During the expert visit on April 24–25, 2025, PhD candidates Marko Barišić, Vladimir Slošić, and Igor Kvasić visited the University of Montenegro.

On the first day, the 3 candidates delivered lectures on underwater acoustics, autonomous gliders, and diver localization in GPS-denied environments. 

Second day of the visit, the Citizen Science Initiative featured a hands-on session with a professional ROV simulator. Students and the public tackled a realistic underwater task, gaining insight into marine robotics and the importance of training.

As part of the SeaTecHub and Roadmap projects, our member Luka Mandić visited Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI) in Larnaca, Cyprus. During his two month stay, Luka was working on the development of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) prototype and an integration of autonomous driving and path following algorithms, for which he demonstrated purely data-driven approach for vehicle control with the ability to adapt to faulty thrusters and varying sea conditions.   

LABUST showcased its work at MUZZA 2025 during the 4th Week of Science, held from April 10th to 13th at the SEECEL Zagreb (The South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning). This event highlighted the significant contributions of the non-profit association MUZZA in promoting science, technology, culture, education, and sustainable societal development.

Alongside other laboratories from FER and numerous exhibitors: universities, schools, companies, and science and technology-related associations, LABUST played a pivotal role in the event's success.

LABUST members presented captivating demonstrations together with the partners of the SailIntoSTEAM project, including a wind tunnel, several small-scale sailing experiments and an environmental protection board game. Additionally, select visitors were given the opportunity to remotely control a robot from a distance of 2 km at LABUST's pool.

We are announcing the following vacancy to add a new member to the LABUST team:

• Financial-Administrative Project Manager

For the full job announcements, please click on the above link.  
 

We are excited to announce that on April 30, 2025 our lab member Igor Kvasić successfully defended his PhD thesis titled "Framework for multi-modal underwater human-robot interaction" with Summa Cum Laude honors. Heartfelt congratulations to Igor! This is an important achievement, and we’re happy to celebrate this milestone with him. Wishing him every success in his post-doctoral research endeavors and anticipating his future contributions to the field!

An educational and ecology-awareness raising event was organized by the popular student portal Srednja.hr on April 15^th in Šibenik. Igor Kvasić, member of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies, and assistant professor Mirna Gržanić Antić from the Department of Energy and Power Systems presented study programmes and activities at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER).

Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST), CoE MARBLE, and IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter invite you to a talk "Localization as a Cross-Domain Enabler of Novel Wireless Applications" held by Filip Lemić, as part of the MARBLE project.

The lecture will take place on Friday, April 11th, 2025 at 12 p.m. in Banjavčićeva 1a (meeting room 3-21/3rd floor). The lecture will be held in person in English language and is estimated to last 60 minutes, including questions.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST), CoE MARBLE, and IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter invite you to a talk "Reputation Management in Open Robot Swarms through Crypto-Economics" held by Francesco Cerri from Piacenza, Italy, as part of the MARBLE project.

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, April 15th, 2025 at 10 a.m. in Banjavčićeva 1a (meeting room 3-21/3rd floor). The lecture will be held in person in English language and is estimated to last 60 minutes, including questions.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) in collaboration with the IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is inviting you to a lecture "Robotic and Remote Sensing Applications in Coastal Heritage Conservation, Advantages and Challenges" held by Dr. George Alexandrakis from the Coastal & Marine Research Lab (CMRL) – Foundation For Research and Technology Hellas, Greece, as part of the UWIN-LABUST project.

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, April 15th, 2025 at 2 p.m. in Banjavčićeva 1a, Zagreb (meeting room 3-21/3rd floor). The lecture will be held in person in English language, followed by a short overview of the TECTONIC collaboration project by Dr. Vladimir Đapić, and is estimated to last 60 minutes, including questions.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

The IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST), invites you to a lecture "Progress in Marine Monitoring" held by Dr. Shyam Madhusudhana from Curtin Mauritius (an offshore unit of Curtin University, Australia), as part of the UWIN-LABUST project.

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025 at 1 p.m. at Banjavčićeva 1a (room 3-21/3rd floor). The lecture will be held in person in English language and is estimated to last 60 minutes, including questions.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

UNIZG FER once again welcomed students and teachers from Prva Gimnazija Varaždin on March 24, 2025. The visit kicked off with a lecture by Asst. Prof. Đula Nađ, PhD, who introduced the field of maritime robotics and showcased the cutting-edge equipment of LABUST. Following this, the students attended presentations by Robert Milijaš and Assoc. Prof. Tamara Petrović, PhD, from FER’s Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems (LARICS). The session concluded with a captivating demonstration of small flying devices by LARICS researchers Marijana Peti, and Marin Maletić. The visit aimed to spark students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

On Thursday, April 10, 2025, Head of Labust Nikola Mišković will deliver the keynote address at the annual assembly of the Scientific Council for Maritime Affairs of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU). The event, scheduled for 11:00 AM, will be held in the Library of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts at Strossmayerov trg 14, Zagreb.

Titled "CoE MARBLE – Center of Excellence in Maritime Robotics and Technologies for a Sustainable Blue Economy", the presentation will spotlight groundbreaking advancements in maritime robotics, underscoring the innovative work being done to support a sustainable blue economy.

Detailed agenda is available here: Annual Maritime Assembly

Labust's researcher Martin Oreč attended JEC World, the leading international exhibition dedicated to composite materials. The event that took place from 4th to 6th of March 2025 in Paris, France, provided an opportunity to engage with over 1,300 exhibitors showcasing cutting-edge technologies and advanced materials.

During the visit, he participated in live demonstrations, where leading manufacturers presented their innovative production techniques. This experience proved highly valuable for Labust, offering insights into the latest industry developments and facilitating connections with globally recognized manufacturers and material suppliers.

On Thursday, February 20, 2025, the UWIN-LABUST group collaborated with researchers from the University of Trento, Italy.

They performed a Doppler effect estimation experiment at “Brodarski institut” (Engl. Ship Institute) in the heart of Zagreb, Croatia.

By analyzing the deformations in frequency modulated signals, the relative velocity between the transmitter and the receiver can be estimated.

The experiment was performed in a hydrodynamical pool spanning over 270 m in length, one of the largest in Europe.

"Brodarski institut" has been involved in many innovations in its 80 years of history in shipbuilding, marine weapon systems and fundamental research in hydrodynamics and mathematical physics.

The institute is soon to be renovated and will serve as a headquarters for the project "CoE MARBLE - Centre of Excellence in Maritime Robotics and Technologies for Sustainable Blue Economy".  

This project will breathe new life into the institute and spearhead Croatia (and all visiting research groups) into becoming a leader in marine technology and blue economy.

From May 3 to May 5, a out PhD student Juraj Obradović and group of undergraduate students participated in a workshop and company visit to BlueDataB, a company specializing in marine data analysis, located in Kaštel Sućurac. The main focus of the workshop was the use of Planktoskop for analyzing clam larva concentration in waters, a method that has the potential to optimize shellfish farming results.

Three students took part in the visit, each leveraging the opportunity to enhance their research for their master's theses. One student focused on data acquisition, while the other two worked on processing the collected data to extract meaningful insights.

BlueDataB provided an excellent learning environment, offering valuable expertise and hands-on experience in marine data analysis. The visit fostered knowledge exchange between the students and industry professionals, highlighting the importance of data-driven approaches in sustainable aquaculture.

Matej Fabijanić attended WACV 2025 – the IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision – where he presented the paper "Vessel Registration Number Detection and Recognition System" during the workshop program and later at the poster session. At the workshop he also shared his insights from the "Approximate Supervised Object Distance Estimation" challenge, where LABUST secured 2nd place, winning an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, sponsored by ShieldAI. The conference, held in Tucson, Arizona, brought together over 1,000 experts and software engineers to discuss the latest advancements in computer vision. Researchers from NVIDIA, Google DeepMind, Adobe, and other leading institutions also participated, contributing cutting-edge insights to the field.

Prof. Roee Diamant, a professor at the Department of Marine Technologies at the University of Haifa, was interviewed for a Croatian daily newspaper Večernji list about international research projects he is actively participating in together with UNIZG-FER. His work in underwater acoustics is bringing innovative solutions for communication, navigation, and sustainable fishing.

"The ocean is a limitless source of possibilities, from research and ecology to security and energy. Both Croatia and Israel have the potential to become leaders in the blue economy," Diamant stated.

The scientific projects discussed by Prof. Diamant in the article, UWIN-LABUST, SOUND, and SHIELD (set to launch on March 1) are currently at the core of his research. His work is focused on advancing and applying the cutting-edge technologies developed within these projects.

Full article here (in Croatian): Večernji list

The project “Centre of Excellence in Maritime Robotics and Technologies for Sustainable Blue Economy (CoE MARBLE)” was officially presented at the Brodarski Institut in Zagreb on February 4, 2025. This project is funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe Widening Program (Teaming for Excellence).

The official launch of the Centre’s construction and development was supported by numerous high-level representatives from the European Commission, the Government of the Republic of Croatia, and the Ministry of Science, Education, and Youth of the Republic of Croatia, highlighting the importance of investing in the sustainable blue economy and maritime infrastructure innovations.

Watch the aftermovie and read more here: CoE MARBLE

In Dec. 2024, a team from the UWIN group traveled to Malawi to showcase the sound floater to the Malawian fishery department. The experiments involved operating the floater by the local team and showed success in detecting fish as small as 6cm.

In Nov. 2024 we traveled to Dominica Island to participate in the all-team meeting of project CETI. During this time, we performed a unique experiment for separating signals from two boats simultaneously emitting sperm whale click playbacks. The signals were received by a submerged glider equipped with an array of four hydrophones.

On Saturday, November 23, 2024, the Open Doors Day of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) took place and attracted many visitors of all ages. This event offered the public, especially elementary and high-school students, the opportunity to explore the study programmes available at FER and learn about the ongoing research projects. Numerous departments and laboratories showcased their work, including our Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies.

Assistants Natko Kraševac and Matej Fabijanić presented the completed Multi-functional Smart Buoy project, showcasing the buoys ability to measure ecological factors with advanced sensors, harness solar energy through integrated panels, and utilize a built-in camera and GPS for environmental monitoring and precise location tracking.

LUPIS, a Light Autonomous Underwater Vehicle designed in a torpedo shape definitely attracted the most attention. The vehicle is capable of carrying various sensors for conducting versatile and efficient underwater scientific surveys, which captivated the interest of many visitors.

Visitors were also curious about the active involvement of students in real-world projects and their opportunity to work hands-on with state-of-the-art software and hardware, highlighting the faculty's commitment to practical, cutting-edge education

We are proud to announce that members of LABUST were placed second on the Approximate Supervised Object Distance Estimation Challenge organized by the University of Tübingen, the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science and KLE Technological University. The challenge was to detect  navigational buoys on the surface of water and correctly estimate their distance. LABUST had the best distance estimation and second best average precision and was placed second in the final combined evaluation metric.

Matej Fabijanić and Assistant Professor Fausto Ferreira, the authors of the winning method, will be featured as co-authors in the challenge results paper. The results of the method will also be featured in the Maritime Computer Vision (MaCVi) workshop at the IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) 2025 held in Tucson, Arizona, USA.

More about the challenge: https://macvi.org/workshop/macvi25/challenges/usv_dist

More about the conference: https://wacv2025.thecvf.com/

Barbara Arbanas Ferreira was a guest on Croatian national television (HRT) morning show Dobro jutro, Hrvatska on December 31, 2024. The show featured extraordinary achievements and people who marked the year 2024. Barbara talked about the accomplishment of the UNIZG-FER team winning the MBZIRC competition in January last year.

Barbara Arbanas Ferreira presented at the B:IT.con 2024 conference, which took place on December 14, 2024. in Bjelovar, Croatia. B:IT.con is an annual IT and technology conference held in Bjelovar, Croatia, organized by the Polytechnic of Bjelovar. The conference aims to bring together IT professionals and enthusiasts to exchange knowledge, experiences, and foster collaboration within the dynamic tech industry. In her talk, Barbara presented the autonomous multi-robot system for inspection and intervention at sea, the MBZIRC 2023 winning solution.

On December 12, 2024., Barbara Arbanas Ferreira participated in the ADMO seminar on Maritime Wireless Connectivity and Security. She presented our work in autonomous maritime systems, especially autonomous surface vehicles in GNSS-denied environments for search and intervention at sea. During her stay, she made many new connections for future collaborations and participated in an interesting visit to UAS robotics laboratories.

Dr. Barbara Arbanas Ferreira participated in the Second Croatian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, organized by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) on November 5, 2024. This event gathered experts and scientists to discuss advancements, applications, and implications of artificial intelligence across various fields. In her presentation titled "Applied Artificial Intelligence – Autonomous Multi-Robot System for Surveillance and Intervention Operations at Sea," Dr. Arbanas Ferreira shared experiences from the recent Mohamed bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) and discussed the use of AI technology in real-world applications, including competitive robotics.

WUWNet 2024, held for the first time on European soil, took place from 28th to 31st of October in Šibenik, Croatia, organized by Roee Diamant and supported by projects like UWIN-LABUST. The conference proved to be a resounding success, bringing together academics and practitioners from various fields of underwater networks and systems to foster collaboration, ignite interest, and make a lasting impact. Alongside the conference, additional trials of various groups of researchers took place in the venue itself, the Amadria Resort and the nearby Ruđer Bošković Institute's station Martinska.

Held in the stunning city of Šibenik along the beautiful Dalmatian coast, the conference was set against a backdrop of crystal-clear waters, ancient architecture, and Mediterranean charm. The weather was perfect throughout the entire week, adding to the overall experience and providing an ideal environment for both scientific exchange and networking.

