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Seyed Amir Tafrishi

Dr Seyed Amir Tafrishi

Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems

School of Engineering

Email
TafrishiSA@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 76176
Campuses
Queen's Buildings - East Building, Room Room E/3.16, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 3AA
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

Dr Seyed Amir Tafrishi is a Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the Engineering School of Cardiff University, UK. Also, He is part of the Robotics and Autonomous Intelligent Machines (RAIM) group.

Previously, He was a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at Smart Robots Design Lab in Robotics Department, Tohoku University Japan. He worked in the  Adaptable AI-enabled Robots to Create Vibrant Societies group as part of Moonshot R & D project initiated by the Japanese Government. The project was aimed at developing assistive and cooperative robots for future welfare facilities. A new shared autonomy concept under safety constraints between human and robot interaction was proposed. Also, there were other achievements in the areas of assistive-compliant actuators and safety quantification.

He received his PhD from Mechanical Engineering Department, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. He did his M.Sc. studies in Control Systems Engineering at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems EngineeringUniversity of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Since 2015, he has been a visiting researcher at Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research Group, Sheffield, UK, Mechatronic Lab. at Middle East Technical University, Turkey, Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at the University of Tabriz; and the Control Engineering Lab at Kyushu University.

Note: Please refer to my webpage for more details 

Current openings: 

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

Articles

Conferences

Research

Research Summary 

The central theme of our research is bridging the gap between motion control theory and advanced actuators for designing state-of-art robots. The research studies focus on exploiting the physics of advanced mechanisms for real-world applications.

Our research motivation is inspired by studies in mathematical theories on geometric mechanics, variable impedance, estimation, control theory and shared autonomy etc. In parallel, we develop new mechanisms and control theories for applications for human assistance and advanced mobile robots. 


We are currently exploring the development of reconfigurable rolling robots, agile grasping mechanisms and underactuated compliant actuators. Applications of these studies are not limited to human assistance, hybrid mobile robots, and industrial applications. 

Research Interests

Robotics, mechanism design, underactuated systems, dexterous manipulation, motion planning, geometric mechanics, assistive robots, nonlinear control

Previous Researches

A new "CARE" framework on welfare with cooperative robots under safety and shared autonomy

How to quantify the safety of human motion using a single IMU

An assistive geometric controller without any desired configuration for operating with mobile robots

Can attaching ferromagnetic materials improve the motion estimation of IMU sensors?

Path planning of spin-rolling sphere on different manifolds

Geometric filter for object detection and tracking

Singular-free inverse dynamics for underactuated robots

A novel underactuated rolling robot with fluid propulsion

Teaching

  • EN4062/ENT794, Advanced Robotics, Spring semester, 2023 - present
  • EN3062, Robotics and Image Processing, Autumn semester, 2023 - present

Biography

Education

  • 2021, PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics and Control Major, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
  • 2018, Research Student, Mechanical Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
  • 2014, M.Sc. in Control Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
  • 2013, B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Professional memberships

Memberships

  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Member, 2017-present,
  • IEEE Young Professionals, Member, 2018-present,
  • IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Member, 2018-present,

Services

  • Session Co-Organizer,”Robotics and AI for Home Automation, Healthcare, and Ambient 2023
  • IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integrations (SII), 2023, Atlanta, USA
  • Session Co-chair,”Nonlinear Systems I”, The 2022 American Control Conference (ACC), Virtual,  2022, Atlanta, USA
  • Session Moderator (MC),”Virtual Poster Session”, The 8th German-Japanese University Presidents’ Conference HeKKSaGOn, 2021, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Academic positions

  • 2022 - Present Lecturer, School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
  • 2021 - 2022 Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, Smart Robots Design Lab, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
  • 2018 - 2021 Research Assistant, Control Engineering Lab, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
  • 2016- 2017 Research Assistant, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
  • 2015 - 2016 Visiting Researcher, Mechanical Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
  • 2014 - 2015 Visiting Researcher, Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research Group, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Committees and reviewing

Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
  • IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
  • Multibody System Dynamics, Springer
  • International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
  • Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, Sage
  • The IEEE Control Systems Letters (L-CSS)

Peer-Reviewed Conferences

  • International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2017-2023
  • The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021-2023
  • IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII) 2016-2023
  • IFAC World Congress 2023.
  • IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics (ICARM), 2019
  • IEEE RSI International Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ICRoM) 2017.

Supervisions

Although I am interested in various topics in robotics and control engineering, my current mainstream research topics are:

  • Design, motion planning and control of advanced compliant actuators for robots, 
  • Strategies for Human-robot interaction for assistance,
  • Advanced locomotion mechanisms for mobile robots,
  • Planning and control for dynamic, nonprehensile, and hybrid manipulation tasks,
  • Design and control of agile grasping mechanisms, 
  • Motion planning and design of reconfigurable rolling robots,
  • Advanced energy-based control strategies for underactuated robots,  

There are interdisciplinary and fundamental research topics that also I am interested in working on, e.g., safety in HRI, shared autonomy, motion planning by geometric mechanics, nonholonomic systems etc...

Current supervision

Qingmeng Wen

Qingmeng Wen

Graduate Demonstrator

Zekun Ning

Zekun Ning

Research student

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Control engineering, mechatronics and robotics
  • Mechatronics hardware design and architecture
  • Control engineering
  • Intelligent robotics
  • Assistive robots and technology