Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos

McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor

Minnesota Robotics Institute Director

Distinguished McKnight University Professor

IEEE Fellow

Director of the Center for Distributed Robotics
and Minnesota Robotics Institute
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota
200 Union Street, SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
e-mail: npapas(at)cs.umn.edu
phone: (612) 625-0163
fax: (612) 625-0572

The UMN Scout and Other Robots

Cool Video of the Scout Robot

Scout Coverage by BBC

Transformer Robot

NSF Report on Robotics

Scout TV Commercial for UMN

Aquapod Robot

Loper Robot

My View on Research

PROFILE

• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 1992.
• M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 1988.
• Diploma of Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 1987.

Teaching Experience

• Professor, University of Minnesota, Fall 1992 - present.
• Teaching Assistant: Carnegie Mellon University, Spring 1989.
• Tutor: National Technical University of Athens, 1982 - 1987.

• Center for Distributed Robotics.
• AI, Robotics and Vision Laboratory.

Selected Papers Out of 80 Journal and 300 Conference Publications

• Stanitsas, P., Cherian, A., Morellas, V., Tejpaul, R., Papanikolopoulos, N., Truskinovsky, A., "Toward Image Descriptors for Weakly Annotated Histopathological Breast Cancer Data ", Frontiers in Digital Health, Section Connected Health, Accepted 26 Oct. 2020.
• Heller, N., Isensee, F., Maier-Hein, K., Houd, X., Xied, C., Lid, F., Nand, Y., Mue, G., Ling, Z., Hane, M., Yaoe, G., Gaoe, Y., Zhangh, Y., Wangh, Y., Houh, F., Yangj, J., Xiongj, G., Tiank, J., Zhongk, C., Mal, J., Rickmana, J., Deana, J., Stai, B., Tejpaul, R., Oestreicha, M., Blake, P., Kaluzniako, H., Razao, S., Rosenberg, J., Moore, K., Walczaka, E., Rengel, Z., Edgerton, Z., Vasdev, R., Peterson, M., McSweeney, S., Peterson, P., Kalapara, A., Sathianathen, N., Papanikolopoulos, N., Weight, C.J., "Toward The State of the Art in Kidney and Kidney Tumor Segmentation in Contrast-enhanced CT Imaging: Results of the KiTS19 Challenge ", Medical Image Analysis, Sept. 1, 2020.
• Zermas, D., Morellas, V., Mulla, D., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Toward 3D Model Processing for High Throughput Phenotype Extraction - the Case of Corn ", Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Volume 172, May 2020.
• Walczak, N., Fasching, J., Cullen, K., Morellas, V., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Toward Identifying Behavioral Risk Markers for Mental Health Disorders: An Assistive System for Monitoring Children's Movements in a Preschool Classroom ", Machine Vision and Applications, Volume 29, No. 4, May 2018, pp 703-717.
• Bernstein, G., Hadjiyanni, T., Cullen, K., Robinson, J., Harris, E., Young, A., Fasching, J., Walczak, N., Lee, S., Morellas, V., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Use of Computer Vision Tools to Identify Behavioral Markers of Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Pilot Study", Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, Volume 27, No. 2, March 2017, pp 140-147
• Zhang, D., Zhao, J., Zhang, F., Jiang, R., He, T., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Last-Mile Transit Service with Urban Infrastructure Data ", ACM Trans. on Cyber-Physical Systems, 2017.
• Cherian, A., Morellas, V., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Bayesian Nonparametric Clustering of Positive Definite Tensors ", IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2016.
• Sivalingam, R., Boley, D., Morellas, V., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Tensor Dictionary Learning for Positive Definite Matrices ", IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, 2015.
• Cherian, A., Sra, S., Morellas, V., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Efficient Nearest Neighbors via Robust Sparse Hashing", IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, 2014.
• Cherian, A., Sra, S., Banerjee, A., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Jensen-Bregman LogDet Divergence with Application to Efficient Similarity Search for Covariance Matrices", IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2013.
• Somasundaram, G., Sivalingam, R., Morellas, V., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Classification and Counting of Composite Objects in Traffic Scenes Using Global and Local Image Analysis", IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2013.
• Joshi, A., Porikli, F., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Scalable Active Learning for Multi-Class Image Classification", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2012.
• Bird, N., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Optimal Image-Based Euclidean Calibration of Structured Light Systems in General Scenes", IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 2011.
• Ribnick, E., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "3D Reconstruction of Periodic Motion from a Single View", International Journal of Computer Vision, Volume 90, No. 1, October 2010, pp 28-44.
• Atev, S., Miller, G., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Clustering of Vehicle Trajectories", IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Volume 11, No. 2, September 2010, pp 647-657.
