The European project AeRoTwin has just started with funding from the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union (within the Twinning call) with the aim of transferring excellence in European aerial robotics to the Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems (LARICS) of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (Croatia). 

Through AeRoTwin, the LARICS laboratory, coordinator of the project, will incorporate good practices in research and transfer in aerial robotics from the rest of the project partners: the Imperial College of London (United Kingdom), University of Seville (US) and Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA). Specifically, on the part of the University of Seville, the Robotics, Vision and Control Research Group participates in the project. 

The three-year project aims to achieve that these three entities help the Croatian laboratory to be at the peak of European scientific excellence, especially in the field of aerial robotics. Its experts in areas such as administration, technology, robotics and transfer of research results will support LARICS scientists in the development of good practices. The project is not only limited to the scientific community, since collaborations with the industry will be organized, as well as events aimed at the general public.

LARICS is a reference laboratory with a decade of research behind it in the area of robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles. LARICS research is focused on control, robotics and intelligence in the areas of flying, walking and driving robots, manipulation, warehousing, as well as collective and automotive systems. 

Ivana Mikolić, AeRoTwin Project coordinator from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (LARICS’s home institution), explained that “AeRoTwin will help LARICS and this Faculty to become an integral part of the European research community and match with other institutions that are leaders in the EU” and added that “the project will increase the scientific and research capacity of our laboratory “. 

AeRoTwin project has a Scientific and Innovation Advisory Board (SIAB) that consists of by 4 well-known experts in the field of robotics, unmanned aerial systems, 3D computer vision and intellectual property rights management. SIAB members are Rafael Fierro (professor at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico, USA); Dr. Simon Lacroix (Research Director at LAAS/CNRS, France); Dr. Dubravka Vejnović (Head of Department for Cooperation with Scientific and Research Institutions at the Centre for the Promotion of Science, Serbia) and Manuel Jiménez Díaz (RTD manager at Morera&Vallejo Group, Spain).