The event featured an engaging program, including 5 keynote speeches, 2 parallel tracks, live demos at sea, and a half-day excursion that allowed participants to connect while enjoying Šibenik's captivating surroundings.

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) members attended the 16th International Interdisciplinary Field Workshop of Maritime Robotics and Applications Breaking the Surface - BtS held from 29th September until 6th October 2024 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia, organized by LABUST, and supported by projects UWIN-LABUST, SeaTecHub, Monusen, uBlueTec and MASK.

LABUST members participated in the rich programme which included included 14 lectures, 10 demos and 11 tutorials, but also managed to conduct trials for the ongoing projects.

The underwater localization challenge was organized again this year after two successful ones in 2022 and 2023, and got great reactions from the participants describing it as exciting and challenging.

We are looking forward to the next year's edition of BtS which is going to take place in Cyprus!

Check out the promo video of this year's BtS here.

Assistant Professor Fausto Ferreira from LABUST and Guido Lazzerini, visiting PhD student at LABUST attended the 2024 IEEE International Workshop On Metrology for the Sea (MetroSea) from 14 to 16 October 2024 in Portorož, Slovenia. Assist. Prof. Fausto Ferreira presented LABUST work on the Panel "Observing platforms for studying climate change and biodiversity in coastal areas and lagoons - a focus on the Venice Lagoon use" while Guido Lazzerini presented a joint paper between University of Florence and LABUST entitled "Real-Time Floating Marine Litter Detection on USV".

From September 29th to October 03rd, the second and final trials of the MASK project took place in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. The trials were part of the 16th Breaking the Surface (BTS), international interdisciplinary field workshop on maritime robotics and its applications.

Our event included educational robotics workshops and tests with different ROVs (maneuvering and orientation exercises, navigation missions, deploying and picking up objects with ROV manipulators, etc). As well, MASK is dedicated to environmental protection and one of the main objectives is to teach students on how to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and classify plastic bottles and face masks on the seabed. During this event the students labelled newly collected images and tested AI trained on images from the first year trials on the new data. 

The project was presented to a wide audience at the BTS (attended by 200 people) providing an excellent dissemination activity. Moreover, it also allowed the students not only to participate in the MASK trials but also to attend some of the lectures and learn more about maritime robotics from worldwide experts. During our “hands-on” session (in the official BTS program) all conference participants had the opportunity to learn from the students' experience and operate the ROVs under their guidance.

5 ROVs were used:
-         Blueye Pro
-         Blueye Pioneer
-         Qysea Fifish V6 Plus
-         BlueROV
-         Chasing Gladius

and Roboflow was used to train and test AI algorithms with great success. 

After wrapping up another successful Breaking the Surface workshop on marine robotics, team members of the Smart Blue Tourism project had 2-day sea trials in Biograd na Moru in the first week of October. They collected significant amounts of lidar, camera, AIS, GNSS, and IMU measurements, that will be used for further improvements of the situational awareness module. 

Barbara Arbanas Pascoal Ferreira, Matej Fabijanić, and Nadir Kapetanović attended the IROS 2024 conference held in Abu Dhabi on 14-18.10.2024. Barbara presented our MBZIRC competition experiences at the Maritime Heterogeneous Unmanned Robotic Systems workshop. Matej presented his work on biofouling estimation in a poster session at the Autonomous Robotic Systems in Aquaculture: Research Challenges and Industry Needs workshop, while Nadir presented the overview of the results of the HEKTOR project at the same workshop. 

From September 3 to September 6, two LABUST PhD students, Juraj Obradović and Luka Mandić, presented their work at the CAMS conference, which was held in Blacksburg, Virginia (USA). Luka Mandić presented his work titled Adaptive and Robust Direct Data-Driven Controller for Surface Vessel Navigation, where he introduced and applied an extension of the DeePC algorithm as the vessel controller. This approach aligns with the increasing trend of data-driven reference tracking in control system theory. Juraj Obradović presented his work titled Analysis of LiDAR-Camera Fusion for Marine Situational Awareness with Emphasis on Cluster Selection in Camera Frustum, where he introduced a method that integrates LiDAR and camera data for precise 3D object detection and tracking. In addition to presenting their own papers, this conference was a great opportunity for LABUST members to gather ideas for future research.

Dr. Barbara Arbanas Ferreira held a talk at the DroneDays conference on October 9th, 2024 in Zagreb, Croatia. The talk, entitled "Autonomous Multirobot System for Surveillance and Intervention at Sea – the MBZIRC 2023 Experience" introduced an innovative multi-robot system developed for surveillance and intervention at sea. At its core is an unmanned catamaran with state-of-the-art technology that works seamlessly with multiple drones. This synergistic approach enhances the effectiveness and scope of maritime operations, which include everything from environmental monitoring to search and rescue missions. The presentation highlighted the transformative potential of this technology for the advancement of maritime robotics. This solution is at the forefront of technological advancement and recently won the MBZIRC, one of the world’s most important robotics competitions.

During the week of September 23-26, 2024, LABUST work was presented at the 40th Anniversary of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA@40) in Rotterdam, Netherlands with the following extended abstracts/stand-alone videos:

- Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Search and Intervention in GNSS-Denied Operations by Luka Mandic, Matko Batoš, Juraj Obradovic, Natko Kraševac, Fausto Ferreira, Barbara Arbanas Ferreira, Nikola Miskovic

- Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Team for Maritime Inspection and Intervention in GNSS-Denied Scenarios by Barbara Arbanas Ferreira, Matko Batoš, Marko Car, Jakob Domislovic, Fausto Ferreira, Jurica Goričanec, Antun Ivanovic, Natko Kraševac, Marko Krizmancic, Antonella Barisic, Ivan Loncar, Luka Mandic, Ana Milas, Lovro Markovic, Robert Milijas, Juraj Obradovic, Marijana Peti, Frano Petric, Dario Stuhne, Goran Vasiljevic, Tamara Petrovic, Matko Orsag, Stjepan Bogdan, Nikola Miskovic

- Marsupial Multirobot System for Maritime Intervention, by Jakob Domislovic, Robert Milijas, Dario Stuhne, Antonella Barisic, Marko Car, Antun Ivanovic, Barbara Arbanas Ferreira, Goran Vasiljevic, Matko Orsag, Stjepan Bogdan

As part of the UWIN-LABUST and SOUND projects, field trials took place in Rijeka on September 19th, 2024 as a preparation for Breaking the Surface 2024 demo and Šibenik joint trials planned in October. The LABUST team tested the refined depth-keeping capabilities of the SOUND floater at sea.

Assistant Professor Fausto Ferreira from LABUST gave an invited talk at the EIT Digital Summer School on Maritime Informatics & Robotics that took place from 1st to 6th September 2024 in Ermoupoli, Syros island, Greece presenting both a general introduction to multi--domain maritime robotics and a deep dive on the experience of winning the MBZIRC 2023 competition. Organized by the University of the Aegean, the Summer School included a robot race on the last day where the students attending tested at sea the robot built in the first 4 days. 

LABUST members Barbara Arbanas Ferreira and Fausto Ferreira visited the Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR-Lisboa) on July 23, 2024. During their visit, Barbara delivered an invited talk at the "Get Together" seminar. She presented the work from UNIZG-FER on an innovative multi-robot system designed for surveillance and intervention at sea, sharing insights into the groundbreaking technology that led her team to win first place at MBZIRC 2023, one of the world's premier robotics competitions. The session was highly engaging, fostering fruitful discussions about the latest in maritime technology and exploring how our educational system can support such research.

Check out our shining new Subnero modem, custom-made with 4 synchronous hydrophones, one projector, and a high-performance processor for real-time algorithm implementation. Last week we tested the unit at sea: implementing active sonar for target detection, and testing transmissions for speed (Doppler) estimations.

From June 24 to July 10, 2024, Assoc. Prof. Žarko Zečević from the University of Montenegro, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, visited the LABUST laboratory at UNIZG-FER as part of the MONUSEN project. This visit provided him with the opportunity to explore LABUST's research facilities and robotic equipment, and to gain valuable insights into ongoing research projects, particularly those involving industry collaborations. During his stay, Prof. Zečević also worked on preparing a patent application based on joint research within the MONUSEN project, benefiting from the support and expertise of the LABUST research staff.

LABUST members Đula Nađ, Nadir Kapetanović, Matko Batoš, and Matej Ćosić went to sea trials in Aegina, Greece on 24-28.6.2024. They recorded the ancient Northern breakwater next to the ancient Naval harbor in Aegina using ASV H2Omni-X mounted with underwater cameras and a DVL. The cameras were used for photogrammetric documentation of the underwater cultural heritage site while the DVL was used for coarse bathymetric mapping. In parallel, Đula held a few ROV piloting courses for project partners. 

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) is excited to invite students and all interested parties on Tuesday, 16th of July at 11:30 in lecture hall B5 to a special lecture by a renowned scientist, Associate Professor at Berkeley, Gasper Begus. This event will delve into the cutting-edge topic of AI interpretability, a new frontier in AI research that holds promise for advancing our understanding of both artificial intelligence and human cognition.

Last week, June 21, we dived to 30m in Šibenik to extract an acoustic recorder that was deployed for 4 months. The recorder monitored the activity of ships in the Šibenik Canal for noise pollution monitoring and the data was integrated with a camera overlooking the canal.

As a continuation of March field trials in Šibenik, on June 10th UWIN-LABUST members visited the maritime station of Institute Ruđer Bošković. The team members retrieved the recorded data and made some adjustments in their effort to create an underwater color-calibrated image dataset.

As part of the UWIN-LABUST and SOUND projects, field trials took place in Rijeka on May 16th, 2024 as a preparation for Šibenik joint trials planned in July. The LABUST team tested the depth-keeping capabilities of the SOUND floater at sea and validated the behavior with an acoustic recorder.

From June 3 to June 7, a research team from LABUST participated in “DCLDE 2024” conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands, focusing on marine mammal detection, classification, localization, and density estimation. The team included Professor Roee Diamant, Meisam Jahanshahi, Marko Barišić, Mak Gračić, and Guy Gubnitsky.

The conference started with workshops in Array Beamforming for Passive Acoustic Monitoring, the Dive Depth Detection (3D) method, updates on the Low-Frequency Detection and Classification System (LFDCS), marine mammal density estimation, and Pamguard's Tethys database and machine learning updates.

From June 4 to 7, various presentations were made. Notably, Professor Roee Diamant presented a paper on the “Robustness assessment of a dolphin whistle detector in the Red Sea and on the DCLDE11 dataset”. Additionally, Guy Gubnitsky presented a poster on the “Fully automatic detection and classification of sperm whale codas”.

The conference was a success, providing opportunities to network with leading researchers, learn about the latest advancements, and gathering new ideas for future researches.

On June 12th, Barbara Arbanas Ferreira and Nadir Kapetanović participated in the PhD Day event held at FER. Barbara's inspirational lecture was titled "The Road to Victory at the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) - Experiences of FER's Winning Team". Nadir had a three-minute pitch presentation about his PhD and participated in the panel discussion with other PhDs awarded with FER's Josip Lončar Silver Plaque. 

PhD Day was inspired by the top universities from around the world, as an open gathering where doctoral students publicly present their research results, and everyone interested can get an insight into the diversity and quality of scientific work at the Faculty.

Nadir Kapetanović and Anja Babić participated in the Ceremonial Promotion of Doctors of Science and Doctors of Arts held on June 8th at the Great Hall of the Regional Center for the Development of Entrepreneurial Competences for Southeast European Countries (SEECEL). In total 252 Doctors of Science and Doctors of Arts were promoted. These formal promotions are the first where new doctors receive printed diplomas as well as digital diplomas in their e-mail inboxes. Both versions of the doctoral diplomas were created at the same time and have a QR code, and those in digital form are also electronically signed.

During MONUSEN Summer School organized by the University of Montenegro, held in Kotor, Montenegro on 3-6th June, a few of LABUST members held workshops on several topics. On June 5th, Ivan Lončar held a workshop titled "LoRa networks for localization" and Luka Mandić held a workshop titled "Data meets Model Predictive Control: From classical MPC to an online adaptive direct data-driven navigation and control of autonomous vessels". On June 6th, Nadir Kapetanović held a workshop titled "Detecting anomalous objects in side-scan sonar imagery". On June 7th prof. Marin Vuković and Magdalena Šimunec held a "Cybersecurity – data, users and machines" workshop. Each workshop lasted 3 hours with an introductory theoretical lecture and a hands-on tutorial. Magdalena Šimunec and Matej Fabijanić participated in all workshops all 5 days. 

LABUST members Prof. Nikola Mišković and Assist. Prof. Fausto Ferreira attended the MONUSEN Steering Board meeting on May 29 during the Workshop on EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications (EMRA'2024). Together with the consortium, they had the chance to review the work done until now and plan the last year of the project including the upcoming Summer School in Kotor, Montenegro and two staff exchanges from the University of Montenegro to LABUST, FER to take place later this month.

In the framework of the MONUSEN project, Željka Rajković performed an expert visit on May 15-16, 2024, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Montenegro. The primary aim of this visit was to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and experience in project management and dissemination. A special focus was on the importance of good planning of the project's scope, the budget, the necessary resources, and the time frame required for the implementation of the project. The best tools for project implementation and management and successful practices of already implemented projects were presented through a case study of a Interreg project.

On June 5th, at the 15th international MOTSP conference held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Nadir Kapetanović gave an invited talk titled "LABUST - Increasing Croatia’s marine robotics research capacities". He presented LABUST's recent research activities. The talk emphasized recent research projects ROADMAP, HEKTOR, Multifunctional smart buoys, Multipurpose autonomous ship, and Smart Blue Tourism as well as the challenges and good practices from MACVi 2024 and MBZIRC 2024 competitions. 

