Erion Plaku is a Program Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS). At NSF, Dr. Plaku is part of the Robust Intelligence cluster and co-leads the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program. Prior to joining NSF, Dr. Plaku was an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University (2020-2023) and in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Catholic University of America (2010–2020). Dr. Plaku received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Rice University (2008). He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics at Johns Hopkins University (2008–2010).

Research CV Publications Teaching Activities Misc

names of my students are underlined

2024

  1. Bui H, Plaku E, and Stein G (2024): ``Multi-Robot Guided Sampling-Based Motion Planning With Dynamics in Partially Mapped Environments.'' IEEE Access, vol. 12, pp. 56448--56460  [publisher]
  2. Khanal A, Bui H, Plaku E, and Stein G (2024): ``Learning-informed Long-Horizon Navigation under Uncertainty for Vehicles with Dynamics.'' Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, in press  [publisher]
  3. Aghzal M, Plaku E, and Yao Z (2024): ``Look Further Ahead: Testing the Limits of GPT-4 in Path Planning.'' Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Science and Engineering, pp. 1020--1027  [publisher]
  4. Das D, Le Y, Plaku E, and Xiao X (2024): ``Motion Memory: Leveraging Past Experiences to Accelerate Future Motion Planning.'' Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 16467--16474  [publisher]
  5. Aghzal M, Plaku E, and Yao Z (2024): ``Can Large Language Models be Good Path Planners? A Benchmark and Investigation on Spatial-temporal Reasoning.'' International Conference on Learning Representation, Workshop on Large Language Models for Agents  [publisher]

2023

  1. McMahon J and Plaku E (2023): “Autonomous Data Collection with Dynamic Goals and Communication Constraints for Marine Vehicles.” IEEE Transactions on Automated Science and Engineering, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 1607--1620  [publisher]
  2. McMahon J, Parker R, Baldoni P, Anstee S, and Plaku E (2023): ``Simultaneous Survey and Inspection with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.'' Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 1--7  [publisher]
  3. Le Y and Plaku E (2023): ``Leveraging Single-Goal Predictions to Improve the Efficiency of Multi-Goal Motion Planning with Dynamics.'' Proceedings of the IEEE/RS International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 850--857  [publisher]
  4. Khanal A, Bui H, Stein G, and Plaku E (2023): ``Guided Sampling-Based Motion Planning with Dynamics in Unknown Environments.'' Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, pp. 1--8  [publisher]
  5. Plaku E, Cela A, and Plaku E (2023): ``Robot Path Planning with Safety Zones.'' Proceedings of the International Conference of Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, pp. 405--412  [publisher]

2022

  1. Baldoni P, McMahon J and Plaku E (2022): ”Leveraging Neural Networks to Guide Path Planning: Improving Dataset Generation and Planning Efficiency.” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, pp. 667--674  [publisher]
  2. Bui H, Le Y, and Plaku E (2022): “Improving the Efficiency of Sampling-based Motion Planners via Runtime Predictions for Motion-Planning Problems with Dynamics.” Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 4486--4491  [publisher]

2021

  1. Zhang Y, Huang H, Plaku E and Lap-Fai Y (2021): "Joint Computational Design of Workspaces and Workplans." SIGGRAPH Asia, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 1--16  [publisher]
  2. Can Secim, B, Kvelashvili T, Kilic O, and Plaku E (2021): "Antenna-Based Aerial Inspection of Nonflat Terrains using Microwave Remote Sensing." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, pp. 934--941  [publisher]
  3. McMahon J and Plaku E (2021): "Dynamic Multi-Goal Motion Planning with Range Constraints for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Following Surface Vehicles." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, pp. 704--711 (Finalist Best Application Paper)  [publisher]
  4. McMahon J and Plaku E (2021): "Autonomous Data Collection With Timed Communication Constraints for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles." IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 1832--1839 (also in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation)  [publisher]
  5. Le D and Plaku E (2021): "Multi-Robot Motion Planning with Unlabeled Goals for Mobile Robots with Differential Constraints." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 7950--7956  [publisher]

