project has been to expand the use of underwater and surface vehicles (AUVs, ROVs, USVs) to facilitate the conception, planning, and execution of maritime and offshore operations and missions. The conference topics included: development methodologies and novel designs for autonomous maritime missions, data modelling for underwater robotics vehicles, new solutions for sensors and processing algorithms for underwater environments, data processing, 3D mapping, landmark extraction, map matching, relocation, etc. The member of UL team, Edin Omerdic presented a paper on “Active Thruster Fault-Tolerant Control System based on Pattern Recognition Neural Network’”. This was also an opportunity to inform the conference attendees on EXCELLABUST project and our Marine Robotics database.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb (UNIZG FER), Croatian Ministry of Science and Education and The Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFCA) have signed the Grant Agreement “Research Infrastructure Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (INFRA-LAPOST)" on 7th June 2018. The project is contracted within part of Call "Development and strengthening of synergies with horizontal activities of Horizon 2020: Twinning and ERA Chairs", under the "Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014 – 2020”. The agreement was signed by the UNIZG FER Dean Professor Mislav Grgić, Minister of Science and Education Blaženka Divjak and Director of the Central Finance and Contracting Agency Tomislav Petrić. Prof. Zoran Vukić attended the signing of the agreement as LABUST representative.

The INFRA-LAPOST project will greatly improve research infrastructure facility and equipment of Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies.

The program for the 11th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems, Robotics, and Vehicles has been published.

Here you can read the program for IFAC CAMS 2018.

IFAC CAMS 2018 will be held from 10th until 12th September 2018 at the Conference Park 25/7 in Opatija, Croatia. It is organized by the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies – LABUST, University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing – UNIZG FER with the help of the KoREMA (IFAC national member Organization) and the Center for Underwater Systems and Technologies.

On 10 May 2018, LABUST members Đula Nađ and Filip Mandić participated at annual PhD Day at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb (UNIZG-FER). PhD Day is an annual event at UNIZG-FER that enables PhD students to broaden their research and career perspectives. Đula Nađ presented his rewarded doctorate “Guidance and control of autonomous underwater agents with acoustically” and Filip Mandić presented current results of his doctoral research on dissertation topic “Control of surface marine vessels for underwater vehicle localization using single range acoustic measurements”.

LABUST team is testing equipment at Pelješac peninsula, Croatia for the upcoming BLUEMED project trial which will be conducted next week in the Baia Bay in Italy. Final preparation for upcoming trial is underway at the two sites in Pelješac, Trstenik in the south side of the peninsula and Drače in the north. LABUST vehicles Lupis (OceanScan LAUV), ASV H2Omni-X (H2O Robotics) and new BlueROV2 (Blue Robotics) are tested.

The two main objectives of testing are to capture some location with Lupis camera to get a mosaic and a 3D model of location and to capture some location with a bathymetric sonar on H2Omni-X to get a bathymetric map with the ability to connect camera and sonar data in order to get a better 3D model.

BLUEMED project aims to support and promote sustainable and responsible tourism development in coastal areas and islands of the Mediterranean. This will be achieved by planning, testing and coordinating Underwater Museums, Diving Parks and Knowledge Awareness Centres (KACs) in 4 pilot sites: Capo Rizutto and Baia bay (Italy), Western Pagasitikos/Sporades (Greece) and Cavtat sites (Croatia).

Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb, Croatia is currently recruiting one doctoral fellow position. The successful candidate will work on sonar image processing.

The proposed research will involve research in advanced signal processing and deep learning with the emphasis on autonomous identification of sonar detected objects from various perspectives in real-time. The participant is expected to carry out research and publish results in conferences and journals, participate in the preparation of proposals for research funding and in the writing of project reports, participate in teaching and mentoring graduate students (at least 90 hours per year).

It's desirable to fill the position before July 2018, but the start date is negotiable. The expected duration of the position is 4 years.

Applicants should provide the following material via email to Prof. Nikola Mišković (Nikola.miskovic@fer.hr). Please use the subject line: “[PhD application]”. Applications will be reviewed as they are received.

• A curriculum vitae
• A statement of research interest and past experiences (up to 2 pages)
• Names and contact information of three references
• A personal website, if available, where further details can be found

Deadline for applications: May 7th, 2018

Read here about required skills and qualification for the position. 

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS CoE, Centre of Research Excellence DATACROSS and IEEE Croatia Section, Control  Systems Chapter organized the lecture

"Decentralized Coordination and Abstraction for Coupled Multi-Agent Systems"

given by Dimitris Boskos, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. The lecture took place on Tuesday, 17th April 2018 at UNIZG-FER.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS CoE, Centre of Research Excellence DATACROSS and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter organized an innovation management training on the topic of

“Knowledge and Technology Transfer”

given by Prof. Manuela Arata, Genova Makers's Village, Genoa, Italy. The training took place on 19-20 April 2018 at UNIZG-FER.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS  and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter organized the lecture

"Eyes in the Ocean" 

given by Stephen Hall, Society for Underwater Technology, London, UK. The lecture took place on Friday, 13th April 2018 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb, Croatia.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS CoE, Centre of Research Excellence DATACROSS and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter will organize innovation management training on the topic of:

“Knowledge and Technology Transfer”

which will be held by Prof. Manuela Arata, Genova Makers's Village, Genoa, Italy

The training will take place on 19-20 April 2018, starting both days at 09:00, in a seminar room at ZARI, building C, 9th floor. Meet and greet coffee will be half an hour earlier, at 08:30.

If you are interested to participate at the training please contact Ivana Mikolić at ivana.mikolic@fer.hr by Wednesday, April 18th.

More about the speaker and lecture is available in detailed news content and here.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS CoE, Centre of Research Excellence DATACROSS and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter will organize the lecture:

"Embodiment Approaches to Sensorimotor Robot Policy Training"

which will be held by Prof. Mårten Björkman, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, 17th April 2018, starting at 09:30 in a seminar room at ZARI, building C, 9th floor.

