Ahmad Ataka

Indonesia.
ataka.ahmad@gmail.com / ahmad.ataka.ar@ugm.ac.id

I am a robotics researcher and an assitant professor at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. Previously, I worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore under the supervision of Dr. Dino Accoto. I formerly worked as a Post-doctoral Research Assistant at School of Engineering and Material Science, Queen Mary University of London under the supervision of Prof. Kaspar Althoefer. My research interest lies in the field of robot autonomy and intelligent, particularly in control and navigation of robots in unknown and complex environments, applications of AI and machine learning in robotics, control of soft-material and continuum robots, as well as safe human-robot collaboration.

Research

1. Robot Learning

   I have developed reinforcement-learning-based robot control and imitation-learning-based robot control to solve various problems in robotics and engineering.

   Some applications include:

   1. Excavator inverse-kinematics control (presented at ICITEE 2023)
   2. Mecanum-wheel robot (presented at ICITEE 2023)
   3. Soft Growing Robot Navigation (ICCAR 2023)
   4. Joint-space Imitation Learning for Excavator (presented at ICST, 2023).
   5. Wheeled-Mobile Robot Navigation (presented at ICMSA, 2023).
   6. Inverted Pendulum Control (published at JNTETI, 2023).
   7. Optimal operation control of DC Microgrids (MDPI Energies, 2023).


2. Magnetic-field-inspired Navigation

   A reactive navigation algorithm which takes inspiration from the property of magnetic field in nature. The idea is simple: just like the Earth’s magnetic field which protects our planet from charged particles by steering their movement towards the pole, a robot will induce an artificial electrical current in a nearby obstacle, producing an artificial magnetic field which will steer the robot away from a collision. To get an idea on how it works and how it has been implemented, please take a look at the following 5-minutes video about my Ph.D Thesis:

   
   

   To get a better idea on how this has been implemented on vaious types of robots, please take a look at the following videos:

   1. a mobile robot (ICRA 2018)
      
      
   2. tip of a Baxter robot (IEEE RAL 2018)
      
      
   3. a soft-continuum robot (IROS 2018)
      
      
   4. a quadcopter robot (ICRA 2019)
      
      


3. Soft / Continuum Robot Control and Navigation

   A control and navigation method for a class of soft-material robots called soft-continuum manipulator. My works on this subject include:

   1. a kinematic control and obstacle avoidance (ICRA 2016)
      
      
   2. a pose estimation (IROS 2016, BioRob 2016)
      
      
   3. an obstacle avoidance using the aforementioned magnetic-field-inspired navigation in section 1c (IROS 2018)


4. Inflatable and Growing Robot Control and Navigation

   This type of robots is similar to the aforementioned soft-continuum robot. The difference: this one is able to modify its stiffness (i.e. switching from a purely-soft state to a stiffer state) and sometimes it is also able to grow like vines. My works on this subject include:

   1. creating a bending mechanism
   2. performing a model-based pose control for various stiffness conditions (IEEE RAL-ICRA 2020)
      
      
   3. performing an observer-based pose control for various stiffness conditions (IROS 2020):
      
      
   4. performing an obstacle avoidance (TAROS 2019)
5. Ergonomics-based human-robot collaboration

   My colleagues and I have developed human-robot interaction approach driven by ergonomics. The approach observes a human user’s posture in real-time and exploits this information to produce robot movement in such a way that the user’s posture is, whenever required, brought back to an ergonomic optimum.

   
   



6. Formation control of multiple robots

   I have developed a formation control strategy for multiple UAVs based on artificial potential field (ARIS 2014, Best Conference Paper Award: Excellence Award):

   
   
   
   

Education

Selected Publications

1. ”Model-based Pose Control of Inflatable Eversion Robot with Variable Stiffness”
   A. Ataka, T. Abrar, F. Putzu, H. Godaba, and K. Althoefer,
   IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 3398-3405, Feb. 2020.
   

   See the paper
2. ”Reactive Magnetic-field-inspired Navigation Method for Robots in Unknown Convex 3D Environments”
   A. Ataka, H.K. Lam, and K. Althoefer,
   IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 3583-3590, Oct. 2018.
   

   See the paper
3. ”Observer-based Control of Inflatable Robot with Variable Stiffness”
   A. Ataka, T. Abrar, F. Putzu, H. Godaba, and K. Althoefer,
   Proc. of 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 168-173.
   

