Short Bio

Mr. Linus Nwankwo started as a PhD student at the Chair of Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPS) in August 2021. Prior to joining CPS, he worked as a research intern at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Germany.
In 2020, he obtained his M.Sc. degree in Automation and Robotics, a speciality in control for Green Mechatronics (GreeM) at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC), France. In his M.Sc. thesis, he implemented a stabilisation control for a mobile inverted pendulum robot and investigated the possibility of controlling and stabilising the robot via CANopen communication network.
Research Interests
- Robotics
- Simultaneous localization & mapping (SLAM)
- Path planning & autonomous navigation.
- Dynamic modelling and control
- Machine and Deep Learning
- Neural Networks
- Supervised, Unsupervised, and Reinforcement Learning
- Probabilistic learning for robotics
- Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
- Intention-aware planning for social service robots
- Social-aware and norm learning navigation
Research Videos
Contact & Quick Links
M.Sc. Linus Nwankwo
Doctoral Student supervised by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Elmar Rueckert since August 2021.
Montanuniversität Leoben
Franz-Josef-Straße 18,
8700 Leoben, Austria
Phone: +43 3842 402 – 1901 (Sekretariat CPS)
Email: linus.nwankwo@unileoben.ac.at
Web Work: CPS-Page
Web Private: https://sites.google.com/view/linus-nwankwo
Chat: WEBEX
CV of M.Sc. Linus Nwankwo
DBLP
Frontiers Network
GitHub
Google Citations
LinkedIn
ORCID
Research Gate
Publcations
2023 |
|
Nwankwo, Linus; Rueckert, Elmar Understanding why SLAM algorithms fail in modern indoor environments Proceedings Article In: International Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region (RAAD). , pp. 186 – 194, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland., 2023. @inproceedings{Nwankwo2023, Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms are essential for the autonomous navigation of mobile robots. With the increasing demand for autonomous systems, it is crucial to evaluate and compare the performance of these algorithms in real-world environments. In this paper, we provide an evaluation strategy and real-world datasets to test and evaluate SLAM algorithms in complex and challenging indoor environments. Further, we analysed state-of-the-art (SOTA) SLAM algorithms based on various metrics such as absolute trajectory error, scale drift, and map accuracy and consistency. Our results demonstrate that SOTA SLAM algorithms often fail in challenging environments, with dynamic objects, transparent and reflecting surfaces. We also found that successful loop closures had a significant impact on the algorithm’s performance. These findings highlight the need for further research to improve the robustness of the algorithms in real-world scenarios. | ![]() |
Nwankwo, Linus; Fritze, Clemens; Bartsch, Konrad; Rueckert, Elmar ROMR: A ROS-based Open-source Mobile Robot Journal Article In: HardwareX, vol. 15, pp. 1–29, 2023. @article{Nwankwo2023b, Currently, commercially available intelligent transport robots that are capable of carrying up to 90kg of load can cost $5,000 or even more. This makes real-world experimentation prohibitively expensive, and limiting the applicability of such systems to everyday home or industrial tasks. Aside from their high cost, the majority of commercially available platforms are either closed-source, platform-specific, or use difficult-to-customize hardware and firmware. In this work, we present a low-cost, open-source and modular alternative, referred to herein as ”ROS-based open-source mobile robot (ROMR)”. ROMR utilizes off-the-shelf (OTS) components, additive manufacturing technologies, aluminium profiles, and a consumer hoverboard with high-torque brushless direct current (BLDC) motors. ROMR is fully compatible with the robot operating system (ROS), has a maximum payload of 90kg, and costs less than $1500. Furthermore, ROMR offers a simple yet robust framework for contextualizing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms, an essential prerequisite for autonomous robot navigation. The robustness and performance of the ROMR were validated through realworld and simulation experiments. All the design, construction and software files are freely available online under the GNU GPL v3 license at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/K83X7. A descriptive video of ROMR can be found at https://osf.io/ku8ag. | ![]() |