Autonomy-professor joining ScoutDI as Scientific Advisor

Feb 18, 2022 | Company, News, People

Kostas Alexis, professor and researcher of autonomous systems at NTNU, joins ScoutDI as Scientific Advisor

Prof. Kostas Alexis with Christopher Skinner, VP of Sales and Biz dev at ScoutDI
Prof. Kostas Alexis with Christopher Skinner, VP of Sales and Biz dev at ScoutDI

ScoutDI is originally a spin-off from the Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. We have always had strong roots in academia. Trondheim continues to attract the best talent in the world for drones and autonomous technologies and its position as a global centre of excellence is only strengthened.

Consequently, our team has deep competence within cybernetics, software systems and robotics. We have always been heavily involved in high-profile research projects like ADRIANE and REDHUS, and have deep relations with many scientific/academic collaborators and contributors.

One of these collaborators is Kostas Alexis, with whom we’ve been working on the SENTIENT project. Kostas is a professor at NTNU and does research on autonomous systems. His main interest is resilient autonomy for robotic systems. We are now formally extending and deepening our association by formally hiring Kostas as a Scientific Advisor to ScoutDI.

My goal is to build upon the unique capabilities of the ScoutDI drones for confined and long-endurance inspection, and help to develop robust perception and autonomy functionalities that will be useful for several industry applications.


Kostas Alexis, Professor at NTNU and ScoutDI Scientific Advisor

Kostas was also the leader of Team CERBERUS, who won the DARPA subterranean challenge and the USD 2M prize that came along with the achievement, honor and glory. In the final event, the competing robots had to find objects and report their location, inside underground environments modelled like subways and natural caves: Extremely confined geometries with tough terrain and severe visual degradation; including dense smoke. Quite a challenge! 

So when it comes to autonomy, Kostas is the guy! This is why we are very happy and proud to have Kostas join ScoutDI as a scientific advisor. He will work closely with our team on drone navigation and autonomy. 

I am excited to take this role at ScoutDI!” says Kostas. My goal is to build upon the unique capabilities of the Scout137 drone for confined and long-endurance inspection, and help to develop robust perception and autonomy functionalities that will be useful for several industry applications.  

Nicolai Husteli, CEO of ScoutDI, is very happy to further strengthen the team, and adds: “Kostas is at the very forefront when it comes to indoor navigation and autonomy for robots and drones, and we are thrilled to have him onboard as a Scientific Advisor in ScoutDI. We have big plans and look forward to joining forces with him“.
 
Currently, the Scout 137 Drone System would be categorized as a Level 2 autonomous vehicle: It is able to keep its position and maintain stable, gliding motion in confined spaces. It can keep a fixed distance to surfaces, and has obstacle detection and collision avoidance. All these are things that help the inspection team ensure the safety of their equipment and optimize the quality of the collected data.

Welcome aboard, Kostas! We’re looking forward to working more with you. 

You can read more about autonomy in ScoutDI and the Scout137 Drone System here!