Projects
The underlying idea of snake robot perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion.

Control Strategies for Snake Robot Locomotion in Challenging Outdoor Environments (SNAKE)

This project aims to develop new methods and tools to control snake robots for use in challenging real-life operations, in earthquake-hit areas, pipe inspection for oil and gas industry, fire-fighting operations and search and rescue. The research team is composed of some members from the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, NTNU, including Associate Professor Øyvind Stavdahl, Research Scientist Pål Liljebäck and Postdoctoral Fellow Filippo Sanfilippo. Other members of the research team are from the Department of Applied Cybernetics, SINTEF, including Senior Scientist Aksel A. Transeth, Research Scientist Giancarlo Marafioti and Research Scientist Jon Azpiazu.

This work is supported by the Research Council of Norway through the Young research talents funding scheme, project title “SNAKE - Control Strategies for Snake Robot Locomotion in Challenging Outdoor Environments”, project number 240072.

Publications

Filippo Sanfilippo, Øyvind Stavdahl and Pål Liljebäck. SnakeSIM: a ROS-based Rapid-Prototyping Framework for Perception-Driven Obstacle-Aided Locomotion of Snake Robots. Accepted for publication to the Proceeding of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), Macau, China, 2017.

Filippo Sanfilippo, Øyvind Stavdahl and Pål Liljebäck. SnakeSIM: a Snake Robot Simulation Framework for Perception-Driven Obstacle-Aided Locomotion. Accepted for publication to the Proceeding of the 2nd International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics (SWARM), Kyoto, Japan, 2017.

Filippo Sanfilippo, Jon Azpiazu, Giancarlo Marafioti, Aksel A Transeth, Øyvind Stavdahl and Pål Liljebäck. Perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion for snake robots: the state of the art, challenges and possibilities. In Applied Sciences, 2017, 7, 336.

Filippo Sanfilippo, Øyvind Stavdahl, Giancarlo Marafioti, Aksel A Transeth and Pål Liljebäck. Virtual Functional Segmentation of Snake Robots for Perception-Driven Obstacle-Aided Locomotion. In Proceeding of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), Qingdao, China. 2016, 1845–1851.

Filippo Sanfilippo, Jon Azpiazu, Giancarlo Marafioti, Aksel A Transeth, Øyvind Stavdahl and Pål Liljebäck. A Review on Perception-driven Obstacle-aided Locomotion for Snake Robots. In Proceeding of the 14th IEEE International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Phuket, Thailand. 2016.

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Control Strategies for Snake Robot Locomotion in Challenging Outdoor Environments (SNAKE) - Filippo Sanfilippo

Supervised Theses

Spring 2015
Interfacing an EEG Headset with a 3D Simulation Environment for Rehabilitation in Partially Paraplegic,Stroke Victims.
Student: Tom Verplaetse; BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Robin Trulssen Bye, Filippo Sanfilippo.
Interfacing an EEG Headset with a 3D Simulation Environment for Rehabilitation in Partially Paraplegic,Stroke Victims
On the Usage of Single-Electrode EEG Devices for Biometric-Based Person Identification.
Students: Guilherme Felipe Bosger, Rodrigo Bessa Juliao, Hugo de Almeida Ribeiro; BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo, Siebe van Albada.
On the Usage of Single-Electrode EEG Devices for Biometric-Based Person Identification
Active Heave Compensating Crane for Loading/Unloading of Platform Supply Vessels (PSV).
Students: Ivan Flatval, Ørjan Gjelseth; BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Company Contact: Dag Sverre Grønmyr, Rolls Royce
Marine.
Advisors: Siebe van Albada, Filippo Sanfilippo.
Active Heave Compensating Crane for Loading/Unloading of Platform Supply Vessels (PSV)

Supervised Student Projects

Among all the supervised student projects, a selection of them is listed in the following.

Summer 2015
Grasping and Locomotion for Modular Snake-Like Robots in a Search and Rescue Operations Scenario.

Student: Per Myren. Student Summer Job within the BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Grasping and Locomotion for Modular Snake-Like Robots in a Search and Rescue Operations Scenario
Fall 2014
Wearable Tactile Feedback Integration for Offshore Operations.

Students: Bjørn Tomren, Kai Henning Humberset and Rolf-Magnus Hjørungdal; within the course of Mechatronics, robots and deck machines, BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Wearable Tactile Feedback Integration for Offshore Operations
A Wave Simulator Framework for Offshore Crane Operations.

