Alexandra Nunes finished the Master Course in Electrical and Computer Engineering, in February 2017, at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. The connection with the Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems at INESC TEC was initiated with the development of its master thesis, which had the main goal the mapping of the sea-floor as well as of its underwater structures, using for that a visual method for egomotion estimation. Since May 2017, she is a researcher at the center. She has been involved in the development of a localization system based on GPS receivers and an inertial system and now, she works on the perception and vision areas.
Alfredo Martins is a Senior Researcher at INESC TEC and Professor at the School of Engineering (ISEP) of the Porto Polytechnic Institute (IPP). His main research area is control and navigation in marine robotics. He has participated in more than 10 research projects on mobile robotics. His research has been applied in the development of autonomous underwater vehicles and the ROAZII Unmanned Surface Vehicle.
Ana Moreira received her BSc in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Algarve (UAlg) – Faro , Portugal, in 2016. She worked in the energy sector, mainly implementing engineering solutions to improve energy efficiency and in solar energy systems development. Currently she is working in the field of ocean underwater acoustics at the Signal Processing Laboratory (SiPLAB).
Ana Rita Gaspar finished the Master Course in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto in February 2017. She started the collaboration with the Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems at INESC TEC when she was developing its dissertation. This work aimed at the development of a visual navigation and mapping simultaneous system in close range situations, with the development of a visual vocabulary online method to allow the autonomous underwater vehicles to recognize the revisited areas. Now, since May 2017 she is a researcher at the center and she was involved in the project with a localization system based on GPS receivers and an inertial system. At this moment, she works on the perception and vision areas.
André Dias is a Senior Researcher at INESC TEC and Professor at the School of Engineering (ISEP) of the Porto Polytechnic Institute (IPP). He has a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Lisbon. He has participated in several research projects funded by the Portuguese Innovation Agency (ANI), Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), and European Projects (FP7, H2020). His research activities are mainly focused in cooperative perception, sensing and navigation for field robotics applications.
Andry Pinto received his degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 2010, and his PhD. from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of FEUP, Portugal, in 2014. Currently, he is a senior researcher of the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the INESC TEC (Technology and Science Associate Laboratory). Additionally, his research interests include visual motion perception, motion analysis, optical flow, unsupervised segmentation, 3D reconstructions and underwater imaging.
Aníbal Matos holds a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Porto. He is a Coordinator of the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CRAS) at INESC TEC and a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). He has been the principal investigator or member of the research team in several R&D projects related to the development of autonomous marine vehicles. He is a member of the EDA-project UMS-Increased Autonomy for AUVs – Mission Planning.
António Silva received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering by Instituto Superior Técnico in 2006; currently he is Adjoint Professor of the Department of Electrotechnical Engineering from the Escola Superior de Tecnologia (University of Algarve) where, among others, he teaches digital systems and microcontrollers; he also collaborates with the teaching of the discipline Ocean Acoustic Technologies for Ocean Science students. His main interests are related to underwater communications and networks, equalization systems, mode invariants and acoustic time reversal mirrors. He has participated in several Portuguese and European projects.
Ashley P. Hughes is currently studying for a degree in Marine Biology in Faro, Portugal, at the University of Algarve (UAlg). With extensive experience in working in international environments including South Korea and Italy, he was initially introduced to the field of underwater acoustics through the use of hydrophone arrays to conduct the passive acoustic monitoring of cetaceans. He is now working on creating an acoustic model for diffuse reflection at depth ocean.
Bruno Ferreira holds a MSc and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Porto, Portugal. His main research interests are Autonomous Marine Vehicles, Control, Cooperation and Localization. He has 8 years of experience in the field and he has implemented several control, cooperation, and localization algorithms in numerous marine robots, including MARES, TriMARES, Zarco and Gama.
Carlos Gonçalves holds a MSc. in Electrical and Computers Engineering from the University of Porto, in Portugal. His research interests are automation, electronics and robotics. Recently, he has been involved in several projects related to the design and development of ASVs and AUVs.
