Dr Alexandros Filotheou

I am a Senior Robotics Software Engineer at Intermodalics in Leuven, Belgium. I currently work on localising autonomous forklifts against reflectors, inside a global team that builds mass-production forklifts for warehouses for KION Group.

Before that I was the architect and software integrator of the Horizon Europe project RoBétArmé at CERTH, collaborating with (now) Associate Professor Ioannis Costavelis, and a robotics research engineer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, under the coordination of (now) Assistant Professor Antonis Dimitriou. I hold a diploma and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from AUTh, and a Master's degree in Control and Robotics from KTH.

I have worked on Localisation and Pose Estimation, SLAM, Autonomous Navigation, Control and Computer Vision, and on task planning with Behaviour Trees. In the past most of my time went into integration, deployment and troubleshooting of ROS and ROS 2 systems on real robots.

I chose the academic plus software engineering path on purpose. I wanted to bridge two kinds of engineer: the academic whose code stops at MATLAB, and the software engineer whose theory stops at the code.

News

Demos

Joint base and trailer autonomous navigation

RoBétArmé · CERTH

Construction robot laser-welds rebars in Thessaloniki

RoBétArmé · CERTH

Rebar laser welding with a construction robot

RoBétArmé · CERTH

Autonomous inventorying and real-time 3D localisation in a library

RELIEF · AUTh

Games with the robot in the museum

CULTUREID · AUTh

CBGL: fast Monte Carlo passive global localisation of a 2D LIDAR sensor

IROS 2024

FSM: correspondenceless scan-matching of panoramic 2D range scans

IROS 2022

Tracking a circle and a lane centreline under MPC

International Journal of Control, 2020

Experience

• Feb 2026 to present · Leuven, Belgium
  Senior Robotics Software Engineer, Intermodalics
  Localisation of autonomous forklifts against reflectors, within a global team building mass-production forklifts for warehouses for KION Group.
• Sep 2023 to Jan 2026 · Thessaloniki, Greece
  Integration and Deployment Engineer, CERTH
  Architect and integrator of RoBétArmé (Horizon Europe, GA 101058731). 12 software teams, 50+ dockerised ROS 2 packages, three mobile platforms. Cut deployment time by more than 10x across the additive manufacturing fleet.
• Sep 2018 to Mar 2023 · Thessaloniki, Greece
  Robotics Research Engineer, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  Sole robot integrator for RELIEF (RFID inventorying with ground and aerial robots) and CULTUREID (a museum social robot).
• Sep 2016 to Nov 2016 · Stockholm, Sweden
  Teaching Assistant, DD2380 Artificial Intelligence, KTH
• Oct 2013 to Jul 2014 · Thessaloniki, Greece
  Computer Vision Engineer (volunteer), PANDORA Robotics Team, AUTh
• Mar 2011 to Mar 2012 · Thessaloniki, Greece
  Database Designer and Developer, Egnatia Motorway S.A.
• Jul 2008 to Jun 2009 · Thessaloniki, Greece
  Telecommunications Engineer, OTE S.A.

Software

gitrl-f

Searches the git history in only the branches and tags you tick.

Linux · git

gitrl-z

A git reflog walker for untangling tree mishaps.

Linux · git

mdeus

A markdown reader in a Chromium window, with vim on call beside it.

Linux · markdown

hitch_estimation_apriltag_array

Estimates the angle between a vehicle and a hitched trailer.

ROS 2 · perception

cbgl

Fast Monte Carlo passive global localisation of a 2D LIDAR sensor.

ROS · global localisation

fsm-localisation

Correspondenceless scan-to-map-scan matching for pose tracking.

ROS · scan matching

lama-odom

lama-odom

ROS · odometry

pointcloud_conversions

pointcloud_conversions

Format conversions and storage functions for point clouds.

ROS 2 · point clouds

pandora_vision_hole_detector

pandora_vision_hole_detector

Hole detection for the PANDORA rescue robot from RGB and depth sensors.

ROS · computer vision · RoboCup Rescue

Distinctions

Publications

You can also find my articles on my Google Scholar profile.

