George Karras, PhD

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Affiliated Assistant Professor

(University of Thessaly)

 

Research Interests:

My interests extend in the field of unmanned vehicles (underwater, aerial, mobile), system integration, robotics, automation and software engineering. The fields of my expertise include computer vision, visual servo control, sensor fusion, system identification, linear & non-linear control, real time control and embedded systems. I am quite interested in integrating real time control systems in terms of design, modeling and software engineering.

Contact Details:

Email: karrasg@mail.ntua.gr; gkarras@uth.gr
Phone: 2107723656
Office: Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Building M, Ground Floor
Website: www.controlsystemslab.gr/main/members/karras?

Education

4/2006 – 3/2011

National Technical University of Athens, School of Mechanical Engineering, PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Thesis: Teleoperation of Underwater Robotic Vehicles using Visual Servoing Techniques

10/2004 – 2/2006

National Technical University of Athens, School of Mechanical Engineering, Msc in Automatic Control Systems and Robotics

10/1998 – 10/2003

National Technical University of Athens,  Diploma in Mechanical Engineering

Teaching & Working Experience 

18/04/2019-present

University of Thessaly, General Department, Assistant Professor

Courses:

Introduction to Robotics (7th semester)

Development of Sensor Systems (7th semester)

Real Time Systems (6th semester)

Programming in Symbolic Language (5th semester)

Computer Architecture  (2nd semester)

17/10/2016-17/4/2019

Technological Educational Institute of Sterea Ellada,  Dept. of Computer Engineering, Adjunct Assistant Professor

Courses:

Introduction to Robotics (7th semester)

Development of Sensor Systems (7th semester)

Real Time Systems (6th semester)

Programming in Symbolic Language (5th semester)

Computer Architecture  (2nd semester)
 2014-present National Technical University of Athens, School of Mechanical Engineering

 

Teaching Assistant in Undergraduate Courses:

Intelligent Control Systems and Robotics (9th semester)                                              

Industrial Electronics (4th semester)

9/2011- present

National Technical University of Athens, School of Mechanical  Engineering, Mechanical Design & Control Systems Division, Control Systems Lab, Research Associate in the following projects:

1/1/2017-present

CO4Robots: “Achieving Complex Collaborative Missions via Decentralized Control and Coordination of Interacting Robots”, Call: H2020-ICT-2016-2017 (Information and Communication Technologies Call)

4/2013-5/2016    

RECONFIG: Cognitive, Decentralized Coordination of Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems via  Reconfigurable Task Planning (EU FP7-ICT STREP)

4/2012-5/2015     

PANDORA: Persistently Autonomous Robots (EU FP7-ICT STREP)

1/2012-4/2015

Technological Educational Institute of Sterea Ellada Dept. of Computer Engineering, Research Associate:

“DIAGNOR: fault DIAGnosis and accommodation of wheeled mObile Robots”, Research program «Archimedes ΙΙΙ».

11/2011-11/2012 

7/2013-11/2013

Hellenic Aerospace Industry S.A, Electronics Engineering Dept. Research Engineer

R3-COP: Robust & Safe Mobile Co-operative Autonomous Systems”, ARTEMIS Joint Technological Initiative

9/2010-9/2011          

Hellenic Navy, Hellenic Fast Patrol Boats Command

Corporal, Mechanical Systems Technician (Mandatory Military Duty)

10/2003- 7/2010

National Technical University of Athens, School of Mechanical  Engineering, Mechanical Design & Control Systems Division, Control Systems Lab, Research Engineer in the following projects:

1/2009 – 7/2010

CESAR: Cost-efficient methods and processes for safety relevant embedded systems, Sub-Program 6:  Aerospace, ARTEMIS Joint Technological Initiative

6/2007 – 3/2008

Underwater Telecommunication, Automatic Navigation and Acoustic Visualization Technologies  for  Undersea Vehicle Systems (AUVs – ROVs), Program: S&T Cooperation between RTD Organizations in Greece and RTD Organizations in U.S.A. General Secretariat for Research and Technology (05NONEU-546)