You can find more about the lecturer and the seminar in the detailed news content.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS CoE, Centre of Research Excellence DATACROSS and IEEE Croatia Section, Control  Systems Chapter will organize the lecture:

"Decentralized Coordination and Abstraction for Coupled Multi-Agent Systems"

which will be held by Dimitris Boskos, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, 17th April 2018, starting at 10:15 in a seminar room at ZARI, building C, 9th floor.

You can find more about the lecturer and the seminar in the detailed news content.

LABUST team participated in the workshop “Fundamentals of the intellectual property for the researchers” held in UNIZG-FER on the 28th March 2018. The workshop was organised and held by Mirjana Dozan, Head of the Office for Intellectual Property at UNIZG-FER, Igor Bošnjaković, Senior Adviser at State Intellectual Property Office, and Associate Professor Dubravko Babić from UNIZG-FER. The goals of the workshop were to promote and stimulate scientific research, establish a procedure for identification, protection, and commercialization of intellectual property and help researchers to track and record the intellectual property portfolio.

The workshop covered the following topics:

• Introduction to Intellectual property
• Intellectual property management
• Creating values of Intellectual property
• Patent registration
• Patent law

Nikola Mišković visited King’s College London and Imperial College London, UK on 15th March 2018. At King’s College London, he was hosted by Dr. Daniele Magazzeni and at Imperial College London by Dr. Mirko Kovač. During the visit, he gave an invited talk at both universities on research activities by LABUST with a strong emphasis on potential future collaboration opportunities.

Alongside more than 500 exhibiting companies from 79 countries LABUST presented its spinoff company H2O Robotics and the EUMarine Robots - EUMR project at the world's prestigious exhibition for marine science and ocean technology Oceanology International which was held from 13 - 15 March 2018 in London, UK.

LABUST members Zoran Vukić, Matej Celega, Milan Marković and Marin Bek successfully presented the H2O Robotics product H2Omni-X. Ivana Mikolić took part the in first public appearance of the EUMR project and Nikola Mišković presented EXCELLABUST activities.

All projects and the company had several specific queries with many interested parties (project managers, company directors, research centers and scientific laboratories).

LABUST participated in a lecture

„KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s role in making Stockholm a global cluster for ICT“

and workshop

„Turning research into business – Understanding the impact of technology“

given by Dr. Martin Vendel, KTH Stockholm, Sweden.

The lecture took place on Thursday, 15th March 2018 and the workshop took place on Friday, 16th March 2018 at UNIZG-FER. On both occasions, Dr. Martin Vendel talked about the impact and importance of technology transfer.

LABUST together with the Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems - LARICS and the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems and Mobile Robots - LAMOR, presented robotics research group Robotics@fer.hr at UNIZG-FER at European Robotics Forum - ERF 2018, held from 13^th until 15^th March 2018 in Tampere, Finland. LABUST also presented the ACROSS project, IFAC CAMS 2018 conference and Breaking the Surface 2018 workshop. The participation on ERF 2018 was financed in the scope of ACROSS project. In addition, LABUST member Đula Nađ, as a finalist, received a plaque for participation at the prestigious Georges Giralt PhD Award which was held at the Scandic Rosendahl Hotel, Tampere on 14th March. The Georges Giralt PhD Award is a European scientific prize for extraordinary contributions in robotics. It is yearly awarded at the European Robotics Forum by euRobotics AISBL.

Robotics@fer.hr presented its latest projects and products at Robotics 2018 Fair held from 13 to 15 February 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The UNIZG-FER brand Robotics@fer.hr is a joint of three laboratories; LABUST – Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies, LARICS – Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Systems and LAMOR – Laboratory for Autonomous Systems and Mobile Robotics. Robotics 2018 gathered the most important European robot manufacturers and distributors, as well as the world's leading robotics experts. In front of many visitors, LABUST team presented an aPad, smart autonomous marine surface vehicle.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb - UNIZG-FER and University of L’Aquila - UNIVAQ have signed an Inter-institutional agreement on Erasmus+ programme on the initiative of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies - LABUST. The institutions have agreed to cooperate for the exchange of students and staff in the context of the Erasmus+ programme, key action Mobility for learners and staff - Higher Education Student and Staff Mobility. The agreement refers to three academic years, starting with 2018/2019.

LABUST members Ivana Mikolić, Nadir Kapetanović, and Matej Celega participated in the exhibition of young Croatian creators held in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb on 26th January 2018. They presented ongoing research activities and explained the application of an aPad, autonomous marine surface vehicle. The event was organized as part of the national project “Hrvatska stvara” (Croatia Creates) which aim to increase the interest of young people for technical culture. The main objective of the project is to empower children and youth through education.

Nikola Mišković attended H2020 FET - Innovation management training on 26th January 2018 at Research Executive Agency in Brussels, Belgium. The European Commission organised training for FET ILP project coordinators. As part of the workshop, they attended both roundtables on prospecting license opportunities and closing license deals and on valorization or commercialization-via bilateral collaborations with industry. In the bilateral meetings, participants were conducting the Innovation Radar exercise and discussed on business coaching services and other European Innovation Council schemes. The project officers discussed aspects of the project’s implementations and grant agreement.

We are delighted to announce that Assoc. Prof. Nikola Mišković has been named Vice Dean for Science at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb (UNIZG-FER) on 24th January 2018. This appointment confirms his outstanding scientific work and excellence in getting and writing valuable research projects for UNIZG-FER. It also confirms his excellent reputation among the leading scientists in the Republic of Croatia. Nikola Mišković is a Head of the Research Support Centre, an Associate Professor at Department of Control and Computer Engineering and Deputy Head of LABUST at UNIZG-FER. He will begin his new duties next academic year.

Professor Zoran Vukić talked at the panel discussion “World of Robotics in Croatia” held in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb, on 22nd September 2018. The main goal of the event was to present the progress of robotics in Croatia. Invited guests talked about the current situation of robotics in academia, industry, and education. Professor Vukić presented LABUST’s work and emphasized the importance of good preparation for EU work programs. In addition, he gave some interesting projections for robotics in general. All panelists agreed that Croatia has a bright future in robotics, but it’s important to invest more in education and research projects.

