Staff profile

Farshad Arvin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University.

He received his BSc degree in Computer Engineering in 2004, an MSc degree in Computer Systems Engineering in 2010, and a PhD in Computer Science in 2015.

Background

Before joining Durham in 2022, Farshad was a Lecturer in Robotics (2018-2021) and a Senior Lecturer in Robotics (2021-2022) in the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at The University of Manchester.

He joined the University of Manchester in 2015 as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Robotics for Extreme Environments group at the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering. He was a Research Assistant at the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS) at the University of Lincoln, UK (2012 to 2015). He was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship for being involved in the FP7-EYE2E and LIVCODE EU projects during his PhD study.

Experience

Farshad's research interests include Bio-inspired Swarm Robotics, Autonomous Multi-agent Systems and Biohybrid Robotics.

He visited several leading institutes, including Artificial Life Laboratory in Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Austria, in 2018; the Italian Institute of Technology (iit) in Genoa, Italy, in 2017; Institute of Rehabilitation and Medical Robotics in Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, in 2014; and the Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, in 2013 and 2012. 

Research Team and Projects

Farshad is the founding director of Swarm & Computation Intelligence Laboratory (SwaCIL), formed in 2018. The lab hosts 3 Post-Doctoral Research Associates, an Electronics technician and 8 PGR students. It has received more than £3M in direct funding from the EU, EPSRC, InnovateUK and industry. Farshad coordinates several research projects, including a large EU project H2020-FET RoboRoyale (2021-2026, €3.27M) and PI in Horizon Europe Pathfiner Sensorbees (2024-2029, €3.2M) and H2020-FET Robocoenosis (2020-2025, €3M).

• Swarm Robotics
• Bio-inspired Swarms
• Multi-agent Systems
• Bio-hybrid Systems

• Google Scholar Portal
• Swarm & Computational Intelligence Lab (SwaCIL)

Chapter in book

• Bahaidarah, Mazen, Bana, Fatemeh Rekabi, Turgut, Ali Emre, Marjanovic, Ognjen & Arvin, Farshad (2022). Optimization of a Self-organized Collective Motion in a Robotic Swarm. In Swarm Intelligence. 13491: 341.
• Bilaloğlu, Cem, Şahin, Mehmet, Arvin, Farshad, Şahin, Erol & Turgut, Ali Emre (2022). A Novel Time-of-Flight Range and Bearing Sensor System for Micro Air Vehicle Swarms. In Swarm Intelligence. 13491: 248.

Conference Paper

• Jang, Inmo, Hu, Junyan, Arvin, Farshad, Carrasco, Joaquin & Lennox, Barry (2021), Omnipotent Virtual Giant for Remote Human–Swarm Interaction, 2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). 488.
• Thenius, Ronald, Rajewicz, Wiktoria, Varughese, Joshua Cherian, Schoenwetter-Fuchs, Sarah, Arvin, Farshad, Casson, Alexander J., Wu, Chao, Lennox, Barry, Campo, Alexandre, van Vuuren, Godfried Jansen, Stefanini, Cesare, Romano, Donato & Schmickl, Thomas (2021), Biohybrid Entities for Environmental Monitoring, The 2021 Conference on Artificial Life.
• Arvin, Farshad, Turgut, Ali Emre, Krajnik, Tomas, Rahimi, Salar, Okay, Ilkin Ege, Yue, Shigang, Watson, Simon & Lennox, Barry (2018), $\Phi$ Clust: Pheromone-Based Aggregation for Robotic Swarms, 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 4288-4294.
• Arvin, Farshad, Krajnik, Tomas, Turgut, Ali Emre & Yue, Shigang (2015), COSΦ Artificial pheromone system for robotic swarms research, 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 407.

