The Intelligent Robotics and Automation Laboratory (IRAL) was established in 1985 by Em.Prof. Spyros Tzafestas at the National Technical University of Athens. Since 2009 its director is Prof. Petros Maragos. The mission of IRAL is to advance and sustain research and to support teaching in the broad fields of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Signal and Information Processing, Control and Automation, Cognitive Systems. Basic and applied research is conducted in both theoretical and application problems whose fundamentals lie in the intersection of various fields of engineering and applied sciences, such as control, systems theory, signal processing, machine learning, informatics and communications, and whose applications span the fields of intelligent and robotic systems.

To build robotic systems that are able of performing complex tasks in unstructured and dynamic environments requires the combination of various perception, reasoning and action capabilities, which calls for joining research and development efforts from various scientific disciplines covering the broad field of cognitive and robotic systems. In this context, our main goal within IRAL is to combine scientific and technological advances from two fundamental research domains:

i) intelligent, dynamic and cognitive robot control and robot learning

ii) multimodal sensory data processing, machine learning, and robot perception.

Driving application areas of our research activities focus primarily on human-centered environments, including assistive robotic technologies, social and medical robotics, but also span other domains including, but not limited to, industrial robot-integrated automation processes, as well as bioengineering, digital arts, cultural heritage, and intelligent sensor networks.

IRAL comprises currently two closely collaborating Research Groups:

1) Intelligent Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction Group (led by Assoc. Prof. Costas Tzafestas)

Particular emphasis of research is on the following areas:

• Human-Robot interaction, communication and cooperation

• Haptics and Telerobotics, with special focus on medical applications

• Mobile Robotics, with emphasis on autonomous mobile robot navigation

• Dexterous robotic systems and robot grasping

• Intelligent robot control, with special focus on neurodynamic sensory-motor learning and neuro-fuzzy approaches.

2) Computer Vision, Speech Communication and Signal Processing Group (led by Prof. Petros Maragos).

The group’s collective research areas of interest are:

• Computer Vision and Image Processing

• Computer Sound Processing and Speech Communication

• Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

• Multimodal Information Processing and Fusion

• Nonlinear Dynamical Systems

• Applications in artificial intelligence, biomedicine, multimedia, human-computer/robot interaction, virtual reality, digital arts, cultural heritage, intelligent computer/communication networks, satellite remote sensing, environment, and econometrics.