Wondering how it was at Breaking the Surface 2017? The brand new after video will show you all. See the short overview of BtS 2017 and recall wonderful memories from unforgettable last summer. Enjoy the video! 

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS CoE, Centre of Research Excellence DATACROSS and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter organized the lecture:

"Distributed hybrid control of multi-agent systems under high-level specifications" 

given by Prof. Dimos V. Dimarogonas, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

The lecture took place on Tuesday, 19^th December 2017, in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb, Croatia.

LABUST member Matej Celega participated at the 3rd edition of FET2RIN training which was organised in three workshops in Brussels, Belgium: 1st from 28 to 29 September 2017, 2nd from 26 to 27 October 2017 and 3rd workshop from 30 November to 1 December 2017. FET2RIN has organised the third round of training course for Future Emerging Technologies (FET) to help participants to access the market and make a larger impact on society. FET2RIN aims at helping FET projects by overcoming obstacles related to market outreach and accessing business leaders including entrepreneurs, early-stage investors, and crowdfunding communities.

LABUST member Nikola Mišković participated at FET in Horizon 2020 Info Day at Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Croatia on 5th December 2017. An Info Day focused on FET activities, part of the “Future and Emerging Technologies” (FET) programme Horizon 2020, has been organized by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education. Nikola Mišković talked about our experiences in subCULTron (FETPROACT) and aPad (FETOPEN-CSA) projects. The “Future and Emerging Technologies” (FET) programme supports new cutting-edge technologies by strengthening competitiveness and development. This event was a great opportunity to learn from successful past and on-going FET projects, to share new visionary ideas, as well as to participate in a networking session.

Project manager Ivana Mikolić participated at the round table on gender equality in Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb held in KSET, Zagreb, Croatia on 25th November 2017. The event called FERgirl čajanka (FERgirl tea party) was held as part of the Open Day at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. The main objective of the event was to prove that the study of technical science, such as UNIZG-FER, is accessible to all, regardless of gender. Invited speakers at round table were women who have studied or currently studying at UNIZG-FER. Ivana Mikolić talked about her passion for math and informatics and why she decided to study at UNIZG-FER. Ivana described her student’s days and gave several useful tips to high school students. In a couple of occasions, she proudly presented her important role in LABUST and great passion and dedication toward her job.

LABUST is participating at University of Zagreb Fair 2017 as part of the Faculty of electrical engineering  and computing (FER) among more than 30 faculties. University of Zagreb Fair 2017 has started today (23rd November) and it will last until 25th November 2017 in Zagreb, Croatia. The event is taking place at Student Center Zagreb. Our members Nadir Kapetanović and Matej Celega presenting current projects and collaborative projects with other groups from FER. Once again, we are expecting high attendance of high school students, young faculty students and other interested parties. This is a great opportunity to attract young people in world of science, particularly in robotics and underwater systems.

LABUST members once again organized the special session “Intelligent underwater systems and technologies” at 7th Conference on Marine Technology in memoriam of the academician Zlatko Winkler, held in Rijeka on November 17th, 2017. Papers at the special session were presented by Zoran Vukić and Antonio Vasilijević. Among other projects, the PlaDyFleet project and its recent results have been presented. The Conference is organised by Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Maritime studies - University of Rijeka, Croatia, and Association for Research and Development of Maritime Industries.

Our members Nikola Mišković, Đula Nađ, and Ivana Mikolić will participate at BLUEMED – 3rd biannual project meeting from 14th until 15th November 2017 in Limassol, Cyprus. BLUEMED partners will discuss project progress and issues. All project partners will present the progress in the project implementation so far, and plans for future activities. LABUST team will present their progress report on WP3 studying and planning for WP4 testing. The event will take place at Elias Beach Hotel in Limassol, Cyprus. 

The BLUEMED project aims to support and promote sustainable and responsible tourism development in coastal areas and islands of the Mediterranean. This will be achieved by planning, testing and coordinating Underwater Museums, Diving Parks and Knowledge Awareness Centres (KACs) in 4 pilot sites: Capo Rizutto and Baia bay (Italy), Western Pagasitikos/Sporades (Greece) and Cavtat sites (Croatia).

Deputy head of LABUST assoc. prof. Nikola Mišković participated in Economic Conference Montenegro 2017 - “Challenges on the path to the European Union”. The conference took place in Hotel Splendid, Budva, Montenegro, from 2nd November until 3rd November 2017.  The conference “Challenges on the path to the European Union” gathered around 500 representatives of governments, the business community, scientific and expert public from the Balkans and wider.

The Conference has been organised by Chamber of Economy of Montenegro and Ministry of Science of Montenegro. It was opened by President to the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro Velimir Miljušković, and as the panel guest, the conference was addressed by EBRD President Pierre Heilbronn.

CROWNE 2017 Sea Trial #1 is underway in Split, Croatia, where researchers from LABUST, and Space and Naval Warfare System Command (SPAWAR), SSC Pacific from San Diego are conducting trials from 23^rd till 28^th of October 2017. Croatian Ministry of Defence (MORH) and US Department of Defence (DoD) signed in 2017 a Coalition Warfare Program „Cooperative Unmanned Vehicles in the Maritime Environment“ (CUV-ME).

The objective of the CUV-ME project is to provide, develop, integrate, and test the hardware and software protocols necessary to advance combined operations between multiple unmanned systems, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), to enhance the navigational accuracy of UUVs, and to improve the operational safety of operators engaged in unexploded ordnance remediation and counter underwater explosive operations. A supporting project objective will be to investigate the Concept of Operations and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures used during the CUV-ME project as a baseline for integrating this capability into future operational mine countermeasures operations and other naval warfare missions. 

With this project LABUST once again proves its capability to be involved in the most challenging type of projects. The TRL (technology readiness level) at the end of the CUV-ME project will be between 6 to 7. The CUV-ME project is a joint RDT&E effort lead by the University of Zagreb’s Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific’s (SSC PAC’s) Unmanned Maritime Vehicles.