On June 3rd, Nadir Kapetanović gave a presentation on his research in the past five years during the 2nd mini-scientific-professional conference Croatian Academy of Technical Sciences (HATZ) - Cohesive factor of technical and biotechnical sciences and the Croatian economy. After the conference, at the 51st regular annual assembly of HATZ, he was awarded the Vera Johanides award. The award is given to young researchers who have not reached the age of 35 and have defended their doctorate in science, and who in the past five years have achieved noticeable personal scientific or professional progress or achieved a notable contribution in the field they are researching. More information can be found here.

The interactive exhibition "Journey into the Depths of Underwater Systems and Technologies" was officially opened at the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum on May 23, 2024 as part of the UWIN-LABUST project.

The exhibition presents innovations that have enabled people to explore and interact with the mysterious underwater world and its inhabitants. From autonomous ships and divers, all the way to the latest innovative research equipment, the exhibition shows breakthroughs that advance our understanding of the underwater world and revolutionize the maritime industry.

The exhibition was realized in cooperation University of Zagreb / Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies and the University of Haifa, University of Haifa the Department of Maritime Technologies, Laboratory for Underwater Acoustics and Navigation Underwater acoustic and navigation laboratory (ANL), supported by the joint Research and Innovation Program Horizon Europe of the European Union (UWIN-LABUST), Croatian-Israeli Scientific Research, Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia (MZO) and Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology (MOST).

We also prepared an interactive application that reveals the magical world of the depths, available at https://labust-museum-app-five.vercel.app/.

Liisa Janssens LLM MA, scientist Emerging Disruptive Technologies and Law, unit Defence, Safety and Security at TNO, the Netherlands visited LABUST on 20-21 May 2024 and provided a lecture on Responsible AI and Rule of Law. More about the talk and speaker can be found below.

Liisa Janssens LLM MA works as a scientist at TNO in interdisciplinary teams to navigate research-projects on emerging disruptive technologies, for example AI in counter unmanned aircraft systems.

In her talk Liisa Janssens elaborated on a scenario-based method which is applied in civil-military research projects, for example in the recently launched NATO report: 'The Design of AI in C-UAS and the Rule of Law' of which she was the lead scientist.

She shared insights via providing answers to the following questions: 
How can we protect our freedom, safety and security with the best means and methods? 
And how can AI be part of means and methods (of warfare) in a responsible way?

The scenario-based method illustrates how scenarios can be a useful tool in navigating interdisciplinary challenges on deploying AI in civil and military operations.

See for more information:
https://www.tno.nl/en/about-tno/our-people/liisa-janssens/ 

On May 8th and 9th, 2024, the Montenegrin Center for Underwater Sensor Networks (MONUSEN) hosted researchers from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb and the University of Haifa. Lecturers Assist. Prof. Đula Nađ, MSc Matko Batoš, Matej Fabijanić (UNIZG-FER), and MSc Guy Gubnitsky (UNI-HAIFA) delivered a series of lectures covering a wide range of topics in marine robotics and intelligent marine systems. The lectures were attended by professors, associates, and students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

Assist. Prof. Đula Nađ presented a high-level overview of building blocks in diver-robot interaction with focus on current research. Different interaction modalities for nonhumanoid underwater vehicles were reviewed. Wearable sensor technologies for enhancing interaction and collecting information about the diver were presented together with other elements in the perception and control pipelines.

MSc Guy Gubnitsky provided an overview of recent advances in the field of neural networks enabling translation between languages even in cases where no dictionary is available. A special focus was on using unsupervised machine translation (UMT) methods to decipher communication between potentially intelligent animals such as sperm whales. Participants had the opportunity to test the automated tool for detecting and annotating communication signals.

MSc Matko Batoš spoke about the application of LiDAR technology to navigate to targets while maintaining a safe distance to avoid collisions with nearby objects and ships. Participants were also introduced to a sophisticated collision avoidance algorithm that dynamically assesses potential hazards by projecting future positions.

MSc Matej Fabijanić shared his experiences from an international competition in object detection in maritime environments. Participants also had the opportunity to learn about the application of computer vision techniques in detecting objects and obstacles from camera images.

Following the success of previous EMRA workshops (CNR-Rome 2014, IST-Lisbon 2015, NCL-Newcastle 2016, VICOROB-Girona 2017, UL-Limerick 2018, IFREMER-Toulon 2019, Univ. Pisa-online 2021, NOC-Southampton 2022, and UNIZG-FER-Sibenik 2023), in the Tenth Anniversary of the first edition held in CNR headquarters in Rome, the Institute of marine engineering of the Italian National Research Council (INM-CNR) will host the next Workshop on EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications from 27th to 29th May 2024. This highly anticipated event brings together over 60 leading experts, researchers, and professionals in the field of marine robotics and applications. In a single-track conference programme over two days there will be 24 speakers with ample time for discussions and networking. Presentations from ongoing EU funded research projects will be mixed with presentations from industry and policy makers.

The workshop is organised within the framework of the MONUSEN, MAELSTROM, UWIN-LABUST, SeaTecHub, FAITH, and DIH InnovaMARE projects. UNIZG-FER coordinates the Horizon Europe ERA Chair UWIN-LABUST projects and is a partner of the Horizon Europe MONUSEN - Montenegrin Centre for Underwater Sensor Networks and the Horizon Europe SeaTecHub, showing the great involvement of UNIZG-FER in the organization of EMRA'2024 after having organized EMRA'2023.

Associate Professor Roee Diamant, ERA Chair of the UWIN-LABUST project will attend and present the UWIN-LABUST project, shedding light on their objectives, achievements, and future prospects.

EMRA 2024 features a pivotal roundtable discussion, addressing challenges and opportunities in bridging different funding instruments. This roundtable titled "Bridging research and innovation funding with regional funding in the area of marine research and engineering in Europe" will be moderated by Adeline Kroll from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Development (DG R&D).

The EMRA 2024 workshop is organized as an event of the European Maritime Day In My Country 2024. More about the workshop and the program can be found at https://emra-24.marinerobotics.eu/.

On May 15, Assistant Professor Fausto Ferreira attended and gave an invited talk at the Next Maritime Technology Day in Trieste, Italy. In this event organized by the mareFVG cluster, he presented LABUST work related to autonomous ships and digital twins during the Ship digitalization session. Next Maritime Technology Day is mareFVG's annual event which celebrates technological innovation in the maritime sector and encourages dialogue between companies and the world of research. This was a great opportunity to exchange views and learn from industry what trends they observe and what are their needs in the ship digitalization domain. A strong interest in the R&D developed at LABUST was shown by the participants.

From the 15th to 19th April 2024, several LABUST members actively participated in the OCEANS 2024 Singapore organized by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) and the Marine Technology Society.  Namely, on 15th April, Prof. Roee Diamant, ERA Chair, delivered the tutorial Detection of    Underwater Acoustic Signals - Theory and Techniques and mag. ing. Luka Mandić presented the tutorial Data meets Model Predictive Control: From classical MPC to an online adaptive direct data-driven navigation and control of autonomous vessels. In addition, Assist. Prof. Fausto Ferreira  presented three articles: one related to the uBlueTec project, one related to an ROV simulator  and one dealing with boat detection and classification using machine learning. Dr. Anja Babić presented the SOUND project and Prof. Nikola Mišković, head of  LABUST presented the SeaTecHub project. Finally, Assist. Prof. Fausto Ferreira received the 2023 IEEE OES Distinguished Service Award.

Radio and Television of Montenegro prepared a trailer and a TV feature on Breaking the Surface 2023 workshop that took place in Kumbor, Montenegro.

The trailer can be watched here: https://www.facebook.com/RTCG.me/videos/1139731517175181

TV feature

Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUOVNfiukjw

Episode 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kelG-NMLcAI

LABUST members Fausto Ferreira and Nadir Kapetanović attended the conference Sustainable blue economy in the context of climate change and Biodiversity Degradation Powered by marine technologies held in Zadar, Croatia on 10th of April 2024. Nadir was a moderator of the round table Marine technologies for the digital and green transformation of blue economy sectors. After the round table, Fausto and Nadir participated in the Croatian stakeholder workshop organized by the Seatechub project partner AKTI. Stakeholders from diverse sectors including Aquaculture & Fisheries, Smart Ports, Marine Protection & Maritime Security, Marine Technologies, and Research & Education contributed insights, paving the path for sustainable solutions.

LABUST showcased its work at MUZZA 2024 during the 3rd Week of Science, held from April 12th to 14th at the SEECEL Zagreb (The South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning). This event highlighted the significant contributions of the non-profit association MUZZA in promoting science, technology, culture, education, and sustainable societal development.

Alongside other laboratories from FER and numerous exhibitors: universities, schools, companies, and science and technology-related associations, LABUST played a pivotal role in the event's success.

LABUST members presented captivating demonstrations, including underwater driving simulations, remotely operated vehicles utilized in offshore operations and underwater exploration. Additionally, select visitors were given the opportunity to remotely control a robot from a distance of 2 km at LABUST's pool.

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is happy to invite you to the lecture titled

"Mining the deep-sea floor: treasure versus destruction in the oceans’ most pristine ecosystems"

held by Prof. Emeritus Craig Smith from University of Hawaii at Manoa. The lecture will take place on Monday, April 22^nd, 2024 at 11:30 at the Gray Hall at FER, Unska 3 in Zagreb. The lecture will be held in person in English language and is estimated to last 60 minutes, including questions.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

Primary school students from the Matija Gubec International School STEM class visited the LABUST lab in Zagreb on March 19th, 2024. The students learned about acoustic communication and its role and application in marine robotics from a lecture by UWIN-LABUST ERA Chair Prof. Roee Diamant, then piloted a surface platform and two ROVs in the pool.

As part of the UWIN-LABUST and SOUND projects, field trials took place in Šibenik on March 7 and 8, 2024. The LABUST team worked with the Šibenik IRB team and tested the depth-keeping capabilities of the SOUND floater at sea, deployed an acoustic recorder for collecting seabed sediment data, and finally installed a long-term acoustic recorder to collect and analyse ship noise.

In the week of February 19, 2024, UWIN-LABUST ERA Chair Roee Diamant, along with Paolo Casari from the University of Trento and Jeff Neasham of Newcastle University, performed cyber security experiments in the Garda Lake. They investigated new ways to securely and reliably exchange secret keys for underwater acoustic communication.

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is happy to invite you to the lecture titled

"The recent excitement around Generative Artificial Intelligence"

held by Asst. Prof. Alberto Testolin from University of Padova in Italy. The lecture will take place on Friday, March 15^th, 2024 at 10:00 at the Gray Hall at FER, Unska 3 in Zagreb. The lecture will be held in person in English language and is estimated to last 60 minutes, including questions.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

SeaTecHub project aims to strengthen Croatian and Cypriot place-based innovation ecosystems and improve access to excellence for R&I actors by cross-border collaboration on a common strategy and alongside value adding chains within the area of eco-innovative technologies for healthy and productive seas.

This February, in the week from 18th to 23rd, project partners were given the opportunity to discuss project’s potential as well as progress made so far, engaging in meaningful dialogue with Mr. Demetris Skourides, Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation & Technology of the Republic of Cyprus. Partners had the pleasure to share knowldege and experience with the H.E Ambassador of Portugal Vanda Sequeira who participated at a very interesting lecture delivered by Prof. Nuno Cruz, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

During six days long expert visit in Larnaca, multiple events were taking place, such as expert visits and innovation trainings that foster mutual learning and skills development, thematic workshops under the Cross-Border Joint R&I Strategic Orientation initiative aiming to address the needs and gaps in the Blue Economy, networking events exploring potential collaborations and synergies with over 50 stakeholders, a visit to the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research (DFMR), Limassol port and much more.

All the details about the project are available at the official web page: www.seatechub.eu – SeaTecHub Project

In the framework of the SEATECHUB, project partners from the Cyprus Marine & Maritime Institute (CMMI) in Larnaca organized an expert visit to UNIZG-FER and held two-day workshops on the 9th and 10th of January 2024.

The first day, dr. George Rossides gave an overview on the design and implementation of novel autonomous underwater and surface marine robotic platforms as well as the creation of state-of-the-art robotic and digitalization systems for marine environmental and oceanographic applications, maritime surveillance, and the digitalization of the Cypriot maritime industry.

On the second day of the visit, dr. Rosides held a training on the workings of CMMI robotic platforms and explained the aspect of the integration with IoT and computer vision CMMI is working on.

This visit was organized with the project activities related to Skills development and mutual learning.

In January this year, Marko Barišić headed towards South America, to the Commonwealth of Dominica for an in-depth glider training as part of UWIN-LABUST project. Together with colleagues from Harvard and Haifa University, among others from the CETI project, an intensive week of training was carried out with the help of ALSEAMAR experts to master managing the high-tech glider in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Operating the glider is essential for moving near the whales and capturing their communication to achieve advancements and breakthroughs in interspecies communication, essentially trying to understand whales.

Our member Nadir Kapetanović participated in the two-day "Seafloor Characterization for  Offshore Infrastructure and Marine Planning" workshop held by Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute (SMMI) and hosted by the Cyprus Marine & Maritime Institute (CMMI) in Larnaca, Cyprus, on January 23-24th. On January 26th, he held a lecture at the CMMI about the recent research activities of LABUST and his PhD-related research. 

Our member Nadir Kapetanović participated in an online meeting organized by the ISPRS WG II/7 and NAUTILUS teams that was held on January 15th. The event provided a platform for open dialogue and a unique chance to collectively review the findings of the NAUTILUS project, acknowledging the contributions of many participants and addressing the open challenges faced or identified by our communities in the future. Nadir presented recent research activities of LABUST from the point of view of multisensor datasets collection and processing. 

