Valentin Robu
- Full Name
- Dr. V. Robu
- Function(s)
- Scientific Staff Member
- Valentin.Robu@cwi.nl
- Telephone
- +31 20 592 4119
- Room
- M360
- Department(s)
- Intelligent and Autonomous Systems
- Homepage
- https://homepages.cwi.nl/~robu/
Biography
Valentin Robu is a scientific staff member (tenured) in the Intelligent and Autonomous Systems Group at CWI. He is a part-time associate professor in the Algorithmics Group at TU Delft, and a research affiliate in the Collective Intelligence group at MIT. Before coming to CWI (in October 2020), he was associate professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, where I was part of (and co-founded) the Smart Systems Group with Prof. David Flynn and where he still has a part-time affiliation (full-time between March 2014-October 2020). Before Heriot-Watt he was a senior research fellow in the Agents, Interaction and Complexity Group at the University of Southampton for 5 years (between Feb. 2009 - Feb. 2014), working with Prof. Nick Jennings and Prof. Alex Rogers. Before moving to Southampton, he obtained his PhD at CWI and TU Eindhoven, under the supervision of Prof. Han La Poutré (in July 2009). I was also a visiting scholar in the Economics and Computer Science research group at Harvard University (hosted by Prof. David Parkes) on several occasions, longest in the Fall (October-December) of 2015. I was also a visiting scientist in the Collective Intelligence group at MIT (in July/August 2018 and 2019), working with Dr. Mark Klein, where I still have an ongoing research affiliate appointment. His core research interests are in the area of multi-agent systems and distributed AI, more specifically designing strategies and interactions between strategic agents, such as in negotiation and auctions settings. A large part of his research in recent years has focused on using AI techniques to address challenges in building next-generation energy systems and smart grids. Example challenges in this area include: coordination of charging between multiple electric vehicles, such that the capacity of the distribution networks is not exceeded, using game-theoretic models for the integration of renewable energy suppliers into existing grids or incentive design for distributed demand-side response. Over his career, he has collaborated with many researchers in many countries, and co-authored over 150+ journal/conference papers/book chapters. He has won a number of awards, such as the 2019 UK Innovation of the Year Award (awarded by the IET, the UK's Institute for Engineering and Technology), for his work on network monitoring with Scottish Power Energy Networks, or the 2018 Low Carbon Transport Award, from the British Renewable Energy Association, for our work on hybrid vessels on the Thames in London. His research was featured in a number of venues, such as the Conversation, the BBC, the Economist, Nature, World Economic Forum, the US Congressional Research Service etc. In the course of his career, he has visited and collaborated widely with researchers from a range of institutions, such as MIT, Harvard, Santa Fe Complex Systems Institute, IIT Delhi, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Microsoft Research, TU Delft, University of Toronto etc. I was also investigator or Co-investigator in a number of projects, including CESI - the UK's National Research Centre for Energy Systems Integration, CEDRI (Community Energy Demand Reduction in India), or ORCA, the UK Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets Hub.
Publications
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Capper, T, Gorbatcheva, A, Mustafa, M.A, Bahloul, M, Schwidtal, J.M, Chitchyan, R, … Kiesling, L. (2022). Peer-to-peer, community self-consumption, and transactive energy: A systematic literature review of local energy market models. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 162, 112403.1–112403.24. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2022.112403
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Cremers, S.A, Robu, V, Hofman, D, Naber, T, Zheng, K, & Norbu, S. (2022). Efficient methods for approximating the Shapley value for asset sharing in energy communities. In e-Energy '22: Proceedings of the Thirteenth ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems (pp. 320–324). doi:10.1145/3538637.3538861
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Mitchell, D, Blanche, J, Harper, S, Lim, T, Gupta, R, Zaki, O, … Flynn, D. (2022). A review: Challenges and opportunities for artificial intelligence and robotics in the offshore wind sector. Energy and AI, 8, 100146.1–100146.36. doi:10.1016/j.egyai.2022.100146
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Kirli, D, Couraud, B, Robu, V, Salgado-Bravo, M, Norbu, S, Andoni, M, … Kiprakis, A. (2022). Smart contracts in energy systems: A systematic review of fundamental approaches and implementations. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 158, 112013.1–112013.28. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2021.112013
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Kirschbaum, L, Robu, V, Swingler, J, & Flynn, D. (2022). Prognostics for electromagnetic relays using deep learning. IEEE Access, 10, 4861–4895. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3140645
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Mokhtar, M, Robu, V, Flynn, D, Higgins, C, Whyte, J, Loughran, C, & Fulton, F. (2021). Prediction of voltage distribution using deep learning and identified key smart meter locations. Energy and AI, 6. doi:10.1016/j.egyai.2021.100103
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Kirschbaum, L, Roman, D, Robu, V, & Flynn, D. (2021). Deep Learning pipeline for State-of-Health classification of Electromagnetic Relays. In 2021 IEEE 30th International Symposium on Industrial Electronics. doi:10.1109/ISIE45552.2021.9576278
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Mitchell, D, Blanche, J, Zaki, O, Roe, J, Kong, L, Harper, S, … Flynn, D. (2021). Symbiotic system of systems design for safe and resilient autonomous robotics in offshore wind farms. IEEE Access, 9, 141421–141452. doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3117727
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Couraud, B, Robu, V, Flynn, D, Andoni, M, Norbu, S, & Quinard, H. (2021). Real-time control of distributed batteries with blockchain-enabled market export commitments. IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. doi:10.1109/TSTE.2021.3121444
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Etukudor, C, Robu, V, Früh, W.-G, Flynn, D, & Orovwode, H. (2021). Yield assessment of off-grid PV systems in Nigeria. In Proceedings of 2021 IEEE PES/IAS PowerAfrica Conference. doi:10.1109/PowerAfrica52236.2021.9543317
Current projects with external funding
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Testing and Evaluating Sophisticated information and communication Technologies for enaBling scalablE smart griD Deployment (TESTBED-2)
Awards
- Best Paper Award Finalist, The 30th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE 2019) (2019)
- Best Reviewer Award (2018), IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (2019)
- IET and E&T Innovation of the Year (2019)
- IET innovation Awards 2019, Winner of the Information Technology category (2019)
- Winner, Rising Star Award for Maizura Mokhtar & NCEWS project- 2019 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards (2019)
- Finalist, Judges Award, Scottish Renewables YPGEA Awards (2019)
- Low Carbon Transport Award, 13th British Renewable Energy Association Awards (2018)
- Rushlight Resource Innovation Award (2018)
- The Business Collaboration category at the Guardian University Awards 2018 (2018)
- Young Professionals Green Energy Awards - Academic Award for Merlinda Andoni (2018)
- Best Paper Award, ACAN 2016 @ AAMAS 2016, Singapore (2016)
- Best Reviewer Award (2015), IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (2016)
- Best student presentation award - RSS, Hakodate, Japan (2006)