Biography
Dr Ioannis Havoutis holds a PhD (2011) and an MSc (2007) from the University of Edinburgh, where he worked on machine learning for motion planning and control of articulated robotic systems.
Ioannis moved to Oxford in March 2017. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Robot Learning and Interaction Group of the Idiap Research Institute, Switzerland, where he worked on online learning of complex skills from demonstration. Before this, Ioannis held a senior postdoctoral position in the Dynamic Legged Systems Lab, at the Advanced Robotics Department of the Italian Institute of Technology. There he led the Locomotion Group within the HyQ team, focusing on dynamic motion planning and control for legged locomotion.
Research Interests
Dr Havoutis’ research focuses the combination of machine learning with dynamic whole-body motion planning and control, targeting robots with arms and legs. Building on his previous work, Ioannis is interested both in the locomotion and manipulation aspects of autonomous robots.
He is a co-lead of the Dynamic Robotic Systems (DRS) group -- an integrated research lab within the Oxford Robotics Institute. He lead the research direction of robotic legged locomotion, designing and implementing of algorithms that enable autonomous legged mobility. His focus is on approaches for dynamic whole-body motion planning and control that allow robots with legs to robustly operate in a variety of challenging domains.
His work aims to answer questions such as: which path should the robot choose to reach its goal? how should the body and the individual joints of the robot move? which footholds and potential handholds maximize the robustness of the locomotion behaviour?
Research Groups
Current Projects
EPSRC-UKRI, Robotics and AI in Nuclear (RAIN) research hub
Field inspection of walking robots in sites such as Sellafield and Fukishima with radiation sensors.
EPSRC-UKRI, Off-Shore Robotics for Certification of assets (ORCA) research hub
Mobile robot mapping for inspection of industrial facilities with a variety of platforms.
EU H2020, MEMMO: Memory of Motion
Learning motion representations to enable fast dynamic trajectory optimization and re-planning.
EU H2020, THING: subTerranean Haptic INvestiGator
Haptic sensing, control and estimation for ANYmal.
EPSRC, New Investigator Award
Robust legged locomotion for autonomous mobility in challenging environments.
DPhil Opportunities
I am open to supervising DPhil students with an interest in legged locomotion, motion planning, trajectory optimization, skill representation and learning by demonstration.
Recent Publications
Oscillating latent dynamics in robot systems during walking and reaching.
Parker Jones O, Mitchell AL, Yamada J, Merkt W, Geisert M et al. (2024), Scientific reports, 14(1), 11434
BibTeX
@article{oscillatinglate-2024/5,
title={Oscillating latent dynamics in robot systems during walking and reaching.},
author={Parker Jones O, Mitchell AL, Yamada J, Merkt W, Geisert M et al.},
journal={Scientific reports},
volume={14},
pages={11434},
publisher={Springer Nature},
year = "2024"
}
RoLoMa: robust loco-manipulation for quadruped robots with arms
Ferrolho H, Ivan V, Merkt W, Havoutis I & Vijayakumar S (2023), Autonomous Robots, 47(8), 1463-1481
BibTeX
@article{rolomarobustloc-2023/10,
title={RoLoMa: robust loco-manipulation for quadruped robots with arms},
author={Ferrolho H, Ivan V, Merkt W, Havoutis I & Vijayakumar S},
journal={Autonomous Robots},
volume={47},
pages={1463-1481},
publisher={Springer},
year = "2023"
}
R-LGP: A Reachability-guided Logic-geometric Programming Framework for Optimal Task and Motion Planning on Mobile Manipulators
Ly KT, Semenov V, Risiglione M, Merkt W & Havoutis I (2023)
BibTeX
@misc{rlgpareachabili-2023/10,
title={R-LGP: A Reachability-guided Logic-geometric Programming Framework for Optimal Task and Motion Planning on Mobile Manipulators},
author={Ly KT, Semenov V, Risiglione M, Merkt W & Havoutis I},
year = "2023"
}
Asymptotically optimized multi-surface coverage path planning for loco-manipulation in inspection and monitoring
Ly K, Munks M, Merkt W & Havoutis I (2023), IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2023-August, 1-7
BibTeX
@inproceedings{asymptoticallyo-2023/9,
title={Asymptotically optimized multi-surface coverage path planning for loco-manipulation in inspection and monitoring},
author={Ly K, Munks M, Merkt W & Havoutis I},
booktitle={2023 IEEE 19th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)},
pages={1-7},
year = "2023"
}
VAE-Loco: versatile quadruped locomotion by learning a disentangled gait representation
Mitchell AL, Merkt WX, Geisert M, Gangapurwala S, Engelcke M et al. (2023), IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 39(5), 3805-3820
BibTeX
@article{vaelocoversatil-2023/7,
title={VAE-Loco: versatile quadruped locomotion by learning a disentangled gait representation},
author={Mitchell AL, Merkt WX, Geisert M, Gangapurwala S, Engelcke M et al.},
journal={IEEE Transactions on Robotics},
volume={39},
pages={3805-3820},
publisher={IEEE},
year = "2023"
}
Leveraging scene embeddings for gradient-based motion planning in latent space
Yamada J, Hung CM, Collins J, Havoutis I & Posner I (2023), 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 5674-5680
BibTeX
@inproceedings{leveragingscene-2023/7,
title={Leveraging scene embeddings for gradient-based motion planning in latent space},
author={Yamada J, Hung CM, Collins J, Havoutis I & Posner I},
booktitle={2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
pages={5674-5680},
year = "2023"
}
Learning low-frequency motion control for robust and dynamic robot locomotion
Gangapurwala S, Campanaro L & Havoutis I (2023), 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 5085-5091
BibTeX
@inproceedings{learninglowfreq-2023/7,
title={Learning low-frequency motion control for robust and dynamic robot locomotion},
author={Gangapurwala S, Campanaro L & Havoutis I},
booktitle={2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
pages={5085-5091},
year = "2023"
}
Roll-Drop: accounting for observation noise with a single parameter
Campanaro L, De Martini D, Gangapurwala S, Merkt W & Havoutis I (2023), Proceedings of The 5th Annual Learning for Dynamics and Control Conference, 718-730
BibTeX
@inproceedings{rolldropaccount-2023/6,
title={Roll-Drop: accounting for observation noise with a single parameter},
author={Campanaro L, De Martini D, Gangapurwala S, Merkt W & Havoutis I},
booktitle={5th Annual Learning for Dynamics and Control Conference (L4DC 2023)},
pages={718-730},
year = "2023"
}
Motion planning in dynamic environments using context-aware human trajectory prediction
Finean MN, Petrović L, Merkt W, Marković I & Havoutis I (2023), Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 104450-104450
BibTeX
@article{motionplanningi-2023/5,
title={Motion planning in dynamic environments using context-aware human trajectory prediction},
author={Finean MN, Petrović L, Merkt W, Marković I & Havoutis I},
journal={Robotics and Autonomous Systems},
number={104450},
pages={104450-104450},
publisher={Elsevier BV},
year = "2023"
}
You Only Look at One: Category-Level Object Representations for Pose Estimation From a Single Example
Goodwin W, Havoutis I & Posner I (2023)
BibTeX
@misc{youonlylookaton-2023/5,
title={You Only Look at One: Category-Level Object Representations for Pose Estimation From a Single Example},
author={Goodwin W, Havoutis I & Posner I},
year = "2023"
}