Students: Håkon Østrem, Håkon Eikrem and Bjarne
Humlen; within the course of Real-time computer programming, BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo, Girts Strazdins, Ivar Blindheim and Webjørn Rekdalsbakken.
Within the following project: project description.
A Wave Simulator Framework for Offshore Crane Operations
A Camera Guided Laser Shooter for Tracking Moving Objects.

Students: Birger Skogeng Pedersen and Webjørn Yksnøy Bergmann; within the course of Real-time computer programming, BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo, Girts Strazdins, Ivar Blindheim and Webjørn Rekdalsbakken.
Link: project demo.
A Camera Guided Laser Shooter for Tracking Moving Objects
Advanced Control Methods for a Search & Rescue Drone.

Students: Rolf Ottar Rovde, Kristian Østgaard and Kim Gjøran Robertsen; within the course of Real-time computer programming, BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo, Girts Strazdins, Ivar Blindheim and Webjørn Rekdalsbakken.
Link: project demo.
Advanced Control Methods for a Search & Rescue Drone
An Automated Monitoring System for Detecting Suspicious Subjects in Crowded Areas.

Students: Benjamin Selvåg Skinnes, Øyvind Valderhaug Strømsheim and Steffen Sunde; within the course of Real-time computer programming, BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo, Girts Strazdins, Ivar Blindheim and Webjørn Rekdalsbakken.
Link: project demo.
An Automated Monitoring System for Detecting Suspicious Subjects in Crowded Areas
Summer 2013
Development of an Integrated Virtual-Prototyping Framework for Designing Modular Robotic Hands.

Students: Stian Sandviknes, Ole Jonny Varhaugvik and
Andreas Bull Enger; Student Summer Job within the
BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Within the following project: project description.
Development of an Integrated Virtual-Prototyping Framework for Designing Modular Robotic Hands
Summer 2012
Haptic Feedback Integration for Maritime Crane Control.

Student: Lars Ivar Hatledal; Student Summer Job within the BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Within the following project: project description.
Haptic Feedback Integration for Maritime Crane Control
Spring 2012
A Modular Grasping Snake Robot.

Students: Gøncz Thomas, Frostad Katrine, Hjelme Camilla Hesseberg, Helland Thomas; within the
course of Mechatronics, robots and deck machines, BSc
in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Link: project description.
The Demonstrator and Imitator Robots
The Demonstrator and Imitator Robots.

Students: Ole Martin Longva, Marius Pieroth Skinnes, Christian Steiner Nilsen, Jan Ove Strand; within the
course of Mechatronics, robots and deck machines, BSc
in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Link: project description.
The Demonstrator and Imitator Robots
A Modular 5-Legged Robot.

Students: Håkon Sandanger Lunheim, Kenneth
Strandabø, Eskil Fjørtoft Breivik, Jonas Roald Nordstrand in one group and Lars Ivar Hatledal, Ådne
Heggem and Økland Higraff Espen in another group;
within the course of Mechatronics, robots and deck machines, BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of
Engineering and Natural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Link: project description.
A Modular 5-Legged Robot
A Modular H-Shaped 4-Legged Robot.

Students: Roy Perez Folke-Olsen, Kim Andrè Langelo,
Christoffer Flesjø Toverød; within the course of Mechatronics, robots and deck machines, BSc in Automation
Engineering, Department of Engineering and Natural
Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Link: project description.
A Modular H-Shaped 4-Legged Robot
A Modular Robotic Hand with Vision Object Recognition capabilities.

Students: Kim Andrè Sund, Kjetil Thorsen, Svein Rune Stangeland, Brita Erica Godfrey; within the course ofMechatronics, robots and deck machines, BSc in Automation Engineering, Department of Engineering andNatural Sciences, AAUC.
Advisors: Filippo Sanfilippo and Houxiang Zhang.
Link: project description.
A Modular Robotic Hand with Vision Object Recognition capabilities

Funding Projects

The work concerning maritime cranes and robot was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through the Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 223254 and the Innovation Programme for Maritime Activities and Offshore Operations, project number 217768. In this context, a close cooperation is established with different partners including Rolls-Royce Marine AS, Norway, Huse Engineering, and the Offshore Simulation Centre AS.

Support was also received from the Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems (AMOS), Research Council of Norway, Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 223254.

Regarding robotic hands, the work was partially supported by the European Commission with the Collaborative Project no. 248587, “THE Hand Embodied”, within the FP7-ICT- 2009-4-2-1 program “Cognitive Systems and Robotics” and the Collaborative EU-Project “Hands.dvi” in the context of ECHORD (European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development). In this context, a close cooperation was established with the Department of Advanced Robotics at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy, and the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Siena, Italy.

Filippo Sanfilippo