2020

  1. Warsame Y, Edelkamp S, and Plaku E (2020): ``Energy-Aware Multi-Goal Motion Planning Guided by Monte Carlo Search.'' Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Science and Engineering, pp. 335-342  [publisher]

2019

  1. Molloy K, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2019): ``ROMEO: A Plug-and-play Software Platform of Robotics-inspired Algorithms for Modeling Biomolecular Structures and Motions.'' arXiv 1905.08331  [publisher]
  2. Edelkamp S, Warsame Y, and Plaku E (2019): ``Monte-Carlo Search for Prize-Collecting Robot Motion Planning with Time Windows, Capacities, Pickups, and Deliveries.'' Springer LNCS Advances in Artificial Intelligence, vol. 11793, pp. 154--167  [publisher]
  3. Le D and Plaku E (2019): ``Multi-Robot Motion Planning with Dynamics via Coordinated Sampling-Based Expansion Guided by Multi-Agent Search.'' IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 4, pp. 1868--1875  [publisher]

2018

  1. Le D and Plaku E (2018): ``Cooperative, Dynamics-Based, and Abstraction-Guided Multi-Robot Motion Planning.'' Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, vol. 63, pp. 361--390  [publisher]
  2. Morris D, Maximova T, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2018): ``Attenuating Dependence on Structural Data in Computing Protein Energy Landscapes.'' BMC Bioinformatics, vol. 20, pp. 65-74  [publisher]
  3. Plaku E, Plaku E, and Simari P (2018): ``Clearance-driven Motion Planning for Mobile Robots with Differential Constraints.'' Robotica, vol. 36, pp. 971--993  [publisher]
  4. Edelkamp S, Lahijanian M, Magazzeni D, and Plaku E (2018): ``Integrating Temporal Reasoning and Sampling-Based Motion Planning for Multi-Goal Problems With Dynamics and Time Windows.'' IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 3, pp. 3473--3480  [publisher]

  5. Qiao W, Akhterg N, Fangu X, Maximova T, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2018): ``From Mutations to Mechanisms and Dysfunction via Computation and Mining of Protein Energy Landscapes.'' BMC Genomics, vol. 19, pp. 671--683  [publisher]
  6. Le D and Plaku E (2018): ``Multi-Robot Motion Planning with Dynamics Guided by Multi-Agent Search.'' Proceedings of the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 5314--5318  [publisher]

2017

  1. Maximova T, Zhang Z, Carr D, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2017): "Sample-based Models of Protein Energy Landscapes and Slow Structural Rearrangements." Journal of Computational Biology, vol. 25, pp. 33--50  [publisher]
  2. Edelkamp S, Pomarlan M, and Plaku E (2017): "Multi-Region Inspection by Combining Clustered Traveling Salesman Tours with Sampling-Based Motion Planning." IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 2, pp. 428--435  [publisher]
  3. Plaku E, Plaku E, and Simari P (2017): "Direct Path Superfacets: An Intermediate Representation for Motion Planning." IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 2, pp. 350--357  [publisher]
  4. McMahon J and Plaku E (2017): "Robot Motion Planning with Task Specifications via Regular Languages." Robotica, vol. 35, pp. 26--49  [publisher]
  5. Edelkamp S, Can Secim, B and Plaku E (2017): "Surface Inspection via Hitting Sets and Multi-Goal Motion Planning." Springer LNCS Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, vol. 10454, pp. 134--149  [publisher]
  6. Qiao W, Maximova T, Fang X, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2017): "Reconstructing and Mining Protein Energy Landscapes to Understand Disease." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, pp. 22--27  [publisher]
  7. Le D and Plaku E (2017): "Cooperative Multi-Robot Sampling-Based Motion Planning with Dynamics." Proceedings of the International Conference on Planning and Scheduling, pp. 513--521 (Best Robotics Paper)  [publisher]
  8. Morris D, Maximova T, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2017): ``Out of One, Many: Exploiting Intrinsic Motions to Explore Protein Structure Spaces.'' Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences , pp. 1--1  [publisher]
  9. Qiao W, Maximova T, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2017): ``Statistical Analysis of Computed Energy Landscapes to Understand Dysfunction in Pathogenic Protein Variants.'' Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Bionformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics, pp. 679--684  [publisher]
  10. Kvelashvili T, Kilic O, Can Secim B, and Plaku E (2017): ``UAV Swarm-Based Antenna System.'' Proceedings of the USNC-URSI National Radio Science, in press  [publisher]