9/2006 – 1/2008        

EPIPLEON: Underwater Inspection using Remotely Operated Vehicles

Operational Program “Competitiveness”, General Secretariat for Research and Technology

3/2005 – 7/2007

Pythagoras II: Implementation of a  Phasmatoscopic  Ellipsometer for  educational and research reasons in the field of  semiconductors

10/2003 – 10/2004

Autonomous inspection of subsea telecommunication cables, power cables and pipelines (AUTOTRACKER),  5th Framework Program, G3RD-CT-2000-00265

Publications:

Journals:

[J.11]. Shahab Heshmati-Alamdari, George C. Karras, Panos Marantos, and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “A Robust Predictive Control Approach for Underwater Robotic Vehicles”, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology , Under Review, Jan 2019.

[J.10]. C. P. Bechlioulis, F. Giagkas, G. C. Karras and K. J. Kyriakopoulos, “Robust Formation Control for Multiple Underwater Vehicles,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Under Review, Dec 2018.

[J.9]. S. Heshmati-Alamdari, C. P. Bechlioulis, G. C.Karras, and K. J. Kyriakopoulos, “Cooperative Impedance Control for Multiple Underwater Vehicle Manipulator Systems under Lean Communication,” IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, Under Review, Dec 2018.

[J.8]. George C. Karras, George K. Fourlas, “Model Predictive Fault Tolerant Control for Omni-directional Mobile Robots”, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 2019, DOI: 10.1007/s10846-019-01029-7

[J.7]. C. P. Bechlioulis, S. Heshmati-Alamdari, G. C.Karras, and K. J. Kyriakopoulos, “Robust Image Based Visual Servoing with Prescribed Performance under Field of View Constraints,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics, DOI: 10.1109/TRO.2019.2914333.

[J.6]. S. Heshmati-Alamdari, C. P. Bechlioulis, G. C.Karras, A. Nikou, D. V. Dimarogonas and K. J. Kyriakopoulos, “A robust interaction control approach for underwater vehicle manipulator systems,” Annual Reviews in Control, vol. 46, pp. 315-325, 2018.

[J.5]. George C. Karras, Panos Marantos, Charalampos P. Bechlioulis and Kostas J.   Kyriakopoulos, “Unsupervised On-line System Identification for Underwater Robotic Vehicles”, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, DOI: 10.1109/JOE.2018.2827678.

[J.4]. Panos Marantos, George C. Karras, Panagiotis Vlantis and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “Vision-based Autonomous Landing Control for Unmanned Helicopters”, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, Springer, October 2017, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-017-0702-7.

[J.3] Charalampos P. Bechlioulis, George C. Karras, Shahab Heshmati-Alamdari and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “Trajectory Tracking with Prescribed Performance for Underactuated Underwater Vehicles with Model Uncertainties”, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, May 2016, Issue: 99.

[J.2] Narcis Palomeras, Arnau Carrera, Natalia Hurtos, George C. Karras, Charalampos P. Bechlioulis, Michael Cashmore, Dan Magazzeni, Derek Long, Maria Fox, Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos , Petar Kormushev , Joaquim Salvi , Marc Carreras, “Towards persistent autonomous intervention in a subsea panel”, Autonomous Robots, Oct. 2015.

[J.1] George C. Karras, Savvas G. Loizou and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos,”Towards Semi-Autonomous Operation of Under-actuated Underwater Vehicles: Sensor Fusion, On-line Identification and Visual Servo Control”, Autonomous Robots (2011) 31:67–86.

Conferences (peer reviewed):

[C.30]. Shahab Heshmati-alamdari, George Karras, Kostas Kyriakopoulos, A Decentralized Predictive Control Approach for Cooperative Manipulation of Multiple Underwater Vehicle Manipulator Systems, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2019), May 20-24, 2019, Montreal, Canada.

