Konstantinos Alexis

Konstantinos Alexis is a Professor at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics within the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He leads the Autonomous Robots Lab and serves as Principal Investigator for major international projects including the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. His research focuses on developing resilient autonomous systems capable of operating in extreme environments through resourcefulness, robustness, and redundancy.

His research interests span resilient robotic autonomy with emphasis on aerial robotics, underwater robotics, robot control, path planning, robot learning, and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). He takes a holistic approach across these disciplines to enable autonomous systems to navigate challenging environments including subterranean spaces, underwater operations, and extreme terrestrial conditions. Recent work demonstrates significant advances in collision-tolerant navigation, degradation-resilient state estimation, and semantic-aware inspection planning.

Professor Alexis has secured substantial funding from diverse sources including US agencies (DARPA, NSF, DOE, USDA), EU Horizon programs, and the Research Council of Norway. His research portfolio includes field deployments in nuclear environments, aquaculture operations, and planetary exploration scenarios.

• Principal Investigator for DARPA Subterranean Challenge
• Major grants from NSF, DOE, USDA, and EU Horizon programs
• Research Council of Norway funding for multiple projects

He actively supervises numerous PhD and Master's students, with recent graduates leading publications in top robotics venues. His lab maintains strong collaborations with international research groups and industry partners for real-world deployment of autonomous systems. Current initiatives include the ResiFarm project for underwater operations in fish farms and advanced exploration systems for Martian lava tube environments.