2016

  1. Shehu A and Plaku E (2016): "A Survey of Computational Treatments of Biomolecules by Robotics-inspired Methods Modeling Equilibrium Structure and Dynamics." Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, vol. 57, pp. 509--572  [publisher]
  2. McMahon J and Plaku E (2016): "Autonomous Data Collection with Limited Time for Underwater Vehicles." IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 2, pp. 112–119  [publisher]
  3. Maximova T, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2016): "Structure-guided Protein Transition Modeling with a Probabilistic Roadmap Algorithm." IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, vol. 15, pp. 1783-1796  [publisher]
  4. Plaku E, Rashidian S, and Edelkamp S (2016): "Multi-Group Motion Planning in Virtual Environments." Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, in press  [publisher]
  5. Plaku E and Le D (2016): "Interactive Search for Action and Motion Planning with Dynamics." Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, vol. 28, pp. 849–869  [publisher]
  6. McMahon J and Plaku E (2016): "Mission and Motion Planning for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Operating in Spatially and Temporally Complex Environments." IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 41, pp. 893–912  [publisher]
  7. Maximova T, Carr D, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2016): "Sample-based Models of Protein Structural Transitions." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, pp. 128--137  [publisher]
  8. Maximova T, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2016): "The Sampling-based Algorithm for Modeling Protein Conformational SwitchingMethod for Extended Sampling and Transition Paths Prediction with Probabilistic Roadmap Algorithm." Proceedings of the Structural Bioinformatics and Computational Biophysics, Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, pp. 66 (recognized with Outstanding Research Presentation)

2015

  1. Plaku E and Karaman S (2015): "Motion Planning with Temporal-Logic Specifications: Progress and Challenges." AI Communications, vol. 29, pp. 151--162  [publisher]
  2. McMahon J, Dzikowicz B, Houston B, and Plaku E (2015): “A Hybrid Planning Framework For Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.” NRL Review, pp. 114--116  [publisher]
  3. Wallar A, Plaku E, and Sofge D (2015): "Reactive Motion Planning for Unmanned Aerial Surveillance of Risk-Sensitive Areas." IEEE Transactions on Automated Science and Engineering, vol. 12, pp. 969--980  [publisher]
  4. Plaku E (2015): "Region-Guided and Sampling-Based Tree Search for Motion Planning with Dynamics." IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 31, pp. 723--735  [publisher]
  5. Wells A and Plaku E (2015): "Adaptive Sampling-Based Motion Planning for Mobile Robots with Differential Constraints." Springer LNCS Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, vol. 9287, pp. 283--295  [publisher] (Best Student Paper)
  6. Maximova T, Plaku E, and Shehu A (2015): "Computing Transition Paths in Multiple-Basin Proteins with a Probabilistic Roadmap Algorithm." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine, pp. 35--42  [publisher]
  7. McMahon J and Plaku E (2015): “Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Mine Countermeasures via the Physical Traveling Salesman Problem.” MTS/IEEE Oceans, pp. 1--5  [publisher]
  8. Edelkamp S, Plaku E, Greulich C, and Pomarlan M (2015): “Solving the Inspection Problem via Colored Traveling Salesman Tours." Workshop on Task Planning for Intelligent Robots in Service and Manufacturing, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 26–31  [publisher]