The University of Limerick (UL) has hosted an Open Days 2017 event on the 19th and 20th of October 2017. This two-day event allowed a number of visitors (prospective students, their parents and teachers) to learn about the UL experience, to become familiar with available courses, to visit research labs and to talk to the current students, lecturers and researchers.

The MMRRC researchers presented ongoing research activities, including the EXCELLABUST project, and demonstrated the application of virtual reality (VR) headset as a user interaction interface to improve situation awareness during mission execution.

As part of the 9th edition of the Breaking the Surface 2017 we organized an Innovation Tuesday, the whole day program dedicated to lectures about the creation of corporate spin-offs, on how to attract investments and tips and tricks in starting such a company. Robotics experts shared their experience in commercializing robotics-related technologies with the rest of interested participants and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Innovation Tuesday was held on 3rd of October while Breaking the Surface was held from 1st until 8th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia). More than 180 participants from marine robotics field and its applications - marine biology, maritime archaeology, maritime security, geology, oceanology etc. participated in BtS programs. 

As part of Innovation Tuesday, 8 lecturers presented their experience and knowledge. The event was concluded with round table on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Innovation Tuesday (INNOVA) lectures:

• Vladimir de Franceschi, Founder Institute, Inc. (USA): Startup how to
• Thomas Curtin, Applied Physics Laboratory (USA): The scaling of innovation tools
• Tom Runge, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI, Robotics Innovation Center, (Germany): Rich & famous with underwater robotics? Attempt of an objective assessment
• Vlatka Petrović, University of Zagreb, (Croatia): Paths to market- getting university innovation into the right hands
• Marin Bek, University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing / H2O Robotics,(Croatia): Breaking the corporate
• Alexander Alspach, Toyota Research Institute, (USA):  Soft sensing and simulation
• Cesare Fantuzzi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, (Italy): Bridging the gap between academic research and commercially viable technology
• Fabio Bruno, University of Calabria, (Italy): From research to business: some experiences at the University of Calabria
• Round table on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship- Underwater technologies: The road ahead, moderated by Kemal Delić, Hewlett-Packard Co (France)

UNIZG-FER LABUST members  Nikola Mišković, Marin Bek and Milan Marković were presenting our spin-off project H2O Robotics on European Robotics League (ERL) Robots Major Tournament in Piombino, Italy. H2O Robotics is part of H2020 aPad project, which proposes the transformation of Autonomous Unmanned Marine Surface vehicle into commercially attractive, sustainable and innovative products that both address societal challenges and is highly competitive in global markets.

UNIZG-FER LABUST is actual developer of the aPad, responsible for all project activities while Research Support Centre (CePI) participating in the development of the business plan and exploration of an exploitation path.

ERL Emergency Robots Major Tournament 2017 was held from September 15^th- 23^rd in Piombino, Italy. ERL tournament is a civilian, outdoor robotics competition, with a focus on realistic, multi-domain emergency response scenarios. It’s open to the public and anyone interested can attend as a spectator.

UNIZG-FER LABUST member Matej Celega participated at the 6th edition of the Festival of Science and Innovation "Trieste NEXT" on 21st - 23rd September 2017. The festival was held in Trieste, Italy, the European capital of science for the year 2020. LABUST member in collaboration with Maritime Technology Cluster FVG Scarl and ISSIA – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche presented aPad, a product of a spin-off company H2O Robotics. aPad a revolutionary multipurpose platform is a result of years of work and experience of the laboratories in various research and development scientific projects.

This year's festival has visited about 50,000 visitors. The largest interest of aPad and LABUST was shown by students and potential business and research partners, which is an excellent motivation for further work and confirmation of invested effort and knowledge. “Sea” was in the focus of the festival, with key topics such as Marine Biology, Trendy Maritime Engineering, Research in Antarctica and many other sea-related professions. Festival launched two major initiatives with the idea of joining the business and research world: "EuroBioHighTech" and "NEXT Maritime Technologies' Day"; within which it’s a more detailed presentation of aPad products and work of the LABUST was held.

“Trieste NEXT” 2017 was organised by National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics - OGS, International School of Advanced Studies - SISSA, City of Trieste and Venezie Post.

International Field Workshop “Photogrammetry in Underwater Archaeological Research- Theory and Practice” will take place in Cultural Centre, Tkon, Croatia from 27-30 September 2017. The workshop is organized in the framework of the Croatian Science Foundation projects EXCELLABUST and AdriaS- (Archaeology of Adriatic Shipbuilding and Seafaring). The goals of the workshop are introducing the participants to the theory and practice of the photogrammetric photo and video recording, for the needs of underwater archaeological research, taking into consideration all its advantages and constraints. Our member prof. dr.sc Nikola Mišković is one of the workshop’s director, together with the main director dr.sc Kotaro Yamafune (A.P.P.A.R.A.T.U.S. Llc ) and prof. dr. sc Irena Radić Rossi of the University of Zadar. The main organizers are the University of Zadar, University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and A.P.P.A.R.A.T.U.S. Llc., Japan and Institute for Maritime Heritage ARS NAUTICA, Tkon, Croatia.

UNIZG-FER LABUST members Marin Bek and Milan Marković will represent our spin-off project H2O Robotics on European Robotics League (ERL) Robots Major Tournament in Piombino, Italy next week. H2O Robotics is part of H2020 aPad project, which proposes transformation of Autonomous Unmanned Marine Surface vehicle into commercially attractive, sustainable and innovative products that both address societal challenges and is highly competitive in global markets.

UNIZG-FER LABUST is actual developer of the aPad, responsible for all project activities while Research Support Centre (CePI) participating in development of the business plan and exploration of an exploitation path.

ERL Emergency Robots Major Tournamet  2017 in Piombino, Italy, September 15^th-23^rd is a civilian, outdoor robotics competition, with a focus on realistic, multi-domain emergency response scenarios. It’s open to the public and anyone interested can attend as spectator. Spectators do not need to register and the entrance is free.

