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Agile Robots for Control, Optimization, and Learning (ARCOL) Laboratory is located in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech and is directed by Dr. Kaveh Akbari Hamed. We operate at the intersection of control theory, robotics, optimization, dynamical systems, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Our mission is to establish a rigorous theoretical foundation for resilient and intelligent trajectory planning and control algorithms designed for complex, high-dimensional autonomous robotic systems—including humanoid, quadrupedal, and other legged robots. These algorithms enable deployment in disaster response, industrial automation, and cooperative multi-agent systems with distributed control architectures. We bridge theory and experimentation through two core objectives: 1) Design systematic methods for robust and intelligent control of high-dimensional robots, and 2) Implement and validate these methods on highly dynamic robotic platforms in our laboratory.
Primary investigator:
Kaveh Akbari Hamed, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Robotics and Controls
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Virginia Tech
225 Goodwin Hall – 0238
635 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone: (540) 231-7187
kavehakbarihamed@vt.edu
Dr. Kaveh Akbari Hamed is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering, specializing in Controls and Robotics, from Aryamehr University of Technology (Sharif University of Technology) in 2006 and 2011, respectively. From January 2012 to August 2014, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, working under the supervision of Prof. Jessy W. Grizzle. Dr. Akbari Hamed’s research has been recognized with several prestigious honors, including: 1) Outstanding Paper Award, 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2) Rudolf Kalman Best Paper Award, 2022 ASME Dynamic Systems & Control Division, and 3) Best Reviewers Award, 2022 ASME Letters in Dynamic Systems and Control.
He currently serves as an Associate Editor for 1) IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2) IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 3) IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and 4) ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control. In addition, he has served as an editor for the IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) and as an associate editor for major robotics and control conferences, including IROS, ICRA, CDC, and ACC. He has also delivered a TEDx talk on cooperative and bio-inspired robot locomotion.
His research interests span control theory and robotics-with a focus on distributed and decentralized control, nonlinear control, predictive control, data-driven control, robust control, and legged robot locomotion—as well as optimization, dynamical systems, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
- 2023 Outstanding Paper Award of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
- 2023 Finalist for the Outstanding Paper Award of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Multi-Robot Systems
- 2022 Rudolf Kalman Best Paper Award by ASME Dynamic Systems & Control Division
- 2022 Best Reviewers Award for ASME Letters in Dynamic Systems and Control
- Invited TEDx Speaker: “How will robot armies save our future cities?” TEDxPearlStreet, Washington, DC, July 2020