[C.29]. Michalis Logothetis, Panagiotis Vlantis, Constantinos Vrohidis, George Karras, Kostas Kyriakopoulos,A Motion Planning Scheme for Cooperative Loading using Heterogeneous Robotic Agents , IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2019), May 20-24, 2019, Montreal Canada.

[C.28]. S. Heshmati-Alamdari, C. P. Bechlioulis, G. C.Karras and K. J. Kyriakopoulos, “Decentralized Impedance Control for Cooperative Manipulation of Multiple Underwater Vehicle Manipulator Systems under Lean Communication”, in 2018 IEEE OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Symposium, Porto, Nov 6-9, 2018.

[C.27]. Andreas Nioras, George C. Karras , George K. Fourlas and George Stamoulis, “Survey of fault diagnosis and accommodation of unmanned underwater vehicles”, in 29th International Workshop on Principles of Diagnosis DX’18, 27-30 August, 2018, Warsaw, Poland.

[C.26]. Michalis Logothetis, George C. Karras, Shahab Heshmati-alamdari, Panagiotis Vlantis and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “A Model Predictive Control Approach for Vision-based Object Grasping via Mobile Manipulator”, in IEEE Intelligent Robots and Systems,October, 1-5, 2018, Madrid, Spain.

[C.25]. Shahab Heshmati-alamdari, George C. Karras, Panos Marantos, Kostas Kyriakopoulos, “A Robust Model Predictive Control Approach for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Operating in a Constrained workspace”, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2018), May 21-25, 2018, Brisbane, Australia.

[C. 24] Francesco Maurelli, Marc Carreras, Joaquim Salvi , David Lane, Kostas Kyriakopoulos, George Karras, Maria Fox, Derek Long , Petar Kormushev, Darwin Caldwell,” The PANDORA project: A success story in AUV autonomy”, IEEE OCEANS 2016, Shanghai.

[C.23] Panagiotis Vlantis, Charalampos P. Bechlioulis, George Karras, George Fourlas and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “Fault Tolerant Control for Omni-directional Mobile Platforms with 4 Mecanum Wheels”, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2016), Stockholm, Sweden.

[C.22] GK Karavas , GC Karras, KJ Kyriakopoulos, “Towards cooperation of underwater vehicles: A Leader-Follower scheme using vision-based implicit communications”, Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015 IEEE/RSJ, p. 4852 – 4857.

[C.21] Shahab Heshmati-alamdari, George C Karras, Alina Eqtami, Kostas J Kyriakopoulos, “A robust self triggered Image Based Visual Servoing Model Predictive Control scheme for small autonomous robots”, Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015 IEEE/RSJ, p. 5492-5497.

[C.20] A. Tsiamis, J. Tumova, C.P. Bechlioulis, GC Karras, DV Dimarogonas and KJ Kyriakopoulos , “Decentralized leader-follower control under high level goals without explicit communication”, in 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 5790-5795, 2015

[C.19] Anastasios Tsiamis, Charalampos Bechlioulis, George Karras, Kostas Kyriakopoulos , “Decentralized Object Transportation by two Nonholonomic Mobile Robots Exploiting only Implicit Communication”, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2015), Washington State Convention Center Seattle, Washington.

[C.18] Panos Marantos, George Karras, Charalampos Bechlioulis, Kostas Kyriakopoulos, “Autonomous Model-Free Landing Control of Small-Scale Flybarless Helicopters”, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2015), Washington State Convention Center Seattle, Washington.

[C.17] George K Fourlas, George C Karras, Kostas J Kyriakopoulos, “Sensors fault diagnosis in autonomous mobile robots using observer—Based technique”, International Conference on Control, Automation and Robotics (ICCAR), 2015.

[C.16] George K Fourlas, George C Karras, Kostas J Kyriakopoulos, “Fault Tolerant Control for a 4-Wheel Skid Steering Mobile Robot”, Proceedings of the 26th International Workshop on Principles of Diagnosis, Paris 2015.

