Dr. Farrokh Janabi-Sharifi
Areas of Academic Interest
Robotics and automation
Medical robotics
Continuum robots
Visual servoing
Opto-mechatronics
Image-guided navigation
Aerial manipulation
Spotlight
Though a fan of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction – including his I, Robot story collection – Farrokh Janabi-Sharifi didn’t consider working in the field of robotics until well into his graduate studies. Once the lightbulb turned on, however, he never turned back. “I see the creation of robots as the ultimate engineering goal,” he says. “It’s a very human, very technical field that will affect us deeply as we partner more and more with them.”
Janabi-Sharifi is an expert in opto-mechatronics, with a focus on the study of vision-based control systems for robots. Lately, with a number of cardiologists among his acquaintances, he was inspired to develop a robot used during surgery to correct atrial fibrillation, a condition that can lead to stroke or heart failure. His machine automates parts of the procedure and performs with greater precision than surgeons.
“What I do is no longer science fiction,” he says. “We are living with robots now and will increasingly share our lives with them. There is tremendous opportunity in this field for students to make an impact.”
“Robotics is about ourselves. Who we are shapes how and what we create.”
- Life Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE)
- Fellow of Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC)
- Fellow of Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (FCSME)
- Elsevier Certificate of Recognition for Most Cited Papers
- SPIE Best Conference Paper Awards
- Vakanski, A., and Janabi-Sharifi, F. “An Image-based Trajectory Planning Approach for Robust Robot Programming by Demonstration.” US 10,112,303 B2, Oct. 30, 2018.
- Lotfavar, A., Hasanzadeh, S., and Janabi-Sharifi, F. “Cooperative Continuum Robots: Concept, Modeling, and Performance Analysis.” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 3, no. 1, 2018, pp. 426–433.
- Hassanzadeh, S., and Janabi-Sharifi, F. “Model-based Force Estimation for Intra-cardiac Catheters,” IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatronics, vol. 21, no. 1, 2016, pp. 154–162.
- Assa, A., and Janabi-Sharifi, F. “Virtual Visual Servoing for Multi-camera Pose Estimation.” IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatronics, vol. 20, no. 2, 2015, pp. 789-798.
- Abdessameud, A., and Janabi-Sharifi, F. “Image-based Tracking Control of VTOL Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.” Automatica, vol. 53, 2015, pp. 111–119.
- PEng, FCAE, FEIC, FCSME, SMIEEE
- Steering committee member, International Society for Optomechatronics (ISOM)
- Chair, Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) Technical Committee on Mechatronics, Robotics and Controls
- Technical editor, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
- Associate editor, Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering and International Journal of Optomechatronics
- Editorial board member, International Journal of Robotic Engineering for Healthcare, Journal of Robotics, The Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal and Automatic Systems and Control
- Research consultant to national and international companies including CVSDI, Medmectron, Magnum Integrated Manufacturing, NDI and Vibra Finish