UNIZG-FER LABUST member Nadir Kapetanović participated at the IFAC 2017 World congress. The congress was held in Toulouse, France on 9-14.07 2017. Nadir presented the paper named "Real-time model predictive line following control for underactuated marine vehicles", which is the result of his expert exchange at CNR, Genova, Italy, as a part of EXCELLABUST project. 

Among other activities, he promoted LABUST and Breaking the Surface annual workshop, which is organized by LABUST for the 9th time this year, and will be held on 1-8.10.2017. in Biograd na Moru.

As a part of SeaFest 2017, UL research team (Daniel Toal, Edin Omerdić and Romano Capocci) attended a two-day Marine Trade Show, the Digital Ocean Conference and Our Ocean Wealth Summit at NUI Galway. The Marine Trade Show showcased some of the highly innovative products and services emerging from more than 60 companies and organisations across all sectors of the marine economy. The Digital Ocean – Ireland’s Marine Engineering and Technology Conference featured a selection of international marine technology companies, innovative Irish Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Ireland's technology and research centres, focusing on specific opportunities for technology innovations to drive the global blue economy. Our Ocean Wealth Summit forms a key part of the Government’s integrated plan for Ireland’s marine sector, Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, and brings together world renowned speakers, industry experts, business development agencies and the Irish business and marine research community for focused discussions on this year’s theme of ‘Rethinking Boundaries and Innovation for a Sustainable Marine Economy’.

In addition to discussion about ongoing research activities and possible collaboration, UL team invited participants to register their institutions to EXCELLABUST Marine Robotics Database (http://excellabust.mmrrc.ul.ie).

The EXCELLABUST 1^st review meeting was held at Research Executive Agency, Brussels, Belgium on 27th June 2017. The meeting was attended by Zoran Vukić, Ivana Mikolić (both LABUST), Edin Omerdić (UL), Massimo Caccia (CNR) and Pedro Ridao (UDG). Meeting goals were to get familiarize the Officer and the reviewers with EXCELLABUST activities and to acknowledge the Officer’s and the reviewers’ comments.

Nikola Mišković attended the International Workshop on Underwater and Nautical Archaeology organized as a part of AdriaS - Archaeology of Adriatic Shipbuilding and Seafaring project. This project is concerned with technological development of Adriatic shipbuilding and seafaring from Prehistory to the Early Modern Age.

The workshop was held from 3rd until 10th June 2017 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

This course had a goal to bring together experts in maritime and nautical archaeology, as well as specialists in related scientific fields, to discuss with course participants the full spectrum of maritime and nautical archaeology in the Mediterranean. The course was divided into four thematic units:

• The ship and its environment: technology and navigation;
• The ship as a reflection of society;
• Nautical heritage and its value to today’s world;
• Nautical archaeology and ethnography in the digital era.

UNIZG-FER LABUST members Nadir Kapetanović and Đula Nađ participated in OCEANS '17 MTS/IEEE conference. Technical programme lasted for three days, from Tuesday, 20.6., until Thursday, 22.6. There were close to 40 exibitors showcasing their companies, as well as research laboratories and universities related to marine robotics research.

Nadir Kapetanović presented early results of his PhD thesis in a paper "Development of model predictive guidance for underactuated marine vehicles: From simulations to experiments", and Đula Nađ presented the final validation results of CADDY project in a paper named "CADDY Project, Year 3: The Final Validation Trials". They used this occasion to discuss about marine robotics topics from their research fields with world-renowned experts from both academia and industry. They also promoted Breaking the Surface workshop organized by LABUST, which attracted much attention among conference attendees.

LABUST presented H2020 PLADYFLEET project at the International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics - MIPRO as part of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing poster exhibition. The conference was held from 22 to 26 May 2017 in Opatija, Croatia.

The poster is available here.

On Friday, May 19, 2017, the 2^nd Innovation Management Training named “University Entrepreneurship” was held at University of Girona, under H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics". This highly interactive training was held by Mr. Jeff Skinner, who is the Executive Director of the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. Besides this, he leads MBA entrepreneurship electives and many co-curricular student activities at the School.

The goal of the training was to: get into the mindset of an investor who is asked to finance a new idea for a business, develop a commercial strategy for a technology being commercialized, brainstorm a minimum viable product, and finally discuss dos and donts of launching a new venture.

As part of H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", prof. Pere Ridao, dr.sc. Patryck Cieslak, Albert Palomer, and Dina Youakim held a tutorial titled "Intervention AUVs" on 17th - 18th May 2017 at the University of Girona. Topics of the tutorial were: direct and inverse robot manipulator kinematics, use of robotic manipulators attached to an underwater vehicle, motion planning and control of such systems.

EMRA '17 Workshop on EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications was organized at the  University of Girona from May 15 to May 16, 2017, as a part of H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics". The goal of this workshop was to bring together academia and industry representatives from all around EU, who work in the field of marine robotics, so that they can present their work, exchange ideas, and discuss about the development of marine robotics in the future.

The complete workshop programme, workshop proceedings, and photo gallery are available on EMRA '17 site.

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Rafael Garcia and Dr. Ricard Campos from the VICOROB, University of Girona (Spain) gave a tutorial titled "Underwater Image Processing and Photomosaicing" on 11th - 13th April 2017 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

The agenda, lecture descriptions and materials used during the tutorial are available in the repository. A short report is available in the detailed news content.

The UdG team visited Ocean Business Southampton (UK), the second most important fair on underwater technologies in Europe. The fair was held from 4th to 7th April 2017 and it gathered more than 300 exhibitors with the latest innovation on the market. Attending to fairs like Ocean Business gives the partners of the EXCELLABUST project the chance to meet face to face with the leading European companies and institutions in Underwater robotics. 

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS  and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter organized the lecture

"High-resolution Sea-floor Optical Mapping using Unmanned Underwater Vehicles" 

given by Prof. Rafael Garcia, Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute, University of Girona, Spain. 

The lecture took place on Wednesday, 12th April 2017, starting at 15:00 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. 

More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here.