[C.15] G.K. Fourlas, S. Karkanis, G.C. Karras, K.J. Kyriakopoulos, “Model Based Actuator Fault Diagnosis for a Mobile Robot”, IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT 2014), Busan, Korea,  February 26 – March 1, 2014.

[C.14] Natalia Hurtos, Narcis Palomeras, Marc Carreras, Arnau Carrera, Charalampos Bechlioulis, George Karras, Shahab Heshmati-alamdari, Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos “Sonar-based Chain Following using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle”, 2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Sept. 14–18, 2014, Chicago, Illinois.

[C.13] Shahab Heshmati-alamdari,Alina Eqtami, George C. Karras, Dimos V. Dimarogonas, Kostas J.Kyriakopoulos, “A Self-triggered Visual Servoing Model Predictive Control Scheme for Underwater Robotic Vehicles“, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2014), Hong Kong, China, 2014.

[C.12] George C. Karras, Charalampos P. Bechlioulis, Sharad. Nagappa, Narcis. Palomeras, Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, Marc. Carreras, “Motion Control for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: A Robust Model – Free Approach“, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2014), Hong Kong, China, 2014.

[C.11] F. Maurelli, T. Larkworthy, D. Lane, G.C. Karras, C. P Bechlioulis, K. J. Kyriakopoulos, “Pose-based and velocity-based approaches to autonomous inspection of subsea structures”, in Proceedings of IEEE-MTS Oceans’13, San Diego, USA.

[C.10] C. P. Bechlioulis, G. C. Karras, S. Nagappa, N. Palomeras, K. J. Kyriakopoulos, M. Carreras, “A Robust Visual Servo Control Scheme with Prescribed Performance for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle”, in 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, November 3-7, Tokyo, Japan, 2013.

[C.9] G. C. Karras, C. P. Bechlioulis, H. K. Abdella, T. Larkworthy, K. J. Kyriakopoulos, D. Lane, “A Robust Sonar Servo Control Scheme for Wall-Following using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ” in 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, November 3-7, Tokyo, Japan, 2013.

[C.8] G. C. Karras, C. P. Bechlioulis, M. Leonetti, N. Palomeras, P. Kormushev, K. J. Kyriakopoulos, D. G. Caldwell, “On-line Identification of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Through Global Derivative-free Optimization”, in 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, November 3-7, Tokyo, Japan, 2013.

[C.7] George C. Karras, Savvas G. Loizou and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos,” On-line State and Parameter Estimation of an Under-actuated Underwater Vehicle using a Modified Dual Unscented Kalman Filter”, IEEE Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2010, Tapei, Taiwan.

[C.6] George C. Karras, Savvas G. Loizou and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos,”A Visual-Servoing Scheme for Semi-Autonomous Operation of an Underwater Robotic Vehicle Using an IMU and a Laser Vision System”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2010, Anchorage, Alaska.

[C.5] George C. Karras, Savvas G. Loizou and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “Semi-Autonomous Teleoperation of a Non-Holonomic Underwater Vehicle Using a Laser Vision System: A Visual – Servoing Switching – Control Approach”, IEEE 17th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, 2009, Thessaloniki, Greece.

[C.4] George C. Karras and Kostas Kyriakopoulos, “Visual Servo Control of an Underwater Vehicle Using a Laser Vision System”, IEEE Intelligent Robots and Systems, Nice, France, September 2008.

[C.3] Dimitra J. Panagou, George C. Karras and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “Towards the stabilization of an underactuated underwater vehicle in the presence of unknown disturbances”, MTS/IEEE OCEANS 2008, Quebec, Canada, September 2008.

[C.2] George C. Karras and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “Localization of an Underwater Vehicle Using an IMU and a Laser-based Vision System”, IEEE 15th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, Athens, Greece, June 2007.

[C.1] George C. Karras, Dimitra J. Panagou and Kostas J. Kyriakopoulos, “Target-referenced Localization of an Underwater Vehicle Using a Laser-based Vision System”, MTS/IEEE OCEANS 2006, Boston, USA, September 2006.