About

Vassilis is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) of the University of Pennsylvania, working with Kod*lab. He completed his undergraduate studies (Diploma in Mechanical Engineering) at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece, in 2014.

Research

Vassilis’s research interests lie in the fields of Robotics and Control. Within these fields, his current research projects involve symbolic planning for autonomous agents and motion and task planning in the challenging setting of legged robots. He is particularly interested in finding ways to make legged robots interact with the physical environment surrounding them and perform useful tasks.

Teaching

EdX – “Robotics: Locomotion Engineering” (MicroMasters Program: Robotics)
TA for MEAM 513/ESE 505 (Feedback Control)
TA for MEAM 348 (Mechanical Engineering Design Laboratory)
TA for MEAM 210 (Statics and Strength of Materials)

Publications

Pre-prints

V. Vasilopoulos, G. Pavlakos, K. Schmeckpeper, K. Daniilidis, and D. E. Koditschek, “Reactive Navigation in Partially Familiar Planar Environments Using Semantic Perceptual Feedback”, February 2020, arXiv: 2002.08946.

Journal

V. Vasilopoulos, G. Pavlakos, S. L. Bowman, J. D. Caporale, K. Daniilidis, G. J. Pappas, and D. E. Koditschek, “Reactive Semantic Planning in Unexplored Semantic Environments Using Deep Perceptual Feedback”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 4455-4462, 2020, DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.3001496
V. Vasilopoulos, I. S. Paraskevas, and E. G. Papadopoulos, “Monopod Hopping on Compliant Terrains”, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 102, pp. 13-26, 2018, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2018.01.004.

Conference

T. T. Topping, V. Vasilopoulos, A. De, and D. E. Koditschek, “Composition of Templates for Transitional Pedipulation Behaviors”, The International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR ’19), Hanoi, Vietnam, October 2019.
V. Vasilopoulos, and D. E. Koditschek, “Reactive Navigation in Partially Known Non-Convex Environments”, 13th International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR ’18), Mérida, Mexico, December 2018.
V. Vasilopoulos, T. T. Topping, W. Vega-Brown, N. Roy, and D. E. Koditschek, “Sensor-Based Reactive Execution of Symbolic Rearrangement Plans by a Legged Mobile Manipulator”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS ’18), Madrid, Spain, October 2018, pp. 3298-3305.
V. Vasilopoulos, W. Vega-Brown, O. Arslan, N. Roy, and D. E. Koditschek, “Sensor-Based Reactive Symbolic Planning in Partially Known Environments”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA ’18), Brisbane, Australia, May 2018, pp. 5683-5690.
V. Vasilopoulos, O. Arslan, A. De, and D. E. Koditschek, “Sensor-Based Legged Robot Homing Using Range-Only Target Localization”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO ’17), Macau, China, December 2017, pp. 2630-2637.
V. Vasilopoulos, K. Machairas, and E. G. Papadopoulos, “Quadruped Pronking on Compliant Terrains Using a Reaction Wheel”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA ’16), Stockholm, Sweden, May 2016, pp. 3590-3595, DOI: 10.1109/ICRA.2016.7487542.
T. T. Topping, V. Vasilopoulos, A. De, and D. E. Koditschek, “Towards Bipedal Behavior on a Quadrupedal Platform Using Optimal Control”, SPIE 9837, Unmanned Systems Technology XVIII, p. 98370H, Baltimore, MD, USA, April 2016.
V. Vasilopoulos, I. S. Paraskevas, and E. G. Papadopoulos, “Control and Energy Considerations for a Hopping Monopod on Rough Compliant Terrains”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA ’15), Seattle, Washington, USA, May 2015, pp. 4570-4575, DOI: 10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139832.
V. Vasilopoulos, I. S. Paraskevas, and E. G. Papadopoulos, “Monopod Hopping on Rough Planetary Environments”, 13th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA ’15), ESA, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, May 2015.
V. Vasilopoulos, I. S. Paraskevas, and E. G. Papadopoulos, “Compliant Terrain Legged Locomotion Using a Viscoplastic Approach”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS ’14), Chicago, Illinois, USA, September 2014, pp. 4849-4854, DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2014.6943251.

Workshop

V. Vasilopoulos, “Reactive Mobile Manipulation with Legged Robots”, RSS Pioneers, July 2020.

Technical Reports

V. Vasilopoulos, G. Pavlakos, S. L. Bowman, J. D. Caporale, K. Daniilidis, G. J. Pappas, and D. E. Koditschek, “Technical Report: Reactive Semantic Planning in Unexplored Semantic Environments Using Deep Perceptual Feedback”, Technical Report, February 2020, arXiv: 2002.12349.
V. Vasilopoulos, and D. E. Koditschek, “Technical Report: Reactive Navigation in Partially Known Non-Convex Environments”, Technical Report, July 2018, arXiv: 1807.08432.
V. Vasilopoulos, W. Vega-Brown, O. Arslan, N. Roy, and D. E. Koditschek, “Technical Report: Sensor-Based Reactive Symbolic Planning in Partially Known Environments”, Technical Report, September 2017, arXiv: 1709.05474.

Theses

V. Vasilopoulos, “Dynamics and Control of a Monopod Robot with a Single Actuator on Compliant Terrain”, Diploma Thesis, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece, September 2014 (In Greek).