• Ribnick, E., Atev, S., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Estimating 3D Positions and Velocities of Projectiles from Monocular Views", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Volume 31, No. 5, May 2009, pp 938-944.
• Joshi, A., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Learning to Detect Moving Shadows in Dynamic Environments", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Volume 33, No. 11, November 2008, pp 2055-2063.
• Cannon, K., LaPoint-Anderson, M., Bird, N., Panciera, K., Veeraraghavan, H., Papanikolopoulos, N., and Gini, M., "Using Robots to Raise Interest in Technology Among Underrepresented Groups", IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Volume 14, No. 2, June 2007, pp 73-81.
• Stoeter, S., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Kinematic Motion Model for Jumping Scout Robots", IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation. Volume 22, No. 2, April 2006, pp 398-403.
• Stoeter, S., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Autonomous Stair-Climbing with Miniature Jumping Robots", IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Part B., Volume 35, No. 2, April 2005, pp 313-325.
• Dos Santos, C., Stoeter, S., Rybski, P., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Panoramic Imaging for Miniature Robots", Robotics and Automation Magazine, Volume 11, No. 4, December 2004, pp 62-68.
• Perrin, D., Kadioglu, E., Stoeter, S., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Grasping and Tracking Using Constant Curvature Dynamic Contours", International Journal of Robotics Research, Volume 22, No. 10-11, October 2003, pp 855-871.
• Masoud, O., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "A Method for Human Action Recognition", Image and Vision Computing, Volume 21, No. 8, 2003, pp. 729-743.
• Rybski, P., Stoeter, S., Gini, M., Hougen, D., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Performance of a Distributed Robotic System Using Shared Communications Channels: A Framework for the Operation and Coordination of Multiple Miniature Robots", IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Volume 18, No. 5, October 2002, pp. 713-727.
• Rybski, P., Stoeter, S., Papanikolopoulos, N.P., Burt, I., Dahlin, T., Gini, M., Hougen, D., Krantz, D., and Nageotte, F., "Sharing Control: a Framework for the Operation and Coordination of Multiple Miniature Robots", IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Volume 9, No. 4, 2002, pp. 41-48.
• Masoud, O., Papanikolopoulos, N.P., and Kwon, E., "The Use of Computer Vision in Monitoring Weaving Sections", IEEE Trans. on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Volume 2, No.1, March 2001, pp 18-25.
• Singh, R., and Papanikolopoulos, N. P., "Planar Shape Recognition by Shape Morphing", Pattern Recognition, Volume 33, No 10, October 2000, pp 1683-1699.
• Singh, R., Cherkassky, V., and Papanikolopoulos, N. P., "Self-Organizing Maps for the Skeletonization of Sparse Shapes", IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, Volume 11, No 1, January 2000, pp 241-248.
• Pavlidis, I., Singh, R., and Papanikolopoulos, N. P., "On-Line Handwriting Recognition Using Physics-Based Shape Metamorphosis", Pattern Recognition, Volume 31, No 11, November 1998, pp 1589-1600.
• Smith, C., Brandt, S., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Eye-in-Hand Robotic Tasks in Uncalibrated Environments", IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Volume 13, No 6, December 1997, pp 903-914.
• Richards, C., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Detection and Tracking for Robotic Visual Servoing Systems", Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Volume 13, No 2, 1997, pp 101-120.
• Smith, C., Richards, C., Brandt, S., and Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Visual Tracking for Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems", IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Volume 45, No 4, November 1996, pp 744-759.
• Couvignou, P., Papanikolopoulos, N.P., and Khosla, P.K., "Theory and Experiments in Model-Based Robotic Visual Servoing", Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications,Volume 17, No 2, October 1996, pp 195-221.
• Nelson, B., Papanikolopoulos, N.P., and Khosla, P.K., "Robotic Visual Servoing and Robotic Assembly Tasks", IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Volume 3, No 2, June 1996, pp 23-31.
• Papanikolopoulos, N.P., Nelson, B., and Khosla, P.K., "Six Degree-of-Freedom Hand/Eye Visual Tracking with Uncertain Parameters", IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Volume 11, Number 5, October 1995, pp 725-732.
• Papanikolopoulos, N.P., "Selection of Features and Evaluation of Visual Measurements During Robotic Visual Servoing Tasks", Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems: Theory and Applications, Volume 13, August 1995, pp 279-304.
• Papanikolopoulos, N.P., and Khosla, P.K., "Adaptive Robotic Visual Tracking: Theory and Experiments", IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Volume 38, No 3, March 1993, pp 429-445.
• Papanikolopoulos, N.P., Khosla, P.K., and Kanade, T., "Visual Tracking of a Moving Target by a Camera Mounted on a Robot: A Combination of Control and Vision.", IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Volume 9, No 1, February 1993, pp 14-35.