The agenda of the meeting and the recordings can be found at this link.

The LABUST research group traded lab gear for bowling shoes and embraced the holiday spirit with a festive team-building event, followed by a dinner.

As the year draws to a close, we extend our warmest wishes for a joyful holiday season and a prosperous and fulfilling 2024.

Four of our members participated in the ICAR conference, which took place at the Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi!

At one of the most established robotics conferences in the world, our members Đula Nađ, Natko Kraševac, Fausto Ferreira and Matko Batoš conducted a tutorial titled “MARUS – Marine Robotics Unity Simulator.“

During this tutorial participants learned how to use MARUS simulator which was fully developed in LABUST and is finding many implementations in the academy and industry. Additionally, we conducted a citizen science experiment in which we compared the performance of participants to the previously developed algorithm in following COLREG rules.

On Monday, December 4th 2023 LABUST members Anja Babić and Ivan Oreč participated in the final project workshop of the Hybrid Energy Systems of Fishing Vessels (HENSUS) project. They presented work done during several LABUST projects, most notably HEKTOR, SOUND, and iVrša, and had an opportunity to exchange relevant experience with researchers from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.

On the FER's Open Day 2023, 25. November 2023. citizens have the opportunity to visit the underwater robotics laboratory (LABUST), and see and try out a range of inventions in the fields of marine control engineering. Most visitors were graduating students interested in research, education, and technological details. Elementary school students were thrilled with driving mini speed-boats. Learning to drive a "working class" remotely operated vehicle was also a challenge. After countless tours over the pool and deep dives in the dark ocean, we just hope that some of the visitors will come back with good ideas and nice memories.

In the framework of the MONUSEN project, two LABUST members Dr. Barbara Arbanas Ferreira and Asst. Prof. Fausto Ferreira, performed an expert visit on November 16-17, 2023, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Montenegro. The primary aim of this visit was to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and experience in the fields of marine robotics and multi-robot systems, emphasizing their applications in marine environments.

Dr. Barbara Arbanas Ferreira delivered three lectures on “Distributed mission planning of multi-robot systems”, “Consensus-based environmental monitoring for underwater sensor networks,” and “Multi-robot systems for maritime security scenarios”. The first lecture was centered on effectively controlling groups of robots working together to solve complex tasks. The lecture highlighted various methods, such as logic-based controllers, game theory, and swarm intelligence, for guiding robot behavior. Practical applications in automated construction and realistic simulation results were presented, demonstrating the effectiveness and efficiency of the discussed approaches. In the second lesson, participants had the opportunity to explore the application of graphs in modeling communication in underwater sensor networks and the fundamentals of consensus-based algorithms. Subsequently, examples illustrating the application of consensus-based algorithms in environmental underwater monitoring and the formation control of surface vehicles were presented. In the last lecture, Dr. Arbanas Ferreira demonstrated how a team of aerial and ground robots collaborates efficiently, showcasing their effective utilization in addressing maritime security scenarios.

Assist. Prof. Fausto Ferreira delivered two informative lectures on “Multi-domain maritime robotics” and “Legal issues surrounding robot operations at sea.” In the former, he explained diverse application domains of marine robotics, showcasing how technological solutions developed by UNIZG-FER can be harnessed effectively to address a multitude of challenges in the maritime industry. In the latter lecture, prof. Ferreira emphasized the significance of regulating robot operations in maritime environments and provided insights into the current status of regulatory development. He presented proposed mechanisms for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) collision avoidance through signaling broadcasts, underlining the importance of safety measures in underwater systems.

On 24 November 2023, at the celebration of the Day of FER, Nadir Kapetanović, PhD was awarded the Silver Plaque "Josip Lončar" for the academic year 2022/2023 for particularly successful doctoral dissertation and research work titled "Complete coverage of large seabed areas using sonar data-based path planning for an autonomous marine vehicle" under the mentorship of Prof. Nikola Mišković (UNIZG-FER) and Prof. Adnan Tahirović (UNISA-ETF). The award was presented by FER's Dean Prof. Vedran Bilas, PhD.

LABUST members prof. Nikola Mišković and Nadir Kapetanović gave an interview to the Novi List magazine about the Smart Blue Tourism project in which LABUST is a project partner. They emphasized the importance of IoT solutions in the maritime environment through the development of pollution monitoring buoys as well as situational awareness modules for future autonomous ships.

The full article is available at link.

For tportal.hr prof. Ph.D. Nikola Mišković spoke about the Smart Blue Tourism project, a project led by Rijeka's Maritime Center of Excellence, which operates as part of the Lürssen Group, and of which FER is a partner.

The Smart Blue Tourism project brings high-tech solutions in nautical tourism, and primarily stands out for its importance and contribution to green and digital transformation. The main goals of the project are to increase the resilience and sustainability of nautical tourism, as well as to enable the best quality of service and a personalized user experience.

You can read more information at the link.

In the week of November 13th 2023, LABUST members Matej Ćosić, Eugen Kutleša, and Ivan Oreč deployed the iVrša (innovative fishing trap) as part of the project's first field trials. The iVrša was tested in the sea near an oyster and mussel farm in Šibenik.

On November 15 LABUST member Anja Babić was awarded the IEEE Croatia Section Student Volunteer Award for her work with the Oceanic Engineering Society University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter. The award was given out at the IEEE Croatia Section annual gala dinner and award ceremony held at Hotel International in Zagreb attended by several LABUST members.

LABUST associate Matej Fabijanić participated in the 11th Croatian Computer Vision Workshop (CCVW 2023) on November 15th, 2023. He presented the Smart Blue Tourism project and shared his experience of being on the winning team of the Maritime Computer Vision (MaCVi) USV-based Obstacle Detection Challenge 2023. Moreover, Matej and Magdalena Šimunec also participated in the poster session of the CCVW 2023.

On the occasion of the celebration of University Day in Zagreb, in the ceremonial hall of the Regional Center for the Development of Entrepreneurial Competences for Southeast European Countries - SEECEL, 08.11.2023. a solemn session of the Senate was held as part of the University Week. During the session, special awards were also given to students and professors who contributed to the University during the past academic year or during many years of work.

A special award was given to Matej Fabijanić, a graduate student in Software Engineering and Information Systems, for his international success in scientific and professional work as part of FER's Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technology in the scope of the HEKTOR project, and for having published papers at the international peer-reviewed conference OCEANS 2022, Hampton Roads and in Q1 MDPI JMSE 2023 Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.

The honorary title of professor emeritus was awarded to prof. Ph.D. Željko Štih from the Department of Electrical Engineering Fundamentals and Measurements. The award "Fran Bošnjaković" was given to prof. Ph.D. Igor Kuzle from the Institute for Department of Energy and Power Systems.

LABUST members and associates Matej Fabijanić, Matko Batoš, Marko Barišić, Kristijan Krčmar, and Mak Gračić presented not only our research laboratory and equipment but also the whole UNIZG-FER at this year's edition of the University of Zagreb Fair from November 9th to 11th. They showcased their student demo about the remote control of the Blueye Pro ROV from the Fair to our lab pool that had obstacle course to test the piloting skills of the interested Fair visitors.

Visitors had the opportunity to see and try out other selected student demos and talk with students attending FER to get useful information.  Interest in FER was not only shown by high-school graduates but there were various ages of children and adults who were interested in what FER offers. We hope that we have helped all interested visitors in the difficult decision that awaits them at the end of this school year, and next year we are waiting for you with new interesting demos! The Virtual FER stand will remain active and available to all, same as the web-pages of student demos.

We are proud to announce that members of LABUST won the USV Obstacle Detection Challenge track organized by the University of Tübingen and the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science. The challenge was to detect various objects on the surface of water and correctly classify them into various categories.

Matej Fabijanić and Magdalena Šimunec, the authors of the winning method, will be featured as co-authors in the challenge results paper. The results of the method will also be featured in the Maritime Computer Vision (MaCVi) workshop at the IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) 2024 held in Waikoloa, Hawaii.

More about the challenge: https://macvi.org/workshop/macvi24/challenges/usv_det

More about the conference: https://wacv2024.thecvf.com/

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is happy to invite you to the lecture titled

"How research infrastructure project can boost research and education activities and expand the project portfolio"

held by Antonio Vasiljević, Ph. D., Research Project Manager at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Norway. The lecture is organised as part of the UWIN-LABUST project and will take place on Friday, November 17^th, 2023 at 12:00 at the Gray Hall at FER, Unska 3 in Zagreb. The lecture is in English.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

Our member Anja Babić participated in the IEEE 9th World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT) 2023 conference which was held from October 12 to 27, 2023 in Aveiro, Portugal and virtually. Anja presented the latest results of the SOUND project in the context of Underwater Internet of Things applications and participated in a roundtable on Maritime IoT - Deployed Sensing and Platforms.

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is happy to invite you to the lecture titled

"From Subsea to Space: Integrated Research in Maritime and Space Robotics"

held by dr. sc. Ivan Stenius, Associate Professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. The lecture is organised as part of the UWIN-LABUST project and will take place on Friday, November 10^th, 2023 at 12:00 at the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies at FER, Miramarska 20 in Zagreb. The lecture is in English.

A summary of the lecture as well as the lecturer's biography can be found below.

Assistant Professor Fausto Ferreira from LABUST participated on 19/10/2023 in the kick-off of the uBlueTec project. uBlueTec - Training framework on Underwater Technologies as key enabler for blue careers development project is a 30 months project with a total budget of 914,404.88€ funded by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF). The project is coordinated by the Aix-Marseille University and includes 7 partners from 6 countries. The main goal of the project is to set up, test and validate a triple transition training and skills development model (green, blue, digital skills). LABUST is WP leader of the WP2 Educational Material, Curriculum & Piloting and is responsible for the development of curricula on underwater technologies. For more info on this project and related projects from the same call please visit the Maritime Forum.

As part of the UWIN-LABUST outreach efforts, primary school students from the Matija Gubec International School attended a lecture by UWIN-LABUST ERA Chair Prof. Roee Diamant and then visited the LABUST lab in Zagreb on October 18th, 2023. The students learned about acoustic communication and its role and application in marine robotics, then piloted a surface platform and an ROV in the pool. They went on a tour of the lab, becoming acquainted with the many vehicles in use there, as well as the tools and machines used to develop and make them.

On October 11, 2023 SOUND project trials took place in Rijeka near the former torpedo launching and testing station. The floater was deployed off a boat in the bay to depths of up to 50m.

UWIN-LABUST ERA Chair Prof. Roee Diamant will be giving a series of 5 lectures on the topic "Tools for efficient academic research". The lectures will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 in the FER Grey Hall on the following Tuesdays: 7.11., 21.11., 5.12., 12.12. and 19.12. 2023.

The workshop will provide tools for conducting effective high-level research with focus on defining research objectives, conducting efficient literature surveys, planning ahead of experiments, paper and rebuttal writeup, and preparation of presentation slides.

The workshop is intended for PhD students and postdocs, and will be given in English. A summary of the contents of each lecture is given below.

High school and university students from Sarajevo visited the University of Zareb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) on September 29, 2023. The visit was organized as part of the project "Employability and Jobs of the Future" by SOS Children's Villages Bosnia and Herzegovina, the AeroSTREAM project, and FER's science popularization program "ŠUZA – from school to science and academic community".

As part of the visit, about twenty students, along with their supervisors, had the opportunity to visit two robotics laboratories - the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST), where they had the chance to see a pool for conducting projects in marine robotics and learn more about ongoing projects, and the Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Systems Control (LARICS), where they learned more about aerial robotics and robotic manipulators. The visitors also participated in a workshop on assembling and programming LEGO Spike Essentials educational sets. All participants left FER with wonderful impressions.

Our member Nadir Kapetanović participated in the New Era of Mobility conference which was held on October 10th in Zagreb, Croatia. Nadir presented recent research of LABUST on situational awareness in a lecture titled "Autonomous ships: Towards situational awareness at sea".

As part of the UWIN-LABUST project, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter, the IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter and IEEE Life Member Affinity Group - Croatia is happy to invite you to the lecture

"Research activities at the Visual Cognitive Systems Laboratory at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science"

held by Engr. Matej Dobrevski - Ph.D. student at the Visual Cognitive Systems Laboratory at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Computer and Information Science. The lecture will take place on Friday, October 20^th, 2023 at 13:00 in the Grey Hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English.

The lecturer’s CV and the summary of the lecture can be found below.

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) members attended the 15th International Interdisciplinary Field Workshop of Maritime Robotics and Applications Breaking the Surface - BtS held from 24th September until 1st October 2023 in Kumbor, Montenegro, organized by LABUST and supported by projects UWIN-LABUST, SeaTecHub, MARBLE and Monusen.

LABUST members participated as lecturers and demonstrators during a week-long workshop.

Anja Babić held a lecture on “Developing A Swarm Of Low-Cost Floaters To Acoustically Perform In-situ Fish Stock Assessment In Remote Areas”, Đula Nađ presented the Hackathon info implemented during the Marble project and Luka Mandić was involved during the demonstration. 

From July 18th to 20th, field trials for the SOUND project took place in Eilat, Israel. This area of the Red Sea was chosen due to its steep bathymetry, enabling measurements at a great variety of depths. Five joint sea experiments were performed by the researchers from the University of Haifa and the University of Zagreb in order to check the integrated operation of the developed floater and the acoustic unit.

