I am an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines and I lead the Motion Planning, Active Learning, and Autonomy (MPALA) Lab. I am a core faculty member of the Robotics program at Mines and I also contribute to the OpenBionics initiative.
I was a Postodoctroal Research Associate at the University of Maryland from Jan 2022 to Dec 2023. Previously, I obtained my PhD in Electrical Engineering and my MS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2021 and 2018 respectively. I received a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of West Attica in 2016 and 2010 respectively.
Email: george.kontoudis@mines.edu
Office: Brown Hall BB 280C
Links: CV, Scholar, Scopus, GitHub
Research Interests
My research focuses on the intersection of robotics, control theory, and machine learning. I am particularly interested in developing hybrid theoretical frameworks and novel robotic systems that bridge the gap between machine learning and autonomous systems. A central theme in my work is exploring how learning algorithms and control theory can enable multi-agent systems to collaborate efficiently with minimal information exchange, especially in tasks such as robotic navigation, exploration, and manipulation. In parallel, I actively contribute to the OpenBionics initiative, working on the design and development of affordable, open-source robotic hands and prosthetic devices.
Selected Publications
- Adaptive Exploration-Exploitation Active Learning of Gaussian Processes (IROS 2023) [pdf]
- Scalable, Federated Gaussian Process Training for Decentralized Multi-Agent Systems (Access 2024) [pdf]
- Online and Robust Intermittent Motion Planning in Dynamic and Changing Environments, (TNNLS 2023) [pdf]
- An Adaptive Actuation Mechanism for Anthropomorphic Robot Hands (Front. Robot. AI 2019) [pdf]
News
Mar 2025: Arael Anaya and Olivia Franklin joined our MPALA Lab
Jan 2025: Code for the Decentralized Gaussian Process project has been released
Jan 2025: Evan Pacic and Jude Ortiz joined our MPALA Lab
Oct 2024: Remi Jones and Elijah Paiz placed 2nd for their poster presentation in the Undergraduate Research Symosium at Mines
Sep 2024: Ross Hodson, Remi Jones, and Elijah Paiz particpated in the Fall Undergraduate Research Symosium at Mines
Aug 2024: Sanket Salunkhe joined our MPALA Lab
May 2024: Paper appears in IEEE Access
May 2024: Ross Hodson, Remi Jones, and Elijah Paiz joined our MPALA Lab
Jan 2024: Started my tenure-track appointment at Colorado School of Mines
Sep 2023: Paper accepted to IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)
Aug 2023: Paper appears in IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
June 2023: Paper accepted to IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
May 2023: Gave an invited talk at the Maryland Robotics Center Research Symposium
May 2023: Workshop paper accepted to IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Workshop on Communication Challenges in Multi-Robot Systems: Perception, Coordination, and Learning
Jan 2023: Paper accepted to American Control Conference (ACC)
Jan 2023: I am teaching a new course on autonomous multi-robot swarms (ENAE488O/ENAE788O) at the University of Maryland
Sep 2022: Paper accepted to International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS)
Jul 2022: Paper accepted to IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)
Jul 2022: I will be the General Co-Chair of the RSS Pioneers Workshop 2023
Jun 2022: Selected for the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Pioneers Workshop [Pioneers22]
May 2022: Chapter appears in Brain and Cognitive Intelligence Control in Robotics, Taylor & Francis Group, CRC Press
Mar 2022: New preprint is out
Jan 2022: I will be the Online Platform Chair of CoRL 2022
Jan 2022: Started my postdoc at the University of Maryland
Dec 2021: Defended my PhD dissertation in Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Oct 2021: Paper appears in Frontiers in Neurorobotics
Jul 2021: Paper accepted to IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)
May 2021: Paper appears in Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Feb 2021: Two papers [ICRA21-1], [ICRA21-2] accepted to IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Jan 2021: Paper accepted to American Control Conference (ACC)
Dec 2020: Passsed my preliminary exam (PhD proposal) in Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Aug 2020: Paper accepted to IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC)
Jan 2020: Paper accepted to American Control Conference (ACC)
Oct 2019: Gave an invited talk at the Workshop on New Challenges in Humanoid Grasping and Manipulation (Humanoids)
Sep 2019: Paper accepted to ACM International Conference on Underwater Networks and Systems (WuWNet)
Aug 2019: Paper accepted to IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids)
Jul 2019: Paper appears in Frontiers in Robotics and AI
Apr 2019: Paper accepted to IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR)
Mar 2019: Paper appears in IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems
Jan 2019: Paper accepted to American Control Conference (ACC)
Dec 2018: Defended my MSc thesis in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech
Sep 2017: Paper accepted to IEEE Symp. on Adaptive Dynamic Programming and Reinforcement Learning (ADPRL)
Aug 2016: Started my graduate studies at Virginia Tech
Mar 2016: Graduated with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at National Technical University of Athens
Nov 2015: Won the 2nd place in 2015 Hackaday Prize with the OpenBionics Initiative
Oct 2015: Released an assembly guide for the OpenBionics prostheses
Sep 2015: Won the Robotdalen Innovation Award with the OpenBionics Initiative
Jul 2015: Paper accepted to IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Jan 2015: Released an assembly guide for the OpenBionics robot hands