During February and March of 2017, Anja Babić was a guest researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for research of intelligent systems for automation (ISSIA) where she was supervised by Dr. Marco Bibuli and Massimo Caccia.

The main results of the staff exchange are available in the detailed news content. The research plan and report for the visit are available in the repository.

Prof. Nikola Mišković visited the University of Limerick - UL (Ireland) and the group Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre - MMRRC from 17th March until 22nd March 2017. During his stay, he held several meetings with MMRRC group leaders Prof. Daniel Toal and Edin Omerdić, and MMRRC members in order to present H2020 EXCELLABUST project activities to each other and discuss future collaborations.

LABUST presented itself at the event "Days of UNIZG-FER on MIOC". The event took place at the XV Gymnasium in Zagreb on March 2nd. Students of this math-informatics oriented gymnasium had a chance to see and learn something about underwater robots, namely aPad and aMussel, which are being developed by LABUST and partners.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb, and Heron Robots have signed a Memorandum of Agreement. It was signed by the UNIZG FER Dean Professor Mislav Grgić, PhD and the CEO of Heron Robots, Professor Fabio Bonsignioro. The Memorandum was signed with the objective of promoting academic cooperation in education, research, and innovation, considering both agreement Parties’ common interests in academic, scientific, and cultural affairs.

This memorandum was signed on the initiative of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies - LABUST within Horizon 2020 project Excelling LABUST and marine robotics - EXCELLABUST.

The agreement will contribute to fostering and development of cooperation initiatives involving:

• Exchange of faculty members (academic and research staff) for short-term visits,
• Student exchange programs (graduate and undergraduate level),
• Promotion of scientific, academic, innovation and cultural activities such as lectures, courses, seminars, workshops and conferences,
• Exchange of publications and other academic materials,
• Design of collaborative research projects,
• Joint scientific research and innovation projects,
• Inter-institutional internship programs.

The University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing - UNIZG FER and Jacobs University Bremen have signed a Memorandum of Agreement. The Memorandum was signed with the objective of promoting academic cooperation in education and research and it was signed by the UNIZG FER Dean Professor Mislav Grgić, PhD and Jacobs President & CEO Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katja Windt and Managing Director Prof. Dr. Michael Hulsmann.

This memorandum was signed on the initiative of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies - LABUST within Horizon 2020 project Excelling LABUST and marine robotics - EXCELLABUST.

The agreement will contribute to the fostering and development of cooperation initiatives involving:

• Short-term exchanges of faculty and research staff
• Exchanges of students of undergraduate and graduate studies
• Promotion of scientific, academic, innovation and cultural activities such as lectures, courses, seminars, workshops and conferences
• Exchange of publications and other academic materials
• Joint scientific research and innovation projects
• Professional development programs
• Other activities of mutual interest

FIRST® LEGO® LEAGUE (FLL) is an international program that promotes the interest for the science and technology of youngsters between 10 and 16 years old. They are invited to have fun and get involved in technology through a yearly challenge robotics competition. In the contest, they will have to show their abilities to perform as a team, to innovate and to solve real problems of the society. This year the challenge was related to the collaboration between animals and humans for a better society. Girona edition (28th of January 2017) counted on 36 teams (around 300 students) and more than 100 volunteers. The event was a great success and 600+ attendees enjoyed it. More about FLL Girona.

The University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing - UNIZG FER and the Faculty of Science and Engineering University of Limerick - FSE of UL have signed a Memorandum of Agreement. The Memorandum was signed with the objective of promoting academic cooperation in education and research and it was signed by the UNIZG-FER Dean Professor Mislav Grgić, Ph.D. and the FSE of UL Dean Professor Edmond Magner, Ph.D.

This memorandum was signed on the initiative of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies - LABUST within Horizon 2020 project Excelling LABUST and marine robotics - EXCELLABUST.

The agreement will contribute to the fostering and development of cooperation initiatives involving:

• Short-term exchanges of faculty and research staff
• Exchanges of students of undergraduate and graduate studies
• Promotion of scientific, academic, innovation and cultural activities such as lectures, courses, seminars, workshops and conferences
• Exchange of publications and other academic materials
• Joint scientific research and innovation projects
• Professional development programs
• Other activities of mutual interest

Nikola Mišković visited University of Rostock, Germany from 19th till 22nd November 2016 where he was hosted by Prof Torsten Jeinsch and Dr Wolfgang Drewelow.

During the visit he gave an invited talk on research activities taking place at LABUST with strong emphasis on potential future collaboration opportunities.

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) participated on University of Zagreb Fair 2016 as part of the Faculty of electrical engineering and computing (FER) among more than 30 faculties. University of Zagreb Fair 2016 was held from 17th until 19th November 2016 in Zagreb, Croatia. 

Members Anja Babić, Filip Mandić, Ivan Lončar and Marin Stipanov presented current projects and collaborative projects with other groups from FER and also developed equipment - surface vehicle PlaDyPos and the underwater vehicle LAUV.

High attendance of high school students, young faculty students and other interested parties helped in spreading awareness about research potentials in underwater systems and mobile robotics in general. 

Dr Edin Omerdić from the University of Limerick attended the 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision - ICARCV 2016. The conference took place in Phuket, Thailand from 13th till 15th November 2016.

Edin presented a paper User Interface for Interaction with Heterogeneous Vehicles for Cyber-Physical Systems. ICARCV 2016 conference, organized by Nanyang Technological University and technically co-sponsored by IEEE Control Systems Society, was focused on both theory and applications, covering control, automation, robotics, vision and emerging technologies, including cyber-physical systems. The paper provides a brief overview of research activities about development of user interfaces for interaction with heterogeneous vehicles in smart cyber-physical systems.

Project Manager Ivana Mikolić from UNIZG FER held an invited talk "How to get and implement successful EU project" at Project Management Forum organized by Croatian chapter of Project Management Institute (PMI Hrvatska) on 10th November 2016. Through the lecture she presented LABUST research activities and projects, and also discussed the main project management characteristics at the public institution with business representatives.