The SOUND team from LABUST visited Haifa, Israel and the ANL facilities from July 16th to 20th, 2023.
As part of this visit, a meeting was held with the Croatian Ambassador to Israel Vesela Mrđen Korać in order to discuss both ongoing and future collaboration between the two countries. The Ambassador toured the laboratory facilities, met the various research teams, learned about current projects, and provided valuable insight into potential avenues for strengthening cooperative efforts.

From the 3rd to the 8th July, our joint team UNIZG-FER competing in the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) 2023, had our first field trials in Rijeka. All system components have been tested and we are very happy with the results! Great thanks to our supporters Centar za morske tehnologije (CMT, https://www.pfri.uniri.hr/web/hr/cmt.php) for providing us with excellent facilities.

Three of our members participated in the ICRA conference that took place at London Excel! At one of the largest robotic conferences, our members Ivan Lončar, Natko Kraševac, and Juraj Obradović conducted a tutorial titled "TEAM – Technology Enablers for Autonomous Maritime Robots: Digital Twins with Simulations and Cloud-enabled Massive Scale Datasets for Experimentation and Validation."

This tutorial was conducted in collaboration with the research group Reeds (https://reeds.opendata.chalmers.se/) from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The collaboration between LABUST and Reeds began during the unmanned ship project with a common goal of creating large datasets for research and development in the field of autonomous boat driving. Although both groups shared the same goal, they chose different approaches. The Reed group acquired large amounts of data from their custom-made ship, equipped with a variety of sensors, while LABUST decided to take a different approach by creating a realistic simulation of the marine environment and tools for automatic data labeling using the MARUS simulator. For this tutorial, we decided to test the fusion of these two approaches in a Digital Twin, combining the best of both worlds to provide the best possible results for anyone using the data. The tutorial was a half-day event that took place on the first day of the conference, May 29, 2023.

On the final day of the conference, Natko Kraševac and Juraj Obradović participated in the Scalable Autonomous Driving tutorial, where they had the opportunity to listen to presentations from leading companies in the autonomous driving field, such as Nvidia and Cruise.

As part of the UWIN-LABUST project, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter, the IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter and IEEE Life Member Affinity Group - Croatia is happy to invite you to the lecture

"Technologies for underwater surveying: Workflow for 3D reconstruction of UCH sites"

held by Engr. Umberto Severino - Ph.D. student, Department of Mechanical, Energetic and Management Engineering (DIMEG), University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy. The lecture will take place on Friday, July 14^th, 2023 at 10:00 in the LABUST pool laboratory, Martinovka building, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English.

The lecturer’s CV and the summary of the lecture can be found below.

During 5-8 June LABUST participated in the OCEANS 2023 Limerick conference with several different activities. More than 10 members of LABUST were in Limerick to present their work, connect with the community, and learn about new academic achievements in the field. We had multiple activities which include tutorials, 3 papers, and a booth presenting the collaboration with the University of Montenegro in the scope of the MONUSEN project.

Our members Ivan Lončar, Natko Kraševac, Fausto Ferreira, and Juraj Obradović conducted a tutorial titled MARUS - Unity Based Simulator for Marine Robotics. During this tutorial participants learned how to use MARUS simulator which was fully developed in LABUST and is finding many implementations in the academy and industry. Additionally, we conducted a citizen science experiment in which we compared the performance of participants to the previously developed algorithm in following COLREG rules. The same citizen science experiment was conducted in the MONUSEN booth. During the conference the startup company H2O Robotics which originated from LABUST had a booth where they presented their technologies to the community.

In the session Maritime Vehicle Navigation 1 our member Vladimir Slošić had a presentation for his paper titled "Underwater breadcrumb localization". In the session Pollution Monitoring our members Anja Babić and Nadir Kapetanović had a presentation for their paper titled "Cooperative marine litter detection and environmental monitoring using heterogeneous robotic agents". Additionally, Anja Babić chaired this session. In session Maritime Vehicle Navigation 2 our member Juraj Obradović had a presentation for the paper titled "Navigation, Guidance and Control of a catamaran robust to external disturbances".

We are thrilled to announce that on June 26, 2023 our lab member Nadir Kapetanović successfully defended his PhD thesis titled „Complete coverage of large seabed areas using sonar data-based path planning for an autonomous marine vehicle“ with Summa Cum Laude honors! Congratulations to Nadir on reaching this important milestone. We wish him all the best on his post-doctoral research journey and look forward to his future accomplishments!

On the occasion of marking the tenth anniversary of the Republic of Croatia's accession to the European Union, on Friday, June 30, 2023, from 09:00 to 15:00, FER's Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies - LABUST will open its doors to all interested students and citizens.

The aim of holding "Open Doors" is to present activities and projects that have contributed to the development of higher education and technologies in the field of underwater systems.

Following the success of previous EMRA workshops (CNR-Rome 2014, IST-Lisbon 2015, NCL-Newcastle 2016, VICOROB-Girona 2017, UL-Limerick 2018, IFREMER-Toulon 2019, Univ. Pisa-online 2021 and NOC-Southampton 2022), the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) together with IN2 and DIH AgriFood Croatia will host and co-organise the Workshop on EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications (EMRA) 2023 on the 20th and 21st of June in Šibenik, Croatia. This highly anticipated event brings together over 90 leading experts, researchers, and professionals in the field of marine robotics and applications. In a single-track conference programme over two days there will be 25 speakers with ample time for discussions and networking. Presentations from ongoing EU funded research projects will be mixed with presentations from industry and policy makers.

The workshop is organised within the framework of two significant projects coordinated by UNIZG-FER, namely the Interreg ADRION MARBLE - Joint Master on Maritime Robotics in Blue Economy and the Horizon Europe ERA Chair UWIN-LABUST projects, as well as Horizon Europe MONUSEN - Montenegrin Centre for Underwater Sensor Networks and SeaTecHub and Interreg Italy-Croatia InnovaMare, which UNIZG-FER is a partner in.

EU-Funded Horizon Europe SeaTecHub Project Kicks Off 

The highly anticipated Horizon Europe SeaTecHub project, funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe program, has officially commenced on June 1st, 2023. University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER), in collaboration with esteemed institutions and organizations, is proud to announce its involvement in this leading-edge Coordination and Support Action. 

The SeaTecHub project, coordinated by the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), aims to strengthen innovation ecosystems in eco-innovative technologies for healthy and productive seas. As a key participant, UNIZG-FER will contribute leading the Crotian ecosystem and leading the Research and Innovation Work Package.

During the kick-off meeting, scheduled for June 19th, participants will engage in fruitful discussions, exchange knowledge, and establish collaborative frameworks that will drive innovation and move the project forward. This gathering marks the beginning of a transformative journey, where stakeholders will work hand in hand to develop progressive solutions for the challenges our seas face today. 

As part of the UWIN-LABUST project, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter, the IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter and IEEE Life Member Affinity Group - Croatia is happy to invite you to the lecture

"Underwater remote sensing systems simulation for synthetic dataset generation"

held by dr. sc. Antonio Lagudi, Department of Mechanical, Energetics and Management Engineering (DIMEG), University of Calabria (UNICAL),  Arcavacata di Rende, Italy. The lecture will take place on Tuesday June 27^th, 2023 at 11:00 in the Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English and is open to all interested participants.

The lecturer’s CV and the summary of the lecture can be found below.

As part of the UWIN-LABUST project, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter, the IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter and IEEE Life Member Affinity Group - Croatia is happy to invite you to the lecture

"Communicating and raising awareness about Underwater Natural and Cultural Heritage"

held by assoc. prof. dr. Fabio Bruno, Department of Mechanical, Energetics and Management Engineering (DIMEG), University of Calabria (UNICAL),  Arcavacata di Rende, Italy. The lecture will take place on Tuesday June 27^th, 2023 at 10:00 in the Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English and is open to all interested participants.

In May 2023 LABUST participated in the annual Undersea Medicine - Deep Submergence Biomedical Development Program Review hosted jointly by ONR and NAVSEA. The program review was held from May 9-11 in National Harbor, Maryland USA. After four years of virtual presence, we finally got the chance to present in person recent accomplishments from the domain of diver navigation, physiological monitoring and human-robot interaction underwater done on project ROADMAP – Robot Aided Diver Navigation in Mapped Environment. Particularly interesting were the Q&A sessions where scientific accomplishments were discussed directly with end users, medical doctors, divers, companies and academics.

From the 14th to the 18th of May, the MASK project had its first trials in Baška, Krk Island, Croatia. These took place  during the 16th Baška GNSS Conference: Technologies, Techniques and Applications Across PNT and the 3rd Workshop on Smart Blue and Green Maritime Technologies. The program included a series of icebreaking games, educational robotics workshops and tests with robots at the hotel pool. Seven different robots were tested throughout the week and most tests took place with five robots working at the same time. Missions included navigation in a polygon, wall following, circle around an obstacle and picking up objects. As the project is dedicated to environmental protection, the objects to be picked were protection masks and plastic bottles. Moreover, images were collected to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and classify these objects. Due to bad weather, trials at sea were reduced but students had the opportunity to test the robots during a storm with low visibility and waves making the trials realistic and challenging. As only 10 students could travel, remote testing took also place for the students involved in the project that could not attend in person. In addition, the project was presented during the conference to a wide audience and students participated in the presentation by providing their feedback on the project trials to the attendees. This provided high visibility to the project and at the same time allowing the students to interact with professionals from the field. In particular, attendees had the opportunity of controlling the robots but they were taught by the students on a reverse train the trainers experiement.

The InnovaMare Final conference event took place on May 12th 2023 in Šibenik, Croatia, marking the culmination of nearly 3 years of collaborative activities.

The Conference, organized by the Croatian Chamber of Economy, aimed to engage stakeholders (authorities, universities, industry, and citizens) in a long-term strategy to boost the Adriatic Sea’s Blue Economy. It focused on leveraging the digital and green transition. The centrepiece of the event was the presentation of InnovaMare’s achievements, with a special focus on the newly created Digital Innovation Hub (DIH). The DIH will foster the development of innovative marine technologies to combat Adriatic pollution.

The conference includeed speeches from key stakeholders and a panel discussion – introduced by video demonstrations of DIH InnovaMare – on the innovation ecosystem for the blue economy. Students who attended the InnovaMare Academy received certificates for participating. The ceremony followed practical demonstrations of technological innovations, including a remote demonstration and livestream from the LABUST lab by Anja Babić and Martin Oreč, and visits to the Living Lab Adriatic Sea pilot sites.

MUZZA's highly successful 2nd Week of Science, held from May 19th to 21st at the Zagreb Fair, showcased the impactful work of the non-profit association MUZZA in popularizing science, technology, culture, education, and sustainable development of society. With an impressive turnout of over ten thousand visitors, the event, led by President Mrs. Đurđica Protić, exemplified MUZZA's commitment to promoting science and technology.

Featuring a diverse array of activities, including 60 workshops and nine discussion panels on trending scientific topics, the event engaged attendees of all ages. LABUST, along with other laboratories from FER, and 40 exhibitors representing universities, schools, companies, and science and technology-related associations, contributed to the event's success.

LABUST members Juraj Obradović, Kristijan Krčmar, Matko Batoš, Luka Mandić, and Vladimir Slošić showcased interesting demonstrations, such as point cloud from LiDAR, simulated boat driving, underwater exploration, and remote robot control from a 2 km distance at LABUST's pool.

MUZZA's president Mrs. Đurđica Protić also took the opportunity to unveil her visionary plan for an interactive museum called MUZZA, aimed at making science, technology, culture, education, and sustainable development more accessible to the public.

For the sixteenth year in a row, companies and students had a unique opportunity to meet at the Job Fair, which was held on May 17 and 18, 2023 at the Zagreb Fair. The Job Fair was organized by FER, the FER Career Center, the FER Student Union (SS FER), and the Electrical Engineering Students Club (KSET). This year 152 companies participated. Moreover, 17 workshops, 24 invited talks, and various round table sessions were held. LABUST members Vladimir Slošić and Nadir Kapetanović presented our laboratory’s research projects and job opportunities. 

First field trials of the SOUND project took place in Šibenik from May 15 to May 18 2023. Teams from Haifa, Zagreb, and Šibenik gathered datasets at a fish farm, tested the initial floater prototype, and deployed an acoustic recorder for long-term monitoring of shipping noise in the Šibenik aquatorium.

Students from the Technical school Ruđer Bošković in Zagreb visited the LABUST laboratory facilities on Monday, April 1st as part of their extracurricular activity focusing on autonomous systems. They had a chance to test their Chasing Gladius Mini S ROV in the laboratory pool as well as to get to know LABUST projects and vehicles. A video report by prof. Robert Ljubek can be seen on YouTube.

Today Riccardo Caponi from Deep Trekker visited our lab to showcase two of their ROVs, namely DTG3 and Pivot. We had an opportunity to operate the vehicles and test various functionalities, but also exchange ideas and experiences in marine vehicle development and sensor integration.

We had an amazing time during the MARBLE team's exciting training on Maritime robotics in the blue economy, which took place from May 15th to May 19th. The event was hosted at the prestigious University of Trieste in Italy, and it was a great success. Over 130 participants joined us, including enthusiastic students from Italy, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and Montenegro.

On the 10th of May 2023, LABUST participated in the event "The Adriatic Sea as a new laboratory for blue economy" organised by the Embassy of Italy in cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Economy. Assistant Professor Fausto Ferreira participated in the Marine Science and Technology in the Service of Marine Conservation roundtable and both INNOVAMARE and MARBLE projects have been introduced and discussed as excellent examples of cooperation between the two countries. Besides the leading partner of INNVOMARE, Croatian Chamber of Economy, the MARBLE partners mareFVG, University of Trieste, National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS) and DIH Agrifood Croatia attended the event and contributed to the discussions. The recording of the event is available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EYc7xMlA9w

Our members Nadir Kapetanović and Kristijan Krčmar participated in the "ROBOTIMA – my sea robotics" event organized in the scope of Innovamare project. The event was held in Trieste, Italy on May 3rd, 2023. Nadir gave a presentation about LABUST's current research activities, and later on, held a demo of the ASV H2Omni-X. 

