The Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) awarded Ing. Tomáš Báča, Ph.D. the prestigious JUNIOR STAR grant. This program is designed for excellent early-career researchers within eight years of obtaining their Ph.D., who have already achieved significant success in the scientific community.
Tomáš Báča impressed with his project TOMSNAV (Topological Multi-modal and Semantic Navigation for Aerial Vehicles), which introduces novel approaches to navigation and perception for mobile robots. The project aims to overcome the limitations of current SLAM methods, which primarily focus on precise metric localization but require significant computational resources.
TOMSNAV draws inspiration from biological principles, focusing on the extraction of multi-modal semantic features from sensor data. The project seeks to develop a more general approach to navigation, mapping, and localization in real-world conditions without relying on precise coordinates or odometry. Another challenge addressed is the development of methods for sharing plans between robots and humans without the need for prior knowledge of the environment or global coordinates. This project has the potential to revolutionize autonomous navigation and robotics and support the advancement of modern technologies in the Czech Republic.