1. 
   CBGL: Fast Monte Carlo Passive Global Localisation of 2D LIDAR Sensor
   Alexandros Filotheou. 2024.
   2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
   One of 18 single-authored papers out of 1,587 presented
   proceedings | code | video
2. 
   Correspondenceless scan-to-map-scan matching of 2D panoramic range scans
   Alexandros Filotheou, Andreas L. Symeonidis, Georgios D. Sergiadis, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2023.
   Array, vol. 18.
   journal
3. 
   Real-Time Global Localization of a Mobile Robot by Exploiting RFID Technology
   Anastasios Tzitzis, Alexandros Filotheou, Aristidis Raptopoulos Chatzistefanou, Traianos Yioultsis, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2023.
   IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification.
   journal
4. 
   FSM: Correspondenceless scan-matching of panoramic 2D range scans
   Alexandros Filotheou, Georgios D. Sergiadis, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2022.
   2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
   proceedings | code | ROS package | video
5. 
   Correspondenceless scan-to-map-scan matching of homoriented 2D scans for mobile robot localisation
   Alexandros Filotheou. 2022.
   Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 149.
   journal
6. 
   Passive Global Localisation of Mobile Robot via 2D Fourier-Mellin Invariant Matching
   Alexandros Filotheou, Anastasios Tzitzis, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Antonis Dimitriou, Andreas Symeonidis, George Sergiadis, Loukas Petrou. 2022.
   Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 104.
   journal
7. 
   Localization, Tracking and Following a Moving Target by an RFID Equipped Robot
   George Mylonopoulos, Aristidis Raptopoulos Chatzistefanou, Alexandros Filotheou, Anastasios Tzitzis, Stavroula Siachalou, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2021.
   2021 IEEE International Conference on RFID Technology and Applications (RFID-TA).
   proceedings
8. 
   Autonomous Robots, Drones and Repeaters for Fast, Reliable, Low-Cost RFID Inventorying & Localization
   Antonis Dimitriou, Anastasios Tzitzis, Alexandros Filotheou, Spyros Megalou, Stavroula Siachalou, Aristidis R. Chatzistefanou, Andreana Malama, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Konstantinos Panayiotou, Evaggelos Giannelos, Thodoris Vasiliadis, Ioannis Mouroutsos, Ioannis Karanikas, Loukas Petrou, Andreas Symeonidis, John Sahalos, Traianos Yioultsis, Aggelos Bletsas. 2021.
   2021 6th International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies (SpliTech).
   proceedings
9. 
   Trajectory Planning of a Moving Robot Empowers 3D Localization of RFID Tags With a Single Antenna
   Anastasios Tzitzis, Spyros Megalou, Stavroula Siachalou, Tsardoulias G. Emmanouil, Alexandros Filotheou, Traianos V. Yioultsis, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2020.
   IEEE Journal of Radio Frequency Identification, vol. 4.
   journal
10. 
    Pose Selection and Feedback Methods in Tandem Combinations of Particle Filters with Scan-Matching for 2D Mobile Robot Localisation
    Alexandros Filotheou, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Antonis Dimitriou, Andreas Symeonidis, Loukas Petrou. 2020.
    Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 100.
    journal
11. 
    Real-time 3D localization of RFID-tagged products by ground robots and drones with commercial off-the-shelf RFID equipment: Challenges and Solutions
    Anastasios Tzitzis, Alexandros Filotheou, Stavroula Siachalou, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Spyros Megalou, Aggelos Bletsas, Konstantinos Panayiotou, Andreas Symeonidis, Traianos Yioultsis, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2020.
    2020 IEEE International Conference on RFID (RFID).
    proceedings
12. 
    Robust decentralised navigation of multi-agent systems with collision avoidance and connectivity maintenance using model predictive controllers
    Alexandros Filotheou, Alexandros Nikou, Dimos V. Dimarogonas. 2020.
    International Journal of Control, vol. 93.
    journal | video
13. 
    Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of ROS-Enabled Local and Global Planners in 2D Static Environments
    Alexandros Filotheou, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Antonis Dimitriou, Andreas Symeonidis, Loukas Petrou. 2020.
    Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 98.
    journal
14. 
    Phase ReLock - Localization of RFID Tags by a Moving Robot
    Anastasios Tzitzis, Spyros Megalou, Stavroula Siachalou, Traianos Yioultsis, Athanasios Kehagias, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Alexandros Filotheou, Andreas Symeonidis, Loukas Petrou, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2019.
    2019 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP).
15. 
    Fingerprinting Localization of RFID tags with Real-Time Performance-Assessment, using a Moving Robot
    Spyros Megalou, Anastasios Tzitzis, Stavroula Siachalou, Traianos Yioultsis, John Sahalos, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Alexandros Filotheou, Andreas Symeonidis, Loukas Petrou, Aggelos Bletsas, Antonis G. Dimitriou. 2019.
    2019 13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP).
16. 
    Decentralized Control of Uncertain Multi-Agent Systems with Connectivity Maintenance and Collision Avoidance
    Alexandros Filotheou, Alexandros Nikou, Dimos V. Dimarogonas. 2018.
    2018 European Control Conference (ECC).
    proceedings

Education

• 2018 to 2023 · Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  2D LIDAR sensor pose estimation via scan-to-map-scan matching. Advisor: Prof. Georgios Sergiadis.
• 2015 to 2017 · KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  MSc, Systems, Control and Robotics
  Robust Decentralized Control of Cooperative Multi-robot Systems: An inter-constraint Receding Horizon approach. Advisor: Prof. Dimos Dimarogonas.
• 2005 to 2013 · Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  Diploma, Electrical and Computer Engineering
  Multi-label classification using Learning Classifier Systems. Advisor: Prof. Pericles Mitkas.