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DAVIDE FALANGA


ROBOTICS ENGINEER

 * Email
 * LinkedIn
 * Scholar

 * Bio
 * Awards
 * Media Coverage
 * Publications
 * Videos


ABOUT ME

I am currently an Autonomy Engineer at Skydio, focusing on motion planning and
control for vision-based quadrotors. Previously, I was at Lyft Level 5, working
on planning and decision making for self-driving cars.

I received a Ph.D. in motion planning and control for Micro Aerial Vehicles,
under the supervision of Prof. Davide Scaramuzza at the Robotics and Perception
Group, University of Zurich. During my doctoral studies, I worked at the
intersection between perception and action. More specifically, I developed
techniques to exploit motion planning and control to cope with the limitations
of onboard sensors for high-speed flight with small-scale, lightweight,
vision-based autonomous quadrotors. Check out my PhD thesis for further details.
Previously, I received a B.Sc. and a M.Sc in Automation Engineering from
University of Naples “Federico II”, with focus on dynamical systems, robotics
and control.

Drop me an email at dfalanga@gmail.com if you want to get in touch, or check out
my profiles on LinkedIn and Google Scholar.


AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

SCIENCE ROBOTICS COVER PAGE

My research on event-based obstacle avoidance was featured on the cover page of
Science Robotics (see issue here).

DRONE HERO AWARD 2019

Winner of the category Most Innovative Drone (see list of winners).

NASA TECH BRIEFS "CREATE THE FUTURE" CONTEST 2019

Winner of the category Aerospace and Defense (see list of winners).

NASA TECH BRIEFS "CREATE THE FUTURE" CONTEST 2020

Finalist and honorable mention for the category Aerospace and Defense (see list
of winners).

IROS 2018 AUTONOMOUS DRONE RACING

Member of the team that won the IROS 2018 Autonomous Drone Racing (see list of
winners, video of the performance here).

RSS 2017 BEST STUDENT AWARD FINALIST

More information available here.


MEDIA COVERAGE

AGILE QUADROTOR FLIGHT THROUGH NARROW GAPS USING ONBOARD SENSING AND COMPUTING

 * MIT Technology Review
 * Robohub
 * Digital Trends
 * IEEE Spectrum


THE FOLDABLE DRONE: A MORPHING QUADROTOR THAT CAN SQUEEZE AND FLY

 * Reuters
 * BBC
 * TechCrunch
 * The Verge
 * CNET
 * CNBC
 * World Economic Forum
 * IEEE Spectrum
 * Popular Mechanics
 * Robohub
 * SlashGear

RAPID, DYNAMIC OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE WITH AN EVENT-BASED CAMERA

 * BBC
 * IEEE Spectrum
 * The Verge
 * Fox News
 * Business Insider
 * PCMag
 * Digital Trends
 * CNET
 * Tech Briefs

DYNAMIC OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE FOR QUADROTORS WITH EVENT CAMERAS

 * Nature
 * Gizmodo
 * The Verge
 * Fox News
 * Business Insider


PUBLICATIONS


PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL PAPERS

 1. M. Faessler, D. Falanga, D. Scaramuzza
    
    Thrust Mixing, Saturation, and Body-Rate Control for Accurate Aggressive
    Quadrotor Flight
    
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2017. Accepted for oral
    presentation at ICRA 17.
    
    PDFVideoPPTCodeBibTex

 2. S. Kim, D. Falanga, D. Scaramuzza
    
    Computing The Forward Reachable Set for a Multirotor Under First-Order
    Aerodynamic Effects
    
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2018. Accepted for oral
    presentation at IROS 18.
    
    PDFBibTex

 3. D. Falanga, K. Kleber, S. Mintchev, D. Floreano, D. Scaramuzza
    
    The Foldable Drone: A Morphing Quadrotor that can Squeeze and Fly
    
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2018. Accepted for oral
    presentation at ICRA 18.
    