Selected Book Chapters

• Nelson, B., Papanikolopoulos, N.P., Khosla, P.K., "Visual Servoing for Robotic Assembly", Invited Chapter for the Book Visual Servoing-Automatic Control of Mechanical Systems with Visual Sensors, World Scientific Series in Robotics and Automated Systems, ed. K. Hashimoto, World Scientific Publishing, September 1993.

Selected Grants (Total of more than $35M)

• "SCH: Active Learning for Medical Applications ", NIH
• "A Comprehensive System for Assessing Truck Parking Availability ", FHWA and MnDOT
• "RI: Small: Theory and Experiments with Tumbling Robots", National Science Foundation
• "CDI-Type II: Computational Tools for Behavioral Analysis, Diagnosis, and Intervention of at Risk Children" (with G. Sapiro, K. Lim, A. Banerjee, and V. Morellas), National Science Foundation
• "Monitoring Human Activities at Mass Transit Sites" (with V. Morellas), Department of Homeland Security
• "Classification of Background Regions from Aerial Imagery" (with V. Morellas), Lockheed Martin
• "IUCRC Safety, Security, and Rescue Research Center (SSR-RC)" (with M. Gini, V. Isler, and S. Roumeliotis), National Science Foundation
• "MRI: Development of a New Generation of Miniature Search/Rescue Robots" (with M. Gini, J. Pearce, S. Roumeliotis, and G. Giannakis), National Science Foundation
• "Distributed Robotic Intelligent Behaviors" (with M. Gini), Architecture Technology Corporation (Prime: Air Force)
• "ITR: Multi-Robot Emergency Response" (with S. Roumeliotis, G. Giannakis, R. Voyles, B. Chen, and M. Gini), National Science Foundation
• "CISE Research Resources: Teams of Miniature Mobile Robots" (with M. Gini, D. Boley, and W. Durfee), National Science Foundation
• "NSF/USDOT Partnership for Exploratory Research - ICSST: Real-time Collision Warning at Traffic Intersections" (with R. Janardan), National Science Foundation/US Department of Transportation
• "Distributed Robotics Using Reconfigurable Robots", DARPA
• "ITR: Monitoring Human Activities", National Science Foundation
• "CAREER: Eye-in-hand Robotic Systems", National Science Foundation
• "Performance Evaluation of ATR Systems", Honeywell, Inc.
• "McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Award", Graduate School, University of Minnesota
• "RIA: Model-Based Robotic Visual Servoing", National Science Foundation
• "Real-Time Servo Control Using Computer Vision", Department of Energy (Sandia Lab)
• "Real-Time Servo Control Using Computer Vision: Phase II", Department of Energy (Sandia Lab)
• "A Sensory System for Monitoring Safety in Work Zones", Mn\DOT
• "Automatic Detection of Driver Fatigue", Center for Transportation Studies
• "Pedestrian Control at Intersections", Mn\DOT
• "Vehicle-Following (Platooning) Using CCD Cameras" (with M. Gini), Mn\DOT
• "Bicycle Counter", Mn\DOT
• "Vehicle Navigation and Localization Using Multiple Navigation Aids" (with D. Boley), Mn\DOT
• "A Real-Time Vision System For Controlled Active Vision", Graduate School, University of Minnesota
• "CISE Research Instrumentation", (with M. Donath, M. Gini, and D. Boley), National Science Foundation
• "Using CCD Cameras for Obstacle Avoidance and Detection of Pedestrians", Center for Transportation Studies
• "Active Deformable Models and Robotic Visual Tracking", Graduate School, University of Minnesota, Faculty Research Fellowship (Summer Session I 1994)
• "Off-line Signature Recognition and Verification", Graduate School, University of Minnesota
• "Active Visual Observer", UROP Undergraduate Project

• "Algorithms and Data Structures II", CS-3322, CS-4041
• "Computer Vision", CS-5561
• "Artificial Intelligence I", CS-5511
• "Introduction to Intelligent Robotic Systems", CS-5551
• "Readings in Computational Vision", CS-8561
• "Problems in Artificial Intelligence", CS-5599
• "Intelligent Agents", CS-8551

• "Introduction to Intelligent Robotic Systems", CS-5551.