Dr Marc Carreras from the University of Girona attended the IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) workshop in Tokyo (Japan) on November 6-9th, 2016. The presented work was entitled “Online motion planning for underwater inspection” and proposed the use of path planning algorithms for AUVs in applications where the robot needs to adapt online its trajectory for inspection or safety purposes. These algorithms generate trajectories under motion constraints, which can be followed without deviations, to ensure the safety even when passing close to obstacles. View planning algorithms are also combined to decide the movements to be executed to discover the unexplored seabed or target and to cover it with a camera or sonar. The workshop was attended for a wide international audience which presented other interesting advancements related to AUVs.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Centre of Excellence ACROSS  and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter organized the lecture

"Fjord ecosystems on the West Antarctic Peninsula - hotspots of biodiversity and response to climate warming (the FjordEco Project)" 

given by Prof. Craig Smith, University of Hawai’i​ at Manoa, Honolulu, USA. 

The lecture took place on Tuesday, 25th October 2016, starting at 10:00 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here.

During H2020 EXCELLABUST summer school Breaking the Surface, representatives of all partners and Advisory Board memebers gathered and held a project meeting. The project meeting was held on 5th October 2016 in Biograd na Moru (Croatia).

Meeting goals were to get familiarized with each partner's activity since the last meeting, establish a detailed meeting schedule, work plan and deliverable list for the following 12 months, and to make detailed plans for EMRA’17.

Pere Ridao, Natàlia Hurtós and Narcís Palomeras from University of Girona (ES) held tutorials

"Mission Planning", "Data Analysis" and "Girona500 deployment "

during the 1st EXCELLABUST summer school which was organized as part of Breaking the Surface 2016. Breaking the Surface 2016 was held from 2nd until 9th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia) and more than 220 people participated in the program.

The presentations are available in the repository here.

Edin Omerdić from University of Limerick (IE) held a tutorial

"Thruster Control using LabVIEW Real-Time & FPGA Graphical Programming"

during the 1st EXCELLABUST summer school which was organized as part of Breaking the Surface 2016. Breaking the Surface 2016 was held from 2nd until 9th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia) and more than 220 people participated in the program.

More about the speaker and lecture is available in detailed news content and here.

8th International Interdisciplinary Field Workshop of Marine Robotics and Applications Breaking the Surface was held from 2nd until 9th October 2016 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia.

BTS2016 was organized as a 1st EXCELLABUST summer school and this edition broke all records: more than 220 participants from various fields (marine robotics, marine biology, marine archaeology, maritime security, oceanology etc.) joind BTS!

In short, BTS presented:

• 29 invited lectures
• 10 equipment, project and research groups demonstrations
• 2 trainings

More informations about the programme are available at BTS web site. Check photos to see how the event went at BTS web site or in our Gallery.

Members of the Laboratory for underwater systems and technologies (LABUST) Filip Mandić, Ivana Mikolić and Zoran Vukić have presented laboratory achievements and equipment at booth at the Rijeka Nautic Show 2016. LABUST has presented its own products: autonomous surface vehicle PlaDyPos and underwater tablet casing. Rijeka Nautic Show was held from 23rd until 25th September 2016 in Rijeka, Croatia.

Rijeka Nautic Show judges awarded LABUST with an Innovation Award for its showcased products!

Photos are available in the Gallery.

Zoran Vukić, Nikola Mišković and Đula Nađ participated in the 10th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems (CAMS'16) that took place from 13-16 September 2016 in Trondheim, Norway. LABUST research activities were presented in a form of 7 scientific papers. Prof. Vukić gave a plenary talk entitled "State and Perspectives of Underwater Robotics". The next CAMS'18 will be organized by LABUST in Croatia!

Two times German startup founder award winning, Martin Reents, arrived to University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing on 20th and 21st September to hold lectures on fundamental decisions in founding startup businesses, and on radical changes in hospitality in hotel business.

Lecture content:
Your first 5 decisions when founding a startup
If you start out on something new you have to take some decisions first. Not all of them are equally important. Some decisions are rather preliminary and can or even have to be changed every once in a while. Startups call that euphemistically a “pivot” and they are proud of their ability to pivot fast whenever needed. Other decisions last for the rest of your live. It’s these choices which are really important and need a solid foundation.

Martin Reents will walk the audience through this process of becoming a founder and entrepreneur. His talk is based on his own experience as a founder of several business startups and his work with social entrepreneurs: “I never started out with the intent just on making money. Rather, I wanted to change the world, make it a better place to live. And the money followed”

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) organized a Innovation management training on the topic of

"Patent: A tool to promote (basic fundamentals)".

The training was held on 18th July 2016 at CNR in Genova, Italy and attended by researchers and project managers from EXCELLABUST project partners' institutions.

More about the speakers and their talks can be found in the detailed news content and here, while a short report is available here. Photos are available in our Gallery.

LABUST members Nikola Mišković and Marin Stipanov presented LABUST activities and projects during the Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Challenge Europe (SAUC-E'16) that took place in NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, La Spezia, Italy from 3 - 8 July 2016. We organized a promotional booth and Nikola Mišković gave a talk "Humans and robots - buddies in the underwater". The most successful teams during the competition were awarded with free registrations for "Breaking the Surface 2016"!

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and the Centre for Research Support and Technology Transfer at UNIZG-FER organized the lecture

"University of Girona Project Management System – sharing experiences with LABUST laboratory" 

given by Joseta Roca, University of Girona (Spain). 

The lecture took place on Thursday, 9th June 2016, starting at 13:00 in the TCR at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here. Photos from the talk are avilable in our Gallery.

On Saturday, 5 June 2016, the MaREI Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy hosted a 'discovery day' event as a part of the Cork Harbour Festival. 'Discover Oceans of Energy' was a great opportunity for MaREI to open the doors of the UCC Beaufort Building in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork, Ireland, to the public. The facilities comprise a 2,600m2 tank-hall that house four different wave tanks and a suite of electrical test infrastructure, alongside scientists and engineers engaged in cross-disciplinary research covering a range of fields such as Marine Renewable Energy, Marine and Coastal, and Sustainable Energy Research. As part of the MaREI centre, the UL team took part in this event presenting the lab infrastructure capacities. We did testing of our I-ROV’s in strong ocean currents simulator tank and we presented our ongoing research projects: EXCELLABUST, MARINET, MRE ROV etc.). During the event, the public had an opportunity to engage in some hands-on marine and energy teamed activities.