2014

  1. Plaku E and McMahon J (2014): “Motion Planning and Decision Making for Underwater Vehicles Operating in Constrained Environments in the Littoral.” Springer LNCS Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, vol. 8069, pp. 328–339  [publisher]  [preprint]
  2. Wallar A and Plaku E (2014): “Path Planning for Swarms by Combining Probabilistic Roadmaps and Potential Fields.” Springer LNCS Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, vol. 8069, pp. 417–428  [publisher]
  3. McMahon J and Plaku E (2014): “Sampling-Based Tree Search with Discrete Abstractions for Motion Planning with Dynamics and Temporal Logic.“ Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 3726–3733  [publisher]
  4. Le D and Plaku E (2014): “Guiding Sampling-Based Tree Search for Motion Planning with Dynamics via Probabilistic Roadmap Abstractions.“ Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 212--217  [publisher]
  5. Rashidian S, Plaku E, and Edelkamp S (2014): “Motion Planning with Rigid-Body Dynamics for Generalized Traveling Salesman Tours.” ACM SIGGRAPH Motion in Games, pp. 87–96  [publisher]
  6. Edelkamp S and Plaku E (2014): “Multi-goal Motion Planning with Physics-based Game Engines.” Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games, pp. 115--122  [publisher]
  7. Wallar A and Plaku E (2014): “Path Planning for Swarms in Dynamic Environments by Combining Probabilistic Roadmaps and Potential Fields.” Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Swarm Intelligence, pp. 290–297  [publisher]
  8. Wallar A, Plaku E, and Sofge D (2014): “A Planner for Autonomous Risk-Sensitive Coverage (PARCov) by a Team of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.” Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Swarm Intelligence, pp. 283–289  [publisher]
  9. McMahon J and Plaku E (2014): “Combined Task and Motion Planning for AUVs.” Workshop on AI and Robotics, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 17–18  [publisher]

2013

  1. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2013): “Falsification of LTL Safety Properties in Hybrid Systems with Nonlinear Dynamics.” Springer International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer, vol. 15, pp. 305–320  [publisher]
  2. Plaku E (2013): “Robot Motion Planning with Dynamics as Hybrid Search.” Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1415–1421  [publisher]
  3. McMahon J and Plaku E (2013): “Combined Mission and Motion Planning to Enhance Autonomy of Underwater Vehicles Operating in the Littoral Zone.” Workshop on Combining Task and Motion Planning, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 17–22  [publisher]
  4. McMahon J and Plaku E (2013): “Motion Planning with Linear Temporal Logic for Underwater Vehicles Operating in Constrained Environments.” Workshop on Planning in Continuous Domains, International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, pp. 3  [publisher]
  5. Plaku E (2013): “From Navigation to Robotic-Assisted Surgery: Combined Planning in Discrete and Continuous Spaces.” Workshop on Combining Robot Motion Planning and AI Planning for Practical Applications, Robotics: Science and Systems, pp. 5–6  [publisher]

2012

  1. Plaku E (2012): "Planning in Discrete and Continuous Spaces: From LTL Tasks to Robot Motions." Springer LNCS Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, vol. 7429, pp. 331-342.   [publisher]
  2. Plaku E (2012): "Guiding Sampling-based Motion Planning by Forward and Backward Discrete Search." Springer LNCS Intelligent Robots and Applications, vol. 7508, pp. 289--300   [publisher]
  3. Plaku E (2012): "Motion Planning with Discrete Abstractions and Physics-Based Game Engines." Springer LNCS Motion in Games, pp. 290--301   [publisher]
  4. Plaku E (2012): "Path Planning with Probabilistic Roadmaps and Linear Temporal Logic." Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 2269--2275   [publisher]
  5. Plaku E (2012): "Motion Planning with Differential Constraints as Guided Search over Continuous and Discrete Spaces." International Symposium on Combinatorial Search, pp. 171--172   [publisher]
  6. Plaku E (2012): ”Planning Robot Motions to Satisfy Linear Temporal Logic, Geometric, and Differential Constraints.” Workshop on Combining Task and Motion Planning for Real-World Applications, International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, pp. 21–28   [publisher]

2011

  1. Pezzementi Z, Plaku E, Reyda C, and Hager GD (2011): "Tactile Object Recognition From Appearance Information." IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 27(3), pp. 473--487  [publisher]
  2. Liu WP, Lucas BC, Guerin K, and Plaku E (2011): "Sensor and Sampling-based Motion Planning for Minimally Invasive Robotic Exploration of Osteolytic Lesions." Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 1346--1352   [publisher]
  3. Plaku E (2011): “Sampling-based Motion Planning with High-Level Discrete Specifications.” Workshop on Progress and Open Problems in Motion Planning, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 29--30   [publisher]

