Dimitris P. Tsakiris

Principal Researcher,
Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory (CVRL),
Institute of Computer Science (ICS),
Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH)
Faculty Member,
Graduate Program in the Brain and Mind Sciences;
Visiting Professor,
Department of Computer Science;
University of Crete

Address:
Institute of Computer Science - FORTH
100, N. Plastira Str., Vassilika Vouton
GR-70013 Heraklion, Crete, GREECE
Phone: +30 2810 39 17 08
FAX: +30 2810 39 16 01
Skype: dptsakiris
E-mail: tsakiris AT ics DOT forth DOT gr


Former Positions:

Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (INRIA)
Research Center of Sophia-Antipolis
Research group Icare (Robot Control and Sensing)

Faculty Research Assistant
Intelligent Servosystems Laboratory
Institute for Systems Research
University of Maryland at College Park


Education:

o Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park.
Doctoral Dissertation: Motion Control and Planning for Nonholonomic Kinematic Chains.

o M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park.
Master's Thesis: Visual Tracking Strategies.

o Eng.Dipl. in Electrical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens.

Research

Research Interests:

o Biologically-inspired robotics

Publications

Individual listing of publications in electronic form.

Grants and Projects

(Partial listing)
o NSRF/GSRT THALES Project BioLegRob
(Biomimetic Legged Robots Operating in Rough Environments)
Duration: 7/2012-9/2015
Role in project: Principal investigator in charge of FORTH activities

o ESF/GSRT Project HydroRob
(Hydrodynamic investigation of aquatic locomotion
with respect to elongated, biologically-inspired robotic devices)
Duration: 3/2012-3/2015
Postdoctoral grant to Dr. Asimina Kazakidi
Role in project: Principal investigator in charge of FORTH activities

o EU FP7 ICT FET Project OCTOPUS
(Novel Design Principles and Technologies
for a New Generation of High Dexterity Soft-bodied Robots
Inspired by the Morphology and Behaviour of the Octopus)
Duration: 2/2009-7/2013
Role in project: Principal investigator in charge of FORTH activities

o EU FP6 IST Project VECTOR
(Versatile Endoscopic Capsule for Gastrointestinal Tumor Recognition and Therapy)
Duration: 9/2006-2/2011
Role in project: Principal investigator in charge of FORTH activities

o EU FP6 IST Project MATHESIS
(Observational Learning in Cognitive Agents)
Duration: 2/2006-1/2009

o EU IST FET Project BIOLOCH
(BIOmimetic structures for LOComotion in the Human body)
Duration: 5/2002-10/2005
Role in project: Principal investigator in charge of FORTH activities

Awards and Events


Teaching

HY590.75 Biomimetic Robotics

o Fall 2008-2009
o Fall 2007-2008
o Spring 2006-2007
o Fall 2005-2006
o Fall 2004-2005

Graduate course of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete.
Open to students of the Graduate Programme in the BRAIN and MIND sciences.
This course will consider the mechanical behavior and the motion control
of complex robotic systems inspired from biology.
Some examples of such systems are:
- robotic systems emulating the reptile undulatory locomotion,
- active perception systems inspired by the human oculomotor system and
- robotic systems inspired by the visual motion-based insect flight control system.
The course will draw on studies from computational neuroethology
and the computational neurosciences, in order to address biomimetic robot control
and the modeling of biological motion control systems.
More precisely, it will address topics related to:
- the kinematics and dynamics of robotic systems,
- the control of robotic systems, with emphasis on linear and non-linear control,
on sensor-based control, and on behavior-based control,
- the neural mechanisms for control of motion,
such as the central pattern generator neural networks
responsible for rhythmogenesis in biological systems.

ICS-FORTH/York U. Summer School on Biomimetic Robotics

o Summer 2007
o Summer 2006

Advanced undergraduate course (CSE4421 3.0)
of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering
of York University in Toronto, Canada.


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Last update: October 2010.