Latest News

U of M licenses technology to monitor crop nitrogen to ag-tech firm Sentera

Feb. 27, 2018

Sentera, a Minneapolis-based supplier of technology solutions to the agriculture industry, has signed an agreement to bring University of Minnesota-developed corn nitrogen deficiency technology to the market...
read the article

$10M in private support will fund new robotics labs

June 21, 2017

Work will begin this winter on renovating the first two floors of Shepherd Laboratories building for robotics research, thanks to $10M in private support.
read the article

Lab Featured in RCJudge

May 11, 2017

Dr. Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos, is the director of the Center for Distributed Robotics in Minnesota. He along with several others work on specialized robots which can adapt to their surroundings
read the article

SUAV:Q featured in New Scientist

February 24, 2017

A shape-shifting drone takes off like a helicopter and transforms into a plane in mid-air to fly all day on solar power. The drone is designed to provide affordable aerial surveys for farmers, so they can see where to irrigate and use fertiliser and herbicide only where needed.
read the article

Lab Director Awarded McKnight Professorship

August 22, 2016

Department of Computer Science and Engineering Professor Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos has been awarded the prestigious McKnight Presidential Professorship by University President Eric Kaler. The professorship is among the highest honors for faculty at the University.
read the article

MegaScout

The MegaScout is a wholly new robot platform developed at the University of Minnesota to work in conjunction with a Scout team. The MegaScout is intended to provide command and control support for a Scout team as well as perform independently. The MegaScouts are still in their early prototyping stages, and more information will be provided as it becomes available.

More
v

Specs

Length: 37 cm
Diameter: 13 cm (main body)
Weight: 12 kg
Top Speed: Standard wheel 5.3 m/s
Balloon wheel 7.2 m/s
Sensors: Color Tilt Camera
Color USB Camera
Eltec Pyroelectric Sensor
GP2D02 Range Finder
Batteries: 250 Wh Lithium Polymer
Operational Lifetime: Quiescent Mode: approx. 20 hours
Reconnaissance Mode: approx. 5-7.5 hours
Communications: Primary: 802.11b
Optional: 900Mhz FM Video

Publications

Bradley Kratochvil, Ian T. Burt, Andrew Drenner, Derek Goerke, Bennett Jackson, Colin McMillen, Christopher Olson, Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos, Adam Pfeifer, Sascha A. Stoeter, Kristen Stubbs, David Waletzko. "Heterogeneous Implementation of an Adaptive Robotic Sensing Team." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Taipei, Taiwan, May 2003.