   See the paper
4. ”Magnetic-field-inspired Navigation for Soft Continuum Manipulator”
   A. Ataka, A. Shiva, H.K. Lam, and K. Althoefer,
   Proc. of 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 168-173.
   

   See the paper
5. ”Reactive Magnetic-field-inspired Navigation for Non-holonomic Mobile Robots in Unknown Environments”
   A. Ataka, H.K. Lam, and K. Althoefer,
   Proc. of 2018 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp 6983-6988.
   

   See the paper
6. ”Magnetic-field-inspired Navigation for Quadcopter Robot in Unknown Environments”
   A. Ataka, H.K. Lam, and K. Althoefer,
   Proc. of 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 6165-6171.
   

   See the paper
7. ”Real-Time Planner for Multi-Segment Continuum Manipulator in Dynamic Environments”
   A. Ataka, P.Qi, H.Liu, and K. Althoefer,
   Proc.of 2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp.4080 - 4085
   

   See the paper
8. ”Real-Time Pose Estimation and Obstacle Avoidance for Multi segment Continuum Manipulator in Dynamic Environments”
   A. Ataka, P.Qi, A.Shiva, A.Shafti, H.Wurdemann, H.Liu, and K.Althoefer,
   Proc.of 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp 2827-2832.
   

   See the paper
9. ”Towards Safer Obstacle Avoidance for Continuum-Style Manipulator in Dynamic Environments”
   A. Ataka, P.Qi, A.Shiva, A.Shafti, H.Wurdemann, P.Dasgupta, and K.Althoefer,
   Proc. Of 2016 IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics(BioRob), pp.600-605.
   

   See the paper
10. ”Elasticity Versus Hyperelasticity Considerations in Quasistatic Modeling of a Soft Finger-Like Robotic Appendage for Real-Time Position and Force Estimation”
    A. Shiva, SM H. Sadati, Y. Noh, J. Fraś, A. Ataka, H. Würdemann, H. Hauser, I. D. Walker, T. Nanayakkara, K. Althoefer,
    Soft robotics, 6(2), pp.228-249.
    

    See the paper
11. ”Kinematic Control of Continuum Manipulators Using a Fuzzy-Model-Based Approach”
    P Qi, C Liu, A Ataka, HK Lam, and K Althoefer,
    IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 2016 Vol. 63, Issue 8, pp 5022-5035.
    

    See the paper

Skills

• Indonesia: Native Language
• English:
• TOEFL IBT 109/120 (Reading 30/30, Listening 27/30, Speaking 23/30, Writing 29/30)
• IELTS 7.5/9.0 (Reading 8.0/9.0, Listening 9.0/9.0, Speaking 6.5/9.0, Writing 6.5/9.0)

Honors & Awards

• 2^nd Winner of The Queen Mary UK PhD in Robotics Award 2019
  The award is granted to best candidates who finished their Ph.D. in the field of robotics in the UK in 2019.
• 1^st Place in National Final Microsoft Imagine Cup 2016 World Citizenship
  Imagine Cup is an international innovation competition held annually by Microsoft for university student.
• Awardee of Indonesia Presidential Scholarship 2014
  Granted by Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education.
• Best Conference Paper Award: Excellence Award ARIS 2014
  ARIS (Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems) is international conference held by Robotics Society of Taiwan in Taipei, June 2014. The paper title is Path Planning and Formation Control via Potential Function for UAV Quadrotor.
• Silver Medal of International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2010 in Croatia
  IPhO is an international-level physics olympiad for high-school student.
• Bronze Medal of Asian Physic Olympiad (APhO) 2010 in Taiwan
  APhO is an Asian level physics olympiad for high-school student.
• Nominator of Indonesia ICT Award (INAICTA) 2013
  INAICTA is the biggest IT innovator competition in Indonesia held by the Ministry of Communication and Information. The project nominated here is applicative robot COMMANDO (Communication Mobile Robot for Mapping on Disaster Area and Optimizing Mitigation).

Interests

In my free time, I work with my wife on a Youtube educational channel called Jago Robotika (meaning “becoming an expert in robotics” in Bahasa Indonesia), focusing on teaching robotics, electronics, and programming to children.

My youtube channel