As a part of the SOUND project and a collaboration with the University of Haifa, from March 7th to March 10th 2023, Martin Oreč from LABUST visited the National Institute for Oceanography and the Underwater Acoustic & Navigation Lab which is led by prof. Roee Diamant. The goal of this visit was to share knowledge and analyse floater vehicles developed during earlier projects. Martin had a chance to observe the advantages and disadvantages of the available floater design and make conclusions and gather ideas for future work, as well as tour the facility and see equipment, technologies, and teams who work in the institute.

Martin Oreč and Benjamin Pavišić from LABUST visited Industrial Fair in Celje (SLO), the largest fair in the fields of machine manufacturing and toolmaking, welding, and cutting in SE Europe.

Students from Technical school Zagreb, accompanied by teacher Željko Vrabec and Siniša Tevely, visited our laboratory and learned about potential applications of marine systems. The lecture discussed also how they could apply their high-school knowledge in electronics and computing towards application in the maritime domain. After the lecture, the students operated the local surface vehicle in the pool and, as usual, performed an informaln competition.

On 30th and 31st of March MARBLE study visit in Greece was held at the Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο - National Technical University of Athens. Partners presented the work that has been done so far for each work package. The plan for the upcoming events was presented, as well as the plan for the next 4 months.

On Wednesday 22 March and Thursday 23 March 2023, Bari hosted the Roadshow on blue technologies and smart solutions for the Adriatic Sea, organized by ARTI – the Apulian Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation as the partner of the InnovaMare project.

Anja Babić and Kristijan Krčmar held demonstration activities of marine innovative robotic solutions implemented within the project by LABUST, FER and our partner CNR as part of the workshop “Cooperation, blue technologies and smart solutions for the sustainability of the Adriatic Sea”.

MASK project partner Bedekovčina High School visited LABUST, FER on 21st March 2023. The students had to opportunity to learn more about LABUST projects during a presentation by Assistant Professor Đula Nađ. After, they had the opportunity of driving different types of robots in LABUST pool, both surface vehicles and ROVs. The students considered it a fun activity and are looking forward to the more challenging task of remoting control the same ROVs, an activity forecast in the Erasmus+ MASK project. The remote control of ROVs will act as preparation to the trials at sea in May in Baška, that will take place during the 16th Baška GNSS Conference, organized by the MASK project partner University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies.

From the 30th of January to the 3rd of February 2023, our lab member, Ph.D. student Vladimir Slošić, participated in Winter School on Underwater Network simulations ​at the Department of Information Engineering​ at the University of Padova, organized by assistant professor Filippo Campagnaro and full professor Michele Zorzi. During winter school, participants were introduced to DESERT - Underwater Framework for underwater network communication simulations developed at the Department of Information Engineering​ at the University of Padova. Participants also learned how to integrate the DESERT on the real EvoLogics modems and use it for the emulation and analysis of the network.

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On 27^th of February LABUST researcher Anja Babić successfully defended her doctoral dissertation and received a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering. Anja’s thesis is entitled „A hyper-heuristic approach to achieving long-term autonomy in a heterogeneous swarm of marine robots“.

On 22nd and 23rd of February we had a pleasure to visit Sarajevo as a part of MARBLE study visit at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering Sarajevo. Thank you for hosting us!!

As part of the UWIN-LABUST project, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter, the IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter and IEEE Life Member Affinity Group - Croatia is happy to invite you to the lecture

"Intelligent and Networked Robots - Navigating into the Future"

held by dr. sc. Marco Bibuli, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Ingegneria del Mare, Genova, Italy. The lecture will take place on Monday February 27^th, 2023. at 16:00 in the Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English and is open to all interested participants.

The lecturer’s CV and the summary of the lecture can be found below.

From February 15th to 17th, 2023 LABUST in Zagreb hosted prof. Nuno Alexandre Cruz of the University of Porto, Portugal. As part of his expert visit, he gave a lecture titled "Science-based Innovation in Marine Robotics" at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. Prof. Cruz then participated in several days of invaluable planning, brainstorming, and know-how exchange with UWIN-LABUST researchers.

From February 13th to 16th, 2023 LABUST in Zagreb hosted Liav Nagar and Alik Chebotar from the University of Haifa, Underwater Acoustic & Navigation Lab. Liav and Alik participated in extensive planning and conceptualising of both hardware and software systems related to the SOUND project.

On February 13th, 2023 LABUST in Zagreb hosted dr.sc. Neven Cukrov of the Institute Ruđer Bošković in Zagreb. As part of his expert visit, Neven participated in extensive brainstorming and experiment design related to the SOUND project, leveraging his expertise and connections to plan field trials and provide access to relevant deployment spots in fisheries across the Adriatic. Neven also participated in discussions of potential future projects related to marine noise pollution.

The SOUND project kickoff meeting took place on Friday, January 13th 2023. Project coordinator prof. Roee Diamant (University of Haifa), project partner representatives prof. Nikola Mišković (UNIZG-FER) and dr.sc. Neven Cukrov (Institut Ruđer Bošković), as well as researchers Anja Babić and Martin Oreč laid the groundwork for the first year of the project.

The UWIN-LABUST research group has been selected as a grant recipient of Schmidt Marine’s Global Fisheries Technology Initiative! This support will help us increase the sustainability of fisheries around the world. Coordinator prof. Roee Diamant, University of Haifa, Israel, describes the project concept as a series of low-cost devices that coordinate with each other to capture better acoustic data for assessing the diversity and quantity of fish populations.

On 31st January 2023, LABUST employees successfully inspected the part of the Krk LNG evacuation pipeline between the mainland and island Krk. The pipeline was visually inspected with the Blueye ROV as part of a regular pipeline inspection for Plinacro.

As part of the UWIN-LABUST project, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter and IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is happy to invite you to the lecture

"Science-based Innovation in Marine Robotics"

held by Prof. Nuno Alexandre Cruz, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal. The lecture will take place on Wednesday February 15^th, 2023. at 11:00 AM in the Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English and is open for all interested participants.

The lecturer’s CV and the summary of the lecture can be found below.

As part of the UWIN-LABUST project, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter and IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is happy to invite you to the lecture

"How to explore the world of marine fauna using underwater acoustic signal processing"

held by Prof. Roee Diamant, Dept. of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa, Israel. The lecture will take place on Wednesday February 15^th, 2023. at 10:00 AM in the Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English and is open for all interested participants.

The lecturer’s CV and the summary of the lecture can be found below.

MARBLE kick-off meeting was held on 12th of January 2023 in Zagreb, Croatia at Faculty of Electrical engineering and Computing.  The MARBLE project is Interreg ADRION project coordinated by UNIZG-FER. Project Coordinator Nikola Mišković welcomed the attendees and wished a successful start of the project.

UWIN-LABUST project started on January 1, 2023. In the following 5 years, and with the help of ERA Chair Prof. Roee Diamant and his team, we aim to achieve excellence in the broad application of Internet of Underwater Things through three main strategic research domains: underwater sensor communications, underwater acoustic signal processing, and underwater collaborative autonomy. Stay tuned to learn more about our activities and results!

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies in collaboration with the Centre of Research Excellence for Data Science and Cooperative Systems ZCI-DATACROSS, IEEE Croatia Section - Robotics and Automation Chapter and IEEE OES University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter is happy to invite you to the lecture

"How Sound Helps us "See" Underwater"

held by Prof. Roee Diamant, Dept. of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa, Israel. The lecture is taking place on Monday April 4^th, 2022. at 11:00 AM in the Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER). The lecture is in English and is open for all interested participants.

The lecturer’s CV and the summary of the lecture can be found below.

Members of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) attended the 13th International Interdisciplinary Field Workshop of Maritime Robotics and Applications Breaking the Surface - BtS held from 26 September to 3 October 2021 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia, traditionally organized by LABUST.

LABUST members were again actively involved in the programme. Đula Nađ, Igor Kvasić, and Luka Mandić held the ADRIATIC tutorial, Fausto Ferreira joined INNOVAMARE project team to present the project objectives and achievements, Nadir Kapetanović held a HEKTOR demonstration, and Ivan Lončar, Natko Kraševac, and Juraj Obradović had a tutorial on Marine Unity Simulator.

At this year's edition of MIPRO 2021 - International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology, LABUST members and UNIZG FER students presented a paper on "Underwater ROV software for fish cage inspection", co-authored by Goran Borković, Matej Fabijanić, Maja Magdalenić, Andro Malobabić, Jura Vuković, Igor Zieliński, Nadir Kapetanović, Igor Kvasić, Anja Babić, and Nikola Mišković. The reaserach for the paper was supported by HEKTOR and INNOVAMARE projects.

The conference was held in hybrid form from September 27 to Ocotober 1, with live sessions in Opatija, Croatia.

Nadir Kapetanović presented a paper at OCEANS 2021 - Conference and Exposition held September 20-23, 2021 in a hybrid form, with in-person sessions in San Diego (USA) and Porto (Portugal).

The paper "Towards a Heterogeneous Robotic System for Autonomous Inspection in Mariculture" was co-authored by Nadir Kapetanović, Đula Nađ, and Nikola Mišković.

OCEANS is the bi-annual event for global marine technologists, engineers, students, government officials, lawyers, and advocates, organized by the partnership of Marine Technology Society and the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society. The industry thought leaders gather for four days to highlight relevant topics and current trends, while creating a community of learners and influencers who consistently advance research, practices, and policies for the marine field.

From September 14 to 16, 2021, LABUST's InnovaMare project team organized a workshop on spin-offs in Solaris, Šibenik. This is the forurth module on business education. The programme consisted of invited talks on a mixture of lectures about the basics of spin-offs, talks by spin-offs coming from Croatia and Italy, and talks by local spin-off/start-up companies. On the last day a visit to the Incubator for new technologies "Trokut Šibenik" was organoized. Participants also visited Development Innovation Center "AluTech". Both places were founded to promote inovations, entrepreneurship, research and development.

PhD Day at FER, that took place on Tuesday, 6th July 2021, featured also a virutal poster-section via SpatialChat platform where the visitiors of the virutal event had an opportunity to vote for the best PhD poster.

Phd poster by Ivan Loncar - Acoustic localisation of underwater sensors using cooperative unmanned marine vessels was voted the best Audience Choice PhD poster.

The paper Heterogeneous autonomous robotic system in viticulture and mariculture – project overview was presented by Jurica Goričanec at the 16th International Conference on Telecommunications held June 30-July 2, 2021 in Zagreb.

The paper was co-authored by most of the HEKTOR team – Jurica Goričanec, Nadir Kapetanović; Ivo Vatavuk; Ivan Hrabar; Antonia Kurtela; Marina Anić; Goran Vasiljević; Jaksa Bolotin; Valter Kožul; Dario Stuhne; Marko Cukon; Niksa Glavić; Stjepan Bogdan; Matko Orsag; Gordan Gledec; Tamara Petrović; Nenad Antolović; Bernard Kozina; Nikola Mišković and Zdenko Kovačić. The paper was presented within the conference workshop Smart technologies for sustainable agriculture.

From 27 to 29 June 2021, HEKTOR team members visited again the project end-user, Cromaris fish farm (Ugljan, Croatia) to collect new datasets for the estimation of sea bream and sea bass biomass in fish cages. They also collected a dataset for biofouling and net damage detection algorithms. The data was collected using DJI Phantom, ARIS sonar and Blueye Pro ROV.

On June 16, 2021, LABUST had its first official visit. Third graders from the Elementary School Ivan Gundulic from Zagreb paid a visit to the new laboratory. They were introduced to the new space and LABUST activities.

The students showed great interest in learning about different kinds of underwater and surface vehicles, from autonomous ships to micro unamanned submarines. LABUST member Dula Nad, who organized the visit, also prepared a presentation to demonstrate more clearly the work of the lab. For the interactive and fun part of the visit, LABUST members organised a challenging water obstacle racing using the ASV.

On 9 and 10 June 2021, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport and Institute of Agriculture and Tourism organized a conference 'Sustainable tourism strategies for preservation and valorisation of the coastal and marine area heritage of the Mediterreanean' within the project INHERIT. The two-day conference was held in the national park Brijuni.

On 9 June, LABUST member Nadir Kapetanovic gave a presentation as a guest speaker on the results of LABUST's Interreg Mediterreanean project BLUEMED, and also took the opportunity to present activities of the laboratory and the ERDF project HEKTOR.

The conference program (in Croatian) is available here.

The EUMarineRobots (EUMR) project is glad to announce the tenth “Coffee with EUMR” webinar on Thursday, 24 June 2021 at 11:00 CET. This webinar will be hosted by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and will consist of two short talks presented by NOC. The first talk titled "Preparing AUVs for operations in extreme environments: development of a multi-platform obstacle avoidance framework" will be given by Dr. Francesco Fanelli and the second talk titled "An overview of the Oceanids C2" will be given by Alvaro Lorenzo-Lopez.

The link to join the meeting and more details available here: 10th 'Coffee with EUMR'

LABUST members Fausto Ferreira and Nadir Kapetanović participated in the virtual meet-up event ISPRS WGII/9 'Underwater Data Acquistion and Processing' organised by International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Nadir Kapetanović gave a short presentation on LABUST activities and equipment, and introduced the main concepts of the HEKTOR project that LABUST team is currently implementing.The event was held June 8 and 9, 2021 featuring many international speakers.