Journal Article

• Wu, Kefan, Hu, Junyan, Ding, Zhengtao & Arvin, Farshad (2023). Finite-Time Fault-Tolerant Formation Control for Distributed Multi-Vehicle Networks With Bearing Measurements. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 1.
• Na, Seongin, Roucek, Tomas, Ulrich, Jiri, Pikman, Jan, Krajnik, Tomas, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2023). Federated Reinforcement Learning for Collective Navigation of Robotic Swarms. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 1.
• Chai, Runqi, Niu, Hanlin, Carrasco, Joaquin, Arvin, Farshad, Yin, Hujun & Lennox, Barry (2022). Design and Experimental Validation of Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Fast Trajectory Planning and Control for Mobile Robot in Unknown Environment. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems 1.
• Xie, Songtao, Hu, Junyan, Bhowmick, Parijat, Ding, Zhengtao & Arvin, Farshad (2022). Distributed Motion Planning for Safe Autonomous Vehicle Overtaking via Artificial Potential Field. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems 23(11): 21531 - 21547.
• Xie, Songtao, Hu, Junyan, Ding, Zhengtao & Arvin, Farshad (2022). Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control for Connected Autonomous Vehicles using Spring Damping Energy Model. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 1.
• Na, Seongin, Niu, Hanlin, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2022). Bio-Inspired Collision Avoidance in Swarm Systems via Deep Reinforcement Learning. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 71(3): 2511.
• Hu, Junyan, Niu, Hanlin, Carrasco, Joaquin, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2022). Fault-tolerant cooperative navigation of networked UAV swarms for forest fire monitoring. Aerospace Science and Technology 123: 107494.
• Hu, Junyan, Turgut, Ali Emre, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2022). Robust Formation Coordination of Robot Swarms With Nonlinear Dynamics and Unknown Disturbances: Design and Experiments. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs 69(1): 114.
• Hu, Junyan, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2022). Robust formation control for networked robotic systems using Negative Imaginary dynamics. Automatica 140: 110235.
• Stefanec, Martin, Hofstadler, Daniel N., Krajník, Tomáš, Turgut, Ali Emre, Alemdar, Hande, Lennox, Barry, Şahin, Erol, Arvin, Farshad & Schmickl, Thomas (2022). A Minimally Invasive Approach Towards “Ecosystem Hacking” With Honeybees. Frontiers in Robotics and AI 9.
• Schranz, Melanie, Di Caro, Gianni A., Schmickl, Thomas, Elmenreich, Wilfried, Arvin, Farshad, Şekercioğlu, Ahmet & Sende, Micha (2021). Swarm Intelligence and cyber-physical systems: Concepts, challenges and future trends. Swarm and Evolutionary Computation 60: 100762.
• Na, Seongin, Qiu, Yiping, Turgut, Ali E, Ulrich, Jiří, Krajník, Tomáš, Yue, Shigang, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2021). Bio-inspired artificial pheromone system for swarm robotics applications. Adaptive Behavior 29(4): 395.
• Alsayed, Ahmad, Yunusa-Kaltungo, Akilu, Quinn, Mark K., Arvin, Farshad & Nabawy, Mostafa R. A. (2021). Drone-Assisted Confined Space Inspection and Stockpile Volume Estimation. Remote Sensing 13(17): 3356.
• Ban, Zhe, Hu, Junyan, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2021). Self-Organised Collision-Free Flocking Mechanism in Heterogeneous Robot Swarms. Mobile Networks and Applications 26(6): 2461.
• Wu, Kefan, Hu, Junyan, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2021). SDP-Based Robust Formation-Containment Coordination of Swarm Robotic Systems with Input Saturation. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems 102(1).
• Li, Peng-Zhi, Zhang, De-Fu, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2021). A 3-DOF piezoelectric driven nanopositioner: Design, control and experiment. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 155: 107603.
• Wu, Kefan, Hu, Junyan, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2021). Finite-Time Bearing-Only Formation Tracking of Heterogeneous Mobile Robots With Collision Avoidance. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs 68(10): 3316.
• Hu, Junyan, Bhowmick, Parijat, Jang, Inmo, Arvin, Farshad & Lanzon, Alexander (2021). A Decentralized Cluster Formation Containment Framework for Multirobot Systems. IEEE Transactions on Robotics 37(6): 1936.
• Hu, Junyan, Turgut, Ali Emre, Krajnik, Tomas, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2020). Occlusion-Based Coordination Protocol Design for Autonomous Robotic Shepherding Tasks. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 14(1): 126.
• Hu, Junyan, Bhowmick, Parijat, Arvin, Farshad, Lanzon, Alexander & Lennox, Barry (2020). Cooperative Control of Heterogeneous Connected Vehicle Platoons: An Adaptive Leader-Following Approach. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 5(2): 977.
• Li, Peng-Zhi, Zhang, De-Fu, Hu, Jun-Yan, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2020). Hysteresis Modelling and Feedforward Control of Piezoelectric Actuator Based on Simplified Interval Type-2 Fuzzy System. Sensors 20(9): 2587.
• Hu, Junyan, Niu, Hanlin, Carrasco, Joaquin, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2020). Voronoi-Based Multi-Robot Autonomous Exploration in Unknown Environments via Deep Reinforcement Learning. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 69(12): 14413.
• Liu, Zheyu, West, Craig, Lennox, Barry & Arvin, Farshad (2020). Local Bearing Estimation for a Swarm of Low-Cost Miniature Robots. Sensors 20(11): 3308.
• Cheah, Wei, Khalili, Hassan Hakim, Arvin, Farshad, Green, Peter, Watson, Simon & Lennox, Barry (2019). Advanced motions for hexapods. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 16(2): 172988141984153.
• Arvin, Farshad, Espinosa, Jose, Bird, Benjamin, West, Andrew, Watson, Simon & Lennox, Barry (2019). Mona: an Affordable Open-Source Mobile Robot for Education and Research. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems 94(3-4): 761.
• Grieve, Bruce Donaldson, Duckett, Tom, Collison, Martin, Boyd, Lesley, West, Jon, Yin, Hujun, Arvin, Farshad & Pearson, Simon (2019). The challenges posed by global broadacre crops in delivering smart agri-robotic solutions: A fundamental rethink is required. Global Food Security 23: 116.
• Arvin, Farshad, Watson, Simon, Turgut, Ali Emre, Espinosa, Jose, Krajník, Tomáš & Lennox, Barry (2018). Perpetual Robot Swarm: Long-Term Autonomy of Mobile Robots Using On-the-fly Inductive Charging. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems 92(3-4): 395.
• Hu, Cheng, Arvin, Farshad, Xiong, Caihua & Yue, Shigang (2017). Bio-Inspired Embedded Vision System for Autonomous Micro-Robots: The LGMD Case. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 9(3): 241.
• Arvin, Farshad, Turgut, Ali Emre, Krajník, Tomáš & Yue, Shigang (2016). Investigation of cue-based aggregation in static and dynamic environments with a mobile robot swarm. Adaptive Behavior 24(2): 102.
• Arvin, Farshad, Murray, John, Zhang, Chun & Yue, Shigang (2014). Colias: An Autonomous Micro Robot for Swarm Robotic Applications. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 11(7): 113.
• Arvin, Farshad, Turgut, Ali Emre, Bazyari, Farhad, Arikan, Kutluk Bilge, Bellotto, Nicola & Yue, Shigang (2014). Cue-based aggregation with a mobile robot swarm: a novel fuzzy-based method. Adaptive Behavior 22(3): 189.