Publications & Research

Peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, and robotics project websites.

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IROS '26 D-SafeMPC Architecture

D-SafeMPC: Diffusion-Driven Safe Model Predictive Control with Discrete-Time Control Barrier Functions

Erdi Sayar, Ersin Daş, Joel W. Burdick, Alois Knoll, Erdal Kayacan
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Pittsburgh, 2026
A unified framework coupling discrete-time CBF and CLF-guided reverse diffusion with iterative-projection MPC for safe robot trajectory generation under dynamic constraints, validated on a physical 7-DOF Franka manipulator.
WCCI '26 PIDCRL Architecture

Palette Inpainting Diffusion Curriculum Reinforcement Learning (PIDCRL)

Faruk Oruç, Erdi Sayar, Giovanni Iacca, Alois Knoll, Erdal Kayacan
IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI), 2026
A diffusion-based CRL framework that adapts mask-conditional image inpainting on trajectory heatmaps to automatically generate achievable, progressively challenging curriculum goals.
WCCI '26 FARS Method Overview

Fuzzy Logic Theory-based Adaptive Reward Shaping for Robust Reinforcement Learning (FARS)

Hürkan Şahin, Van Huyen Dang, Erdi Sayar, Alper Yegenoglu, Erdal Kayacan
IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI), 2026
An interpretable fuzzy-logic reward shaping method that adaptively shapes velocity-distance rewards using human-like linguistic rules, demonstrated on autonomous drone racing in IsaacLab.
AIM '26 Exp2VLA Overview

Exp2VLA: Enabling Vision–Language–Action for Drone Navigation from Expert Demonstrations

Van Huyen Dang, Kabilesh Rajendran, Erdi Sayar, Erdal Kayacan
IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), 2026
A practical expert-distillation pipeline transferring RL and optimal control demonstrations into compact Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models for language-conditioned aerial drone navigation.
NeurIPS '24 Diffusion-based Curriculum RL

Diffusion-based Curriculum Reinforcement Learning

Erdi Sayar, Giovanni Iacca, Ozgur S. Oguz, Alois Knoll
Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2024
Generative CRL framework leveraging conditional diffusion models conditioned on Q-value feasibility and AIM reward proximity to synthesize optimal curriculum goals.
ICRA '24 Contact Energy Based HER

Contact Energy Based Hindsight Experience Prioritization

Erdi Sayar, Zhenshan Bing, Carlo D'Eramo, Ozgur S. Oguz, Alois Knoll
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yokohama, 2024
Prioritizes replay buffers using contact energy and tactile forces measured at the robot gripper, significantly expediting robotic manipulation policy learning.
ISA Trans '24 Mobile Manipulator Coordinated Planning

Toward Coordinated Planning and Hierarchical Optimization Control for Highly Redundant Mobile Manipulator

Erdi Sayar, Xiang Gao, Yingbai Hu, Guang Chen, Alois Knoll
ISA Transactions (Elsevier), 2024
A coordinated motion planning and hierarchical optimization control framework for high-degree-of-freedom redundant mobile manipulators in constrained spaces.
IEEE Access '24 Curriculum Learning through Environment Shifts

Curriculum Learning for Robot Manipulation Tasks with Sparse Reward Through Environment Shifts

Erdi Sayar, Giovanni Iacca, Alois Knoll
IEEE Access, 2024
Proposes an environment-shifting curriculum learning paradigm that shifts physical parameters progressively to tackle sparse reward manipulation challenges.
GECCO '24 Multi-Objective Evolutionary HER

Multi-Objective Evolutionary Hindsight Experience Replay for Robot Manipulation Tasks

Erdi Sayar, Giovanni Iacca, Alois Knoll
Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Melbourne, 2024
Combines multi-objective evolutionary search (NSGA-II) with hindsight experience replay to optimize value prediction, goal-proximity potential, and Wasserstein distance under obstacle constraints.
EuroGP '24 HER with Evolutionary Decision Trees

Hindsight Experience Replay with Evolutionary Decision Trees for Curriculum Goal Generation

Erdi Sayar, Vladislav Vintaykin, Giovanni Iacca, Alois Knoll
EvoApplications / EuroGP (Springer LNCS Vol. 14634), 2024
Evolves interpretable binary decision trees via Grammatical Evolution and continuously refines waypoints using critic Q-value feedback for sparse-reward manipulation.
GECCO '22 Exploration of unknown environments

Exploration of Unknown Environments via Evolution of Behavioral and Morphological Properties of Miniaturized Sensory Agents

Cagatay Sariman, Ahmed Hallawa, Erdi Sayar, Arne Peine, Lukas Martin, Anke Schmeink
ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), Boston, 2022
Co-evolves morphological and behavioral traits of miniaturized swarm sensory agents exploring uncharted environments.

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