The programme followed participants' requests to intentionally mix the topics to get a more comprehensive understanding of innovative research outcomes as well as needs and gaps within the community. 

The EUMarineRobots (EUMR) project is glad to announce the ninth “Coffee with EUMR” webinar on Thursday, 10 June 2021 at 11:00 CET. This webinar will be hosted by the University of Girona and will consist of two short talks presented by the University of Girona. The first talk titled "Allowing untrained scientists to safely pilot ROV's: Early collision detection and avoidance using omnidirectional vision" will be given by Eduardo Ochoa and the second talk titled "Extrinsic visual-inertial calibration for motion distortion correction of underwater 3D scans" will be given by Miguel Castillón.

Please use the link below to join the meeting:

Join the Meeting 

InnovaMare Consortium has published a schedule of the upcoming events in the next period of project implementation; Train the Trainers and business modules; Living Lab Training; Desing Thinking workshops; Breaking the Surface (BtS) - international summer field workshop on marine robotics and applications.

More details available here: InnovaMare Events 2021.

The EUMarineRobots (EUMR) project is organizing eighth “Coffee with EUMR” webinar on Friday, 28 May 2021 at 11:00 CET. This webinar will be hosted by the Marine Institute and will consist of a short talk presented by the TNA end user Ulster University and a short talk given by the University of Limerick. The first talk titled "Advanced Mapping of Complex Marine Structures" will be given by Dr. Chris McGonigle, Ulster University. The second talk is titled "Inverse Kinematics Approach to Underwater Vehicle Manipulator Systems" and will be given by Philippe C. Santos from the University of Limerick.

More details and the link to join the coffee session: Eighth 'Coffee with EUMR' 

On 21 May 2021, 1-3 PM UTC, the Networking Friday (organized by Atlantic International Research Centre) with EUMarine Robots will present an overview of the H2020 project EU Marine Robotics Research Infrastructure Network (EUMR), which will be organized around the three types of activities of the project:

• Transnational Access (TNA).
• Joint Research (JRA).
• Networking Activities (NA).

EUMR addresses the H2020 call topic INFRAIA-02-2017: Integrating Activities for Starting Communities by mobilizing a comprehensive consortium of 15 partners which, in turn, mobilized stakeholders from different Member States, Associated Countries and other third countries to achieve the following main objective: open up key national and regional marine robotics research infrastructures (RIs) to European and worldwide researchers ensuring their optimal use and joint development to establish a world-class marine robotics integrated infrastructure.

You can register here: Webinar Registration

Within the INNOVAMARE project, LABUST is organizing the Conceptual Design Workshop on 19 May 2021, from 3 pm to 6 pm. The invited speakers come from companies and have senior responsibilities in either software or hardware development of robots. Each speaker comes from a different region (Croatia, Norway, and the USA) with very different business environments and each company has a very different story (Kickstarter funding, spin-off from a university, etc). The workshop will be mostly practical, with focus on presentation of use cases.  

The program and the link for the workshop can be found here.

In the context of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and the Embassy of Portugal in Zagreb are co-organizing the event "Robotics and AI in Society: Impacts and Questions Raised".

The event will take place on the 20th of May 2021, starting at 4 PM, in a hybrid form - online, and for the limited number of attendees at FER. Please join us online via the MS Teams, and on Sli.do for questions. The program of the event is available here. 

This event is related to the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency, in particular to the priority of fostering Europe’s recovery leveraged by the climate and digital transitions. The goal is to showcase how robotics can be useful for the citizens and to discuss the implications of the introduction of robotics and AI in large sectors of society/workplace.

More details at: Robotics and AI in Society: Impacts and Questions Raised 

Within ERASMUS + project IMPACT, this Thursday, 13 May 2021, project partners are organizing a workshop 'Understanding Venture Capital'.

The workshop starts at 4pm via Zoom platform featuring a talk by Jakob Gajšek, the co-founder of the startup accelerator ABC where he was in charge of further raising funds for the accelerator portfolio. In 2018, he took over the position of Executive Director of the Ljubljana University Incubator, where he focused on creating a new generation of startups that emerge from research.

Read more and get the link to join the workshop at: Understanding Venture Capital

The EUMarineRobots (EUMR) project is organizing the seventh “Coffee with EUMR” webinar on Thursday, 13 May 2021 at 10:30 CET. This webinar will be hosted by the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) and will consist of a short talk presented by FER and a short talk given by the Interuniversity Center of Integrated Systems for the Marine Environment (ISME). The first talk titled "Advancing diver-robot interaction capabilities" will be given by Igor Kvasić, FER. The second talk is titled "Cooperative geolocalization and CNN-based Automatic Target Recognition for underwater autonomy" and will be given by Matteo Bresciani and Leonardo Zacchini from the ISME nodes of Pisa and Florence respectively.

To join the meeting, visit Seventh Coffee with EUMR. 

These trials organized in the scope of the CUV-ME project (Cooperative Unmanned Vehicles in the Maritime Environment) took place April 19-24, 2021 in Split, Croatia and had inter-vehicle underwater localization and communication testing as the main objective. Degaussian station at Marjan peninsula, managed by the Republic of Croatia Armed Forces (OSRH) was a great location to work at with a full logistical  support (location, work tent, divers, boats etc.) provided by OSRH. 

The sea trials were a great opportunity for all vehicles to be deployed at the same time and to work cooperatively. The primary objective was to  assess  the  current navigational  accuracy of all the mentioned underwater platforms, and the ability to communicate between surface and underwater platforms. Another objective of these trials was to record datasets for diver detection in forward looking sonar imagery and for the detection of diver presence by detecting diver breathing/bubbles sounds recorded by a hydrophone.

The trials were successful at providing a proof of concept for cross-country USV-AUV communication and data exchange. Data collection was completed successfully with shown reproducibility and repeatability. Additionally, capability to exchange underwater mapping data formats between the University of Zagreb and OSRH was validated.

Our researcher and PhD student Nadir Kapetanović has been invited to join today's webinar 'Customize your setup with the Blueye SDK and API' as a guest speaker presenting LABUST's Blueye SDK-ROS2 integration.

The webinar is organized by company Blueye to present stories from their customers who have utilized the SDK for controlling multiple drones simultaneously and others that have improved their post-processing sequence of the media and log files via the API. Nadir is joining Blueye's Senior Software Engineer Andreas Viggen to show how to get started with the SDK.

More information available here.

EDIT: Webinar talk available now - Blueye webinar 

The Adriatic Sea is facing major impacts from overfishing and pollution: solid waste, direct discharge of wastewater and oil pollution are key negative factors for the degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems. The Interreg Italy-Croatia InnovaMare and Sushi Drop projects aim at responding to the challenges of sustainability in the Adriatic Sea with innovative solutions, whose collaboration is marked by the roundtable to be held on 27 and 28 April online and in Zadar, Croatia.

The sixth “Coffee with EUMR” webinar is taking place on Friday, 23 April 2021 at 10:30 CET. This webinar will be hosted by Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and will consist of a short talk by NTNU and two short invited talks by end-users of TNAs performed at NATO STO CMRE.

The first talk titled "Risk management and supervisory risk control of AUVs for Arctic operations" will be given by Jens Einar Bremnes. The two other short talks will be given by two TNA end-users at invitation of NATO STO CMRE. The second talk is titled "Adaptive power allocation in multi-user acoustic channels" and will be given by Dr. Antony Pottier, and the third talk titled "Channel State Information acquisition in bidirectional underwater acoustic communication systems" will be given by Dr. Beatrice Tomasi, both from the Higher Institute for Electronics and Digital Training (ISEN).

Please use this link to join the meeting.

More details at EUMR website.

ONR-G project ADRIATIC remote trials were performed in the period March 29-April 8, 2021 in collaboration with the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The goal of the trials was to test novel diver-robot interaction modalities developed within the project. The scenario consisted of a diver equipped with sensors embedded in the diving suit and a gesture recognizing diving glove in a pool in Auckland, and the D2 AUV in the LABUST pool in Zagreb collaborating together. The diver used the smart diving glove to recognize gestures and send them acoustically to a poolside PC. The commands are then sent over a http server to a poolside PC in Zagreb and again translated to acoustic commands transmitted to the underwater vehicle. The vehicle executed simple movement actions mapped to these commands. The underwater cameras, as well as the cameras mounted in on the vehicle were streamed to Auckland to provide situational awareness, and the diver received a haptic feedback through the glove when a gesture was recognized and sent successfully.

Considering the distance between ABI and LABUST laboratories and the current travel and collaboration restrictions in force, it was practically impossible to do a joint experiment in person. Introducing existing and new technologies towards enabling such remote collaboration experiences promotes equipment and infrastructure sharing and help crossing barriers standing in the way of science.

The EUMarineRobots (EUMR) project is glad to announce the fifth “Coffee with EUMR” webinar on Friday, 9 April 2021 at 10:00 CET. This webinar will be hosted by Instituto Superior Técnico (IST-ID), University of Lisbon and will consist of a short talk by IST-ID and a short invited talk by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Palakkad. The first talk titled "Cooperative distributed estimation and control of multiple autonomous vehicles for range-based underwater target localization and pursuit" will be given by Nguyen Tuan Hung. The second talk is titled "Simulation-based semi-empirical comparative study of underwater vehicle platform with fixed and vectored thruster configurations" and will be given by Dr. Santhakumar Mohan.

Please use this link to join the meeting.

For the abstracts of the talks and short speakers' biographies please follow: Fifth "Coffee with EUMR" webinar

In the framework of InnovaMare education module, University of Trieste (UniTS) is organizing an online three-days “Train the Trainers” to be held from 6-8 of April 2021. The training is focused on open innovation strategies and management. 

The lectures will be given by two experts - Nicola Redi and Alberto Di Minin. Nicola Redi has a 20+ years of experience in translating innovations into the market through venture capital investments and corporate R&D responsibilities. He is currently managing the first ever technology transfer fund focused on Industry 4.0 technologies. Alberto di Minni is Full Professor of Strategy at the Institute of Management - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, and Research Fellow with the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE, University of California Berkeley).

Detailed agenda available here: Train the Trainers.

The fourth “Coffee with EUMR” webinar is to be held on Monday, 22 March 2021 at 11:00 CET. This webinar will be hosted by the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) Institute of Marine Engineering (INM) and will consist of a short talk by CNR-INM. The talk will be focused on the SWAMP Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) and will be given by Angelo Odetti, Massimo Caccia and Marco Bibuli.

Please use this link to join the meeting.

For the abstract of the talk and short speakers' biographies please follow: Fourth "Coffee with EUMR" webinar

The online round table of the project InnovaMare "Blue technology - Developing innovative technologies for sustainability of Adriatic Sea” within the Interreg Programme Italy – Croatia 2014-2020, ended with over 100 participants. The initiative, organized by Unioncamere Veneto, was addressed to Italian and Croatian policymakers and stakeholders in order to facilitate the debate, the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of good practices within the field of the protection of the Adriatic Sea through the use of technologically advanced robotics and new monitoring systems.

More information available here.

The EUMarineRobots (EUMR) project is glad to announce the third “Coffee with EUMR” webinar on Friday, 12 March 2021 at 14:30 CET. This webinar will be hosted by the AIR Centre and will consist of two short talks invited by the coordinator University of Porto in collaboration with the Swedish Maritime Robotics Centre (SMaRC). 

The first talk is titled “Neural representations and generative models for sonar data”, which will be given by Dr. Nils Bore, from the Swedish Maritime Robotics Centre (SMaRC), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. In the second talk, Miguel Aguiar, also from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, will talk about "Optimizing autonomous underwater vehicle routes with the aid of high resolution ocean models". 

For more details about the speakers and to read the talks abstract, please visit EUMarine Robots website. 

The second “Coffee with EUMR” webinar is to be held on Wednesday, 24 February 2021 at 11 AM CET. The second webinar will be hosted by PLOCAN and will consist of two short talks by invited PLOCAN collaborators.

The first talk is titled “A Mediterranean eddy characterization using Glider and altimetry data” and will be given by Dr. Luísa Lamas from the Hydrographic Institute. The second talk is titled “Identification of the dynamics of biofouled underwater gliders” and will be given by Dr. Enrico Anderlini from the University College London.

Webinar link: Click here to join the meeting

For more details about the speakers and to read the talks abstract, please visit EUMarine Robots website. 

The EUMarineRobots (EUMR) project is launching a series of webinars “Coffee with EUMR” starting in February! Organized by LABUST as one of the project partners, these webinars will present the best of the research performed within the scope of EUMR and related initiatives. Short talks by early career researchers are envisioned to happen biweekly covering all EUMR partners. 

The first talk titled “Augmented reality techniques for aided remote underwater manipulation based on real time 3D perception” will be given by Dr. Matheus Laranjeira from IFREMER on Friday 12 February at 10 AM CET. 

More details available at EUMarine Robots website.

Unioncamere del Veneto will organize an online round table on 18 and 19 February 2021, as part of the InnovaMare strategic project “Blue technology - Developing innovative technologies for sustainability of the Adriatic Sea”. The meeting is addressed to the Italian and Croatian policy makers and stakeholders, in order to facilitate the debate, the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of good practices in the strategic areas of blue economy and blue technologies.

Registration is possible until 17/02/2021 here. 