Anja Babić participated in the course Practical adaptive control held by Dr. Anuradha Annaswamy of the Active-adaptive Control Laboratory at MIT and organized as part of the EECI International Graduate School on Control from the 31st of May to the 3rd of June 2016. The lectures covered the following topics:

• Adaptive control theory – first-order plant, states accessible, output feedback
• Adaptive control with closed-loop reference models and solutions to transients
• Robust Adaptive Control
• Examples and case studies from aerospace and automotive systems

In May 2016 Joseph Coleman from University of Limerick gave a talk on Pint of Science event in Limerick, where he promoted EXCELLABUST project and BtS 2016 Workshop, raising the public’s awareness of both.

Pint of Science is an event where scientist and engineers ditch the lab coats and deliver their research tales in a fun, engaging and approachable way by bringing them to the local pub. Some of the most interesting and knowledgeable scientists and engineers gathered in Limerick on the 25th of May 2016 where people were invited to sit back, listen and engage with the presenters over a pint. 

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Massimo Caccia from the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), the Institute of Intelligent Systems for Automation (ISSIA) gave a tutorial titled "Modelling, identification and motion estimation of unmanned marine vehicles" on 24th - 25th May 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.
The agenda, lecture descriptions and materials used during the tutorial, are available in the repository. A short report is available in the detailed news content and here.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter invite you to the lecture

"Heterogeneous Adaptive Maritime Mobile Expeditionary Robots" 

given by Dr. Vladimir Djapic, SPAWAR Systems Center - Pacific, Unmanned Maritime Vehicles Lab (USA). 

The lecture will take place on Monday, 23rd May 2016, starting at 14:00 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here.

Members of MMRRC UL research team participated in the MaREI Symposium held 5th - 6th May 2016 at National University of Ireland, Galway where they promoted EXCELLABUST project and its Breaking the Surface 2016 event.

MaREI is a marine and energy-based research, development and innovation hub based in Ireland.  The aim of Symposium was to showcase the breadth of research activity and to enhance collaboration between centres.

UNIZG-FER project managers Mirjana Dozan, Ivana Mikolić and Mirjana Stjepanović participated in Excellence in Horizon 2020 proposal writing and project implementation training that was held 15 - 16 April 2016 in Opatija, Croatia. The training was held by European Training Academy.

The focus of the seminar was:

• novelties in Horizon 2020 and priorities for 2016-2017
• project proposal writing
• practical work on the development of your project ideas
• evaluation of the proposals
• analyzing H2020 Call for Proposals

Alongside more than 520 exhibiting companies, LABUST presented its project FP7 CADDY - Cognitive Autonomous Diving Buddy at the world's premier event for marine science and ocean technology Oceanology International which was held from 15 to 17 March in London, UK.

In front of more than 8,400 industry professionals CADDY partners presented equipment they developed in the scope of the project.

Oceanology International visitors were first ones that got the chance to see the newest and improved version of LABUST surface platform PlayDyPos 2.0. We also exhibited our autonomous underwater vehicle BUDDY.

Check how it was on photos published in our Gallery and in CADDY project gallery.

Alongside the Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems - LARICS and the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems and Mobile Robots - LAMOR, LABUST presented robotics research at UNIZG-FER (robotics@fer.hr) at European Robotics Forum - ERF 2016 in front of more than 650 visitors. ERF2016 was held from 21st until 23rd March 2016 in Ljubljana (Slovenia). All three laboratories represented the equipment they developed and research conducted by their members.

Read more about robotics@fer.hr affiliation here and check photos from ERF2016 in our Gallery.

The EXCELLABUST project organized an open door event on 3rd February 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, in collaboration with JOBSTEM project. During the event, more than 120 students from elementary school "Tin Ujević" in Zagreb visited Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) and were introduced to the area of marine robotics. The main goal of the visit was to promote STEM fields to children and thus motivate them to pursue education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields.

All partners gathered in Zagreb for a successful kick-off meeting of the Horizon2020 project EXCELLABUST. The kick-off meeting was held on the 21st of January 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb (HR).

After the meeting, project partners visited some of the Science and Research Laboratories at the host institution:

• Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST)
• Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems (LARICS)
• Centre of Research Excellence for Advanced Cooperative Systems (ACROSS)
• Laboratory for Renewable Energy Systems (LARES)

Photos are available in the Gallery!

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Prof. Marc Carreras and Dr. Narcis Palomeras from the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute, University of Girona (Spain) gave a tutorial "High-level architectures and path planning" on 19th - 20th January 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

The agenda, lecture descriptions and materials used during the tutorial, are available in the repository. A short report is available in the detailed news content, while photos from the event are available in the gallery.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter invite you to the lecture

"Overview of research activities in Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre, University of Limerick" 

given by Prof. Daniel Toal  and Dr. Edin Omerdić, Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre, University of Limerick, (Ireland). 

The lecture will take place on Friday, 22nd January 2016, starting at 10:00 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and IEEE Croatia Section, Robotics and Automation Chapter invite you to the lecture

"Girona Underwater Vision and Robotics lab:

AUVs for inspection and intervention" 

given by Prof. Marc Carreras, Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute, University of Girona (Spain). 

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, 20th January 2016, starting at 15:00 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here.

OCEANS'15 Genova Conference & Exhibit was held from 18 - 21 May 2015 in Genova, Italy. Technological innovation is a key element of sustainable use of ocean resources, provision of ecosystem services, as well as long term economic growth. The MTS/IEEE Oceans series of Conferences promotes awareness, understanding, advancement, application and implication of marine technology.

CADDY project was presented through lectures given by representatives of all CADDY partners at the conference and also at CADDY project's booth in the exhibition space.

Pictures are available here.