    PDFVideoBibTex

 4. H. Moon, J. Martinez-Carranza, T. Cieslewski, M. Faessler, D. Falanga, A.
    Simovic, D. Scaramuzza, S. Li, M. Ozo, C. De Wagter, G. de Croon, S. Hwang,
    S. Jung, H. Shim, H. Kim, M. Park, T. C. Au, S. J. Kim
    
    Challenges and implemented technologies used in autonomous drone racing
    
    Springer: Intelligent Service Robotics Series, 2019
    
    PDFVideoBibTex

 5. D. Falanga, S. Kim, D. Scaramuzza
    
    How Fast is Too Fast? The Role of Perception Latency in High-Speed Sense and
    Avoid
    
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2019.
    
    PDFVideoBibTex

 6. B. Nisar, P. Foehn, D. Falanga, D. Scaramuzza
    
    VIMO: Simultaneous Visual Inertial Model-based Odometry and Force Estimation
    
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2019. Accepted for oral
    presentation at RSS 19.
    
    PDFBibTex

 7. D. Falanga, K. Kleber, D. Scaramuzza
    
    Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance for Quadrotors with Event Cameras
    
    Science Robotics, 2020
    
    PDFVideo


PEER-REVIEWED CONFERENCE PAPERS

 1. D. Falanga, E. Mueggler, M. Faessler, D. Scaramuzza
    
    Aggressive Quadrotor Flight through Narrow Gaps with Onboard Sensing and
    Computing using Active Vision
    
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Singapore,
    2017
    
    PDFVideoPPTBibTex

 2. P. Foehn, D. Falanga, N. Kuppuswamy, R. Tedrake, D. Scaramuzza
    
    Fast Trajectory Optimization for Agile Quadrotor Maneuvers with a
    Cable-Suspended Payload
    
    Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Boston, 2017 Best Student Paper Award
    Finalist
    
    PDFVideoPPTBibTex

 3. D. Falanga, A. Zanchettin, A. Simovic, J. Delmerico, D. Scaramuzza
    
    Vision-based Autonomous Quadrotor Landing on a Moving Platform
    
    IEEE/RSJ International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics
    (SSRR), Shanghai, 2017
    
    PDFVideoPPTBibTex

 4. R. Spica, D. Falanga, E. Cristofalo, E. Montijano, D. Scaramuzza, M.
    Schwager
    
    A Game Theoretic Approach to Autonomous Two-Player Drone Racing
    
    Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Pittsburgh, 2018
    
    PDFVideoBibTex

 5. D. Falanga, P. Foehn, P. Lu, D. Scaramuzza
    
    PAMPC: Perception-Aware Model Predictive Control for Quadrotors
    
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS),
    Madrid, 2018
    
    PDFVideoCodeBibTex


VIDEOS


PAPERS

DYNAMIC OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE FOR QUADROTORS WITH EVENT CAMERAS

RAPID, DYNAMIC OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE WITH AN EVENT-BASED CAMERA

THE FOLDABLE DRONE: A MORPHING QUADROTOR THAT CAN SQUEEZE AND FLY

AGGRESSIVE QUADROTOR FLIGHT THROUGH NARROW GAPS WITH ONBOARD SENSING AND
COMPUTING USING ACTIVE VISION

PAMPC: PERCEPTION-AWARE MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR QUADROTORS

THRUST MIXING, SATURATION, AND BODY-RATE CONTROL FOR ACCURATE AGGRESSIVE
QUADROTOR FLIGHT

FAST TRAJECTORY OPTIMIZATION FOR AGILE QUADROTOR MANEUVERS WITH A
CABLE-SUSPENDED PAYLOAD

VISION-BASED AUTONOMOUS QUADROTOR LANDING ON A MOVING PLATFORM

A GAME THEORETIC APPROACH TO AUTONOMOUS TWO-PLAYER DRONE RACING


COMPETITIONS AND DEMONSTRATIONS

IROS 2017 AUTONOMOUS DRONE RACE

IROS 2018 AUTONOMOUS DRONE RACE

INTEGRATIVE DEMO OF AERIAL AND TERRESTRIAL ROBOTS FOR RESCUE MISSIONS