2010

  1. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2010): "Motion Planning with Dynamics by a Synergistic Combination of Layers of Planning." IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 26(3), pp. 469--482   [publisher]
  2. Reiley C, Plaku E, and Hager GD (2010): "Motion Generation of Robotic Surgical Tasks: Learning from Expert Demonstrations." Proceedings of the International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society,pp. 967--970   [publisher]
  3. Plaku E and Hager GD (2010): "Sampling-based Motion and Symbolic Action Planning with Geometric and Differential Constraints."Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 5002--5008  [publisher]

2009

  1. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2009): "Hybrid Systems: From Verification to Falsification by Combining Motion Planning and Discrete Search." Formal Methods in System Design, 2009, vol. 34(2), pp. 157--182   [publisher]
  2. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2009): "Falsification of LTL Safety Properties in Hybrid Systems." Springer LNCS Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, vol. 5505, pp. 368--382  [publisher]

2008

  1. Plaku E and Kavraki LE (2008): "Quantitative Analysis of Nearest-Neighbors Search in High-Dimensional Sampling-Based Motion Planning." Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol. 47, pp. 3--18  [publisher]
  2. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2008): "Impact of Workspace Decompositions on Discrete Search Leading Continuous Exploration (DSLX) Motion Planning." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3751--3756   [publisher]

2007

  1. Plaku E, Stamati H, Clementi C, and Kavraki LE (2007): "Fast and Reliable Analysis of Molecular Motion Using Proximity Relations and Dimensionality Reduction." Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, vol. 67(4), pp. 897--907   [publisher]
  2. Plaku E and Kavraki LE (2007): "Distributed Computation of the knn Graph for Large High-Dimensional Point Sets." Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, vol. 67(3), pp. 346--359  [publisher]
  3. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2007): "Hybrid Systems: From Verification to Falsification." Springer LNCS Computer Aided Verification, vol. 4590, pp. 468--481   [publisher]
  4. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2007): "Discrete Search Leading Continuous Exploration for Kinodynamic Motion Planning." Robotics: Science and Systems, pp. 326--333   [publisher]
  5. Plaku E and Kavraki LE (2007): "Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction Using Approximate Nearest Neighbors." Proceedings of the SIAM International Conference on Data Mining, pp. 180--191   [publisher]
  6. Plaku E, Kavraki LE, and Vardi MY (2007): "A Motion Planner for a Hybrid Robotic System with Kinodynamic Constraints Constraints." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 692--697  [publisher]
  7. Plaku E, Bekris KE, and Kavraki LE (2007): "OOPS for Motion Planning: An Online Open-source Programming System." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3711--3716   [publisher]

2005

  1. Plaku E, Bekris KE, Chen BY, Ladd AM, and Kavraki LE (2005): "Sampling-Based Roadmap of Trees for Parallel Motion Planning." IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2005, vol. 21(4), pp. 587--608   [publisher]
  2. Plaku E and Kavraki LE (2005): "Distributed Sampling-Based Roadmap of Trees for Large-Scale Motion Planning." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3879--3884  [publisher]

2003

  1. Akinc M, Bekris KE, Chen BY, Ladd AM, Plaku E, and Kavraki LE (2003): "Probabilistic Roadmaps of Trees for Parallel Computation of Multiple Query Roadmaps." Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol. 15, pp. 80--89  [publisher]  [preprint]
  2. Bekris KE, Chen BY, Ladd AM, Plaku E, and Kavraki LE (2003): "Multiple Query Motion Planning using Single Query Primitives." Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 656--661  [publisher]

2001

  1. Plaku E and Shparlinski IE (2001): "On Polynomial Representations of Boolean Functions Related to some Number Theoretic Problems." Proceedings of the International Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 2245, pp. 305--316  [publisher]

1999

  1. Arnavut Z and Plaku E (1999): "Lossless Compression of ECG Signals." Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, pp. 274  [publisher]

Thesis