Students

• William Beksi, Ph.D.
• Hyeun Jeong Min, Ph.D.
• Anoop Cherian, Ph.D.
• Michael Janssen, Ph.D.
• Guruprasad Somasundaram, Ph.D.  
• Duc Fehr, Ph.D.  
• Jon Andersh, Ph.D. 
• Amer Agovic, Ph.D. 
• Ravishankar Sivalingam, Ph.D. 
• William Toczyski, Ph.D. 
• Patrick Lau, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Ioannis Pavlidis, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Christopher Smith, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Osama Masoud, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Doug Perrin, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Sascha Stoeter, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Robert Bodor, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Harini Veeraraghavan, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Rahul Singh, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Esra Kadioglu, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Nathaniel Bird, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Evan Ribnick, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Andrew Drenner, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Stefan Atev, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Ajay Joshi, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Brett Hemes, Ph.D. (GRADUATED)
• Scott Brandt, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Yue Du, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Marty Kenner, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Richard Nelson, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Charles Richards, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Jianzhong Xu, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Mike Sullivan, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Singh Kaur Sarbjit, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Brad Kratochvil, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Martin Eriksson, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Igor Chechelnitsky, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Alex Ozerkovsky, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Scott Rogers, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Robert Martin, M.S. (GRADUATED)
• Ben Jackson, M.S. (GRADUATED)

Honors

• McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor in CSE, 2016 -
• IEEE RAS George Saridis Leadership Award in Robotics and Automation, 2016
• CTS Research Partnership Award, April 2016
• A paper co-authored with Anoop Cherian (student), V. Morellas and Nikos Papanikolopoulos was winner for the Best Stuudent Paper Award, 2012 IEEE Int. Conference on Image processing (ICIP 2012), Orlando, October 2012
• Distinguished Service Award, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 2011
• Distinguished McKnight University Professorship Award, University of Minnesota, 2007 -
• IEEE Fellow
• A paper co-authored with G. Gasser, N. Bird, and O. Masoud was finalist for the Best Vision Paper Award, 2004 IEEE Int. Conference on Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, April 2004
• IEEE VTS 2001 Best Land Transportation Paper Award for the paper "A Novel Method for Tracking and Counting Pedestrians in Real-Time Using a Single Camera" (with Osama Masoud)
• Best Video Award at the 2000 IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference
• Faculty Creativity Award, March 1999
• McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Award, University of Minnesota, July 1995 - June 1997
• Best Session Paper Presentation Award, American Control Conference, Seattle, June 1995
• National Science Foundation Career Award, August 1995 - July 1998
• National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award, August 1994 - July 1997
• Finalist for the Anton Philips Award for Best Student Paper in the 1991 IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference
• Kritski Fellowship, Greece, September 1985 - August 1987

• General Chair for the 2012 ICRA Conference
• Vice President for Conferences, RAS, 2010-2014
• IEEE Robotics and Automation Administrative Committee Member, 2000-2005
• Program Chair for the 2006 ICRA Conference
• America Program Chair for the 2004 ICRA Conference
• General Vice Chair for the 2001 IROS Conference
• Publicity Chair for the 1998 IROS Conference
• Past Chairman of the IEEE Robot Vision Technical Committee (2000-2006)
• Member of the Technical Chamber of Greece
• IEEE Fellow
• Publicity Chair for the 1997 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA '97)
• Member of the program committee for the 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conferences on Intelligent Robots and Systems
• Local Arrangements Chair for 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
• Member of the program committee of the 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 IEEE International Conferences on Robotics and Automation
• Organizer of an invited session at the 1994 IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference
• Guest Editor of a special issue on "Modelling Issues for Visual Sensing" of the Journal Mathematical and Computer Modelling.

• Robotics
• Computer vision
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Sensor networks
• Sensor-based control in transportation applications
• Inspection
• Computer engineering
• Computer integrated manufacturing.