Additional information:

PRESS RELEASE

AGENDA

LABUST members have been active in 2020 presenting papers in (virtual) conferences as well. The conferences and papers are the following:

• 2020 IEEE OES Autonomous Underwter Vehicle Symposium (AUV) - The Marine Robotics Research InfrastructureNetwork (EUMarine Robots): An Overview (Daniel Alcaraz, Gianluca Antonelli, Massimo Caccia, Gerard Dooly, Niamh Flavin, Achim Kopf, Martin Ludvigsen, António Pascoal, Jan Opderbecke, Joao Borges de Sousa, Matthew Palmer, Roberto Petroccia, Pere Ridao, Nikola Mišković, Sen Wang)
• 2020 IEEE / ITU International Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Good - IMPACT: a strategic partnership for sustainabledevelopment in marine systems and robotics (Francesco Maurelli, Szymon Krupinski, Antonio Pascoal, Nikola Mišković, Kostas Kyriakopolous, Pere Ridao, Maarja Kruusmaa, Ralf Bachmayer)
• IFAC World Congress 2020 (Germany) - Saliency and Anomaly: Transition of Concepts from Natural Images to Side-Scan​ Sonar Images (Nadir Kapetanović, Nikola Mišković, Adnan Tahirović) & Cloud-based remote control framework for unmanned surface vehicles (Zhao Wang, Shaolong Yang, Xianbo Xiang, Antonio Vasilijević, Nikola Mišković, Đula Nađ)
• 17th IMEKO TC 10 and EUROLAB Virtual Conference - Inspection of Submerged Structures (Antonio Vasilijević, Nadir Kapetanović, Nikola Mišković)

LABUST members have been very active this year doing research and publishing journal papers. The most recent ones are:

• Zhao Wanga; Shaolong Yanga Xianbo Xianga; Antonio Vasilijević; Nikola Mišković; Ðula Nađ, Cloud-based mission control of USV fleet: Architecture, implementation and experiments. Control Engineering Practice, Volume 106, January 2021, 104657

• Nađ, Đula; Mandić, Filip; Mišković, Nikola, Using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for Diver Tracking and Navigation Aiding. Journal of marine science and engineering, 8 (2020), 413, 20 

• Nadir Kapetanović; Branko Kordić; Antonio Vasilijević; Đula Nađ; Nikola Mišković, Autonomous Vehicles Mapping Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia. Remote Sens. 2020, 12(22), 3683

• Nadir Kapetanović; Antonio Vasilijević; Đula Nađ; Krunoslav Zubčić; Nikola Mišković, Marine Robots Mapping the Present and the Past: Unraveling the Secrets of the Deep. Remote Sens. 2020, 12(23), 3902

We are pleased to announce that Head of LABUST, Prof. Nikola Mišković was awarded IEEE Croatia Section Award for Outstanding Engineering Contribution for exceptional engineering contribution in the field of marine robotics, particularly innovative underwater robotic systems and autonomous surface vehicles. Congratulations!

At the International Innovation Summit of the Innovamare project, which took place online from October 28 to 30, world-renowned scientists, experts and entrepreneurs discussed innovation systems, marine pollution and underwater robotics and sensors.

Four Croatian nexperts also contributed to the discussion: Nikola Mišković from the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, expert in the field of innovation ecosystem Emir Džanić from Funifier from Zagreb, expert in coastal conservation and protection, and Vjeran Piršić from the Eco Kvarner Association and Ivona Cetinić, a Croatian scientist at NASA who studies and protects the oceans.

The full article (in Croatian) is available here: Jadran je ozbiljno ugrožen, ali inovacije bi mogle pomoći u njegovoj zaštiti

The University of Trieste is organizing an online International Innovation Summit within the InnovaMare project. It will be a three-day, international, online event, which will be held on October 28, 29 and 30, 2020 through the ZOOM platform.

The International Innovation Summit consists of 3 "technical" webinars and 3 "popular" webinars. The three leading topics are:

• UNDERWATER ROBOTICS AND SENSORS;
• SEA POLLUTION;
• INNOVATIVE ECOSYSTEMS.

It is organized in 6 webinars in 2 categories:
– three technical webinar (TECH MEETING), focused on the themes of underwater robots and sensors, sea pollution and innovation ecosystems
– three popular webinar (POP MEETING), focused on sea and planet health, climate change and pollution

It will be an event with 6 webinars, 3 top topics, 6 subtopics, 2x50 minutes with top speakers - world experts, astronauts, entrepreneurs, academics, scientists… 

Schedule is available here in this link as well as registration for participation, https://www2.units.it/innovamare/. Participation is free of charge and it is possible to take part in as many as you wish.

We hope you will find this event interesting and join us to participate to this event to hear top worlds speekers and be informed what is going on in this industry!

Before the meeting, you will receive instructions how to connect to ZOOM platform.

For all additional questions about the organization of the online International Innovation Summit, write to the following address: innovamare@hgk.hr

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG FER) is looking to recruit a team for the implementation of the project “Development of Autonomous Unmanned Multipurpose Ship”. The team consists of:

• 1 leading researcher/engineer (m/f)
• 2 senior researchers/engineers (m/f)
• 1 researcher/engineer (m/f)

The main goal of the project is to develop and demonstrate a fully autonomous unmanned multi-purpose ship that will be capable of autonomous navigation in real operational conditions.

The project is coordinated by Brodosplit who are in charge of building the ship, while LABUST team will be in charge of:

• Specification and integration of hardware (LIDAR, GNSS, RADAR, cameras, etc.) and software components for autonomous ship navigation;
• Development, testing and validation of situational awareness module that ensures perception and understanding of ship environment at open sea as well as coastal/port areas;
• Development, testing and validation of navigation, guidance and control module enabling collision avoidance;
• Design, development and testing of ship surveillance command centre.

All details available in the JOB ANNOUNCEMENT.

17th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence, L'Aquila (Italy) - DCAI was held online October 7th-9th, 2020. It is an annual forum that brings together ideas, projects, lessons, etc. associated with the conference topics, and their application in different areas. On October 8, Nadir Kapetanovic present research results in a dedicated session on "Assessing the current state of a shipwreck by using autonomous marine robots: Szent Istvan case study" via Zoom meetings platform.

Members of the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) attended the International Interdisciplinary Field Workshop of Maritime Robotics and Applications Breaking the Surface - BtS held from 27 September to 5 October 2020 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia.

Two lectures were held by LABUST members, Dula Nad and Fausto Ferreira. PhD students Anja Babic, Igor Kvasic, Ivan Loncar, Nadir Kapetanovic and Frane Rogic actively participated in the BtS programme as well having given presentations on their PhD topics and research.

During the BtS week, hands-on demostrations and field trails for various projects were carried out, respectively CroMarX, subCULTron, HEKTOR and InnovaMare. The trials aimed at testing the equipment and algorithms, followed by data collection and processing the week after the workshop.

LABUST members published two new journal papers over the last couple of months. The papers were published in the open access journals Applied Sciences and Sensors:

• Babić, A.; Mandić, F.; Mišković, N., Development of Visual Servoing-Based Autonomous Docking Capabilities in a Heterogeneous Swarm of Marine Robots. Appl. Sci. 2020, 0, 7124.
• Babić, A.; Lončar, I.; Arbanas, B.; Vasiljević, G.; Petrović, T.; Bogdan, S.; Mišković, N., A Novel Paradigm for Underwater Monitoring Using Mobile Sensor Networks. Sensors 020, 20, 4615.

On 22 July 2020 at 10 a.m. CET the Croatian Chamber of Economy (lead partner) and Institute Ruđer Bošković will host an online kick-off conference to celebrate the start of the strategic project Innovamare, funded by Interreg Cross Border Cooperation Italy-Croatia Programme.

InnovaMare project main objective is to develop and establish an innovation ecosystem model in the area of underwater robotics and sensors for monitoring and surveillance sector, bringing cross-border collaboration between science and private sectors on a higher level.

InnovaMare project is worth 5.6 milion euro, with a duration of 30 months. It is managed by a consortium of 14 partners from Croatia and Italy, composed of universities, maritime institutions, business support institutions, SMEs, maritime cluster, local and regional authority. All together in one mission: sustainability of the Adriatic Sea.

The project is coordinated by the lead applicant, the Croatian Chamber of Economy, and implemented together with the following partners: in Italy, Regional Union of the Chambers of Commerce of Veneto Region, University of Trieste, ARTI - Apulia Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation, National Research Council - Institute of Marine Sciences – Cnr Ismar, Maritime Technology Cluster Fvg, Communication Technology Srl, National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, in Croatia, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing – University of Zagreb (LABUST), University of Dubrovnik, University of Rijeka, Geomar Ltd, and Šibenik Knin County.

The purpose of the kick-off conference is to present the project and to gather partners and stakeholder’s insight, opinion and project perception.

Introduced by Tomislav Radoš, Ph.D., Vice President for Industry and Energy, Croatian Chamber of Economy, the conference will host three different thematic rooms: "Sea pollution as an economic problem" led and moderated by Ruđer Bošković Institute and National Research Council - Institute of Marine Sciences - Cnr Ismar; "Technology Transfer as Key Element For Innovation" (moderators University of Rijeka and University of Trieste); "Creating innovation ecosystem for a stronger quadruple helix" (moderators Croatian Chamber of Economy and Regional Union of the Chambers of Commerce of Veneto Region).

Registration:

• participation is free
• you can apply via online application form: https://www.hgk.hr/project-innovamare-online-kick-off-conference-najava
• the number of participants is limited to 100
• before the conference, you will receive instructions on your e-mail address how to connect to MS Teams
• deadline for registration of participants: Friday, July 17th

EDIT: Kick-off Confrence Press Release

This year's IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems - IROS 2020 will take place in October at the Caesars Forum Conventional Center in Las Vegas, USA.

LABUST's Anja Babić will be participating with a presentation of the paper "Vehicle-in-the-loop framework for testing long-term autonomy in a heterogeneous marine robot swarm", co-authored with Goran Vasiljević (LARICS) and Nikola Mišković. The paper, which describes the development and field testing of decision-making algorithms implemented on the subCULTron robot swarm for the purpose of environmental monitoring, has also been accepted for publication in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters journal and is available via IEEE Xplore.

On 8 May 2020, Ivan Lončar successfully held a public presentation of the proposed dissertation topic titled “Acoustic localisation of underwater sensors using cooperative unmanned marine vessels”, which resulted in the approval of the expected original scientific contribution. Professor Nikola Mišković has been confirmed as his mentor. The committee members were the following:

1. Prof. Nikola Mišković, UNIZG-FER
2. Prof. Stjepan Bogdan, UNIZG-FER
3. Assoc. Prof. Andrej Jokić, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb

On 3 March 2020 at the Plaza Event Centre in Zagreb, a roundtable meeting on artificial intelligence in processing of text was held within the project 'Establishment of an Integrated System for Managing the Official Documentation of the Republic of Croatia' moderated by Prof. Jan Snajder. Nikola Mišković, UNIZG-FER's Vice Dean for Science participated in the event that brought together around 100 participants. The roundtable was followed by an interesting discussion with a large number of questions from the audience. More information can be found at: https://lnkd.in/dCK_ZVq

On 29th of February 2020, LABUST's member Dula Nad attended the First European Robotics Talent Festival. The festival took place in Varazdin, Croatia. He gave a talk on underwater robotics to an audience of primary and secondary school students. The festival also included student competitions in various mobile robotics disciplines. The festival was organised by Varazdin County, European Talent Centre Croatia and Centre of Excellence in New Technologies.

LARICS members attended the three-day Robotics Fair 2020 in Ljubljana that took place from 11th to 13th February 2020. Robotics is an international trade fair dedicated to industrial robotics and unmanned systems. The event offers the exhibitors a platform for presenting their range of robot technologies in both industrial and service robots sectors.

The Fair was organised by ICM Slovenia. LARICS members attended the event as representatives of three UNIZG FER laboratories: LARICS, LABUST and LAMOR, under the common brand ROBOTICS FER, next to some of the top tech companies in this field. The visitors had an opportunity to learn about current projects of UNIZG FER's laboratories', their research, innovations and equipment.

All the exhibitors also had excellent opportunities to strengthen their image, increase brand awareness and establish new business relationships. The content-rich accompanying programme included roundtable discussions, presentations and workshops.

On 8 January 2020, Ivana Mikolić held an invited talk within the 5th year course Organisation and Management at University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business. Ivana was invited by the Dr. Rebeka Danijela Vlahov together with Andrej Hanzir (LEAP Summit) to share knowledge and experience in managing EU projects. After the introductory presentations, a panel discussion was initiated between the guest lecturers and the students.

The website of IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) University of Zagreb Student Branch Chapter has been published.

IEEE OES UNIZG Student Branch Chapter promotes the objectives of the society around the world through networking, conferences and publications with a focus on the future through extensive support of our student and young professional members.

The new website contains all information about this Student Branch Chapter, its activities and plans, and gives you the latest news.

To visit the website, please follow: http://ieeeoesunizg.fer.hr/  

On 15 January 2020, Prof. Nikola Mišković and Prof. Stjepan Bogdan held an invited lecture called ‘Heterogeneous Mobile Robots Mapping the Present and the Past’ at the Time Machine Croatia Info Day.

This event kindly invited the interested public and experts in the field of humanities, culture, science, history, IT and the research sector to learn more about the Time Machine project as well as the Time Machine Organisation.

The Time Machine Project is by far the most ambitious and far-reaching project ever undertaken using Big Data of the Past. Revolutionising the way we experience European history and culture, the project is an international collaboration to build a map of European history that spans thousands of years.

We are proud to share the news that Ivana Mikolic was announced third best project manager in Croatia for the project Breaking the Surface! Ivana received the award at the Project Management Awards 2019 ceremony held in Esplanade Zagreb Hotel on December 17, 2019. This is great motivation for future endeavours! Congratulations, Ivana!

Wishing everyone a successful and prosperous new year! The 12th edition of Breaking the Surface workshop will be held from 27 September to 4 October 2020 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. So, save the date! Looking forward to seeing you all!