Eduardo Silva is a Coordinator of the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CRAS) at INESC TEC and Professor at the School of Engineering (ISEP) of the Porto Polytechnic Institute (IPP). He has a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Porto. His main research areas are marine robotics, control architectures, perception and navigation for autonomous robots. He has participated in more than 14 research projects. He has more than 60 publications in the area of Field Robotics.
Friedrich Zabel is a Systems Engineer with a background in embedded systems and communication networks. He has over 10 years of experience developing systems for applications in underwater acoustics and has participated in multiple national and international sea-trials operating and deploying these systems.
Guilherme Amaral holds a MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from School of Engineering (ISEP) of the Porto Polytechnic Institute (IPP). In 2010 he was invited by ISEP to teach some classes in the Electrical Engineering Department (as Invited Assistant), position that occupies until present. In 2014 he started his PhD in Electrical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. He is also a research fellow at INESC TEC, collaborating with the Robotics Units in several projects. His main research topics are cooperation and formation algorithms for autonomous vehicles.
Hugo Ferreira holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the School of Engineering of Porto Polytechnic (ISEP), Portugal. He is a Senior Researcher at INESC TEC and Professor at the ESHT of the Porto Polytechnic Institute (IPP). His main research interests are Autonomous Marine Vehicles, Navigation, Control, Cooperation, Mapping and Localization. He has 15 years of experience in the field and he has implemented several control, cooperation, and localization algorithms in diverse marine robots, including Roaz and Turtle.
Jorge Barbosa concluded a professional course on electronics and automation at Infante D. Henrique school in 2012. He is currently responsible for the design and development of mechanical structures, embedded systems, electrical schematics and overall maintenance of the lab.
José Almeida is a Senior Researcher at INESC TEC (CRAS) and a Professor at the School of Engineering (ISEP) of the Porto Polytechnic Institute (IPP). His main research area is sensing, perception and navigation in mobile multi-robot systems. He has been the Principal investigator or researcher in several research projects funded by entities such as Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), Portuguese Innovation Agency (Adi/ANI) or NATO SfS programme. In particular, he is the INESC TEC responsible for the Navigation task in the ¡VAMOS! project (H2020).
José Alves received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering (specialization in Digital Systems and Computers) in 1998, by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). Presently he is an Associate Professor at FEUP, teaching in the areas of digital systems, circuit theory and computer architecture and a Research Coordinator at the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems at INESC TEC. He has coordinated the design and development of an autonomous unmanned sailing boat, successfully deployed for underwater acoustic monitoring. His main research interests are the design of reconfigurable custom computing systems for software acceleration and embedded signal processing in the scope of low-energy autonomous marine robots, and microelectronic digital design.
Luis Santos received his BSc in Sound Design from the Higher Institute of Polytechnic Studies (IPA) – Lisboa, Portugal, in 2014 and received his BSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Algarve (UAlg) – Faro, Portugal, in 2017. He has ten years of experience as a sound engineer for live sound shows. Currently he is working in the field of ocean underwater acoustics at the Signal Processing Laboratory (SiPLAB) and is attending the master’s in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Algarve (UAlg).
Marcos Martins completed a PhD in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Minho (UM) in 2013 financed with an individual FCT grant working in Ultrasonic Wireless Broadband Communication System for Underwater Applications. Since 2011 he was invited Professor at Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA). In September 2014 he started to teach as invited Professor at University of Minho continuing his research in underwater acoustics communications in cooperation among UM groups of robotics and communications. In 2015 he began to collaborate with SiPLAB at University of Algarve. In March 2016 he start an individual postdoc FCT grant in cooperation with the Laboratory of Robotics and Engineering Systems (LarSys) at Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa (IST) and Center for Microelectromechanical Systems (CMEMS) at UM to develop an underwater wireless acoustic modem with streaming video capabilities. Since 2012 Marcos Martins has published 7 peer-reviewed publications (all in the Q1 quartile), 11 conference papers and 1 book. He has collaborated in 11 funded projects.
Nuno Abreu received his MSc and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University (Portugal). He is currently an R&D engineer at the Robotics Unit from INESC TEC. His research activity is mainly focused on robotics in research topics such as path planning and artificial intelligence. In 2012, he received training in the USA for the operation of the Slocum glider. He also participated in several national and international projects that include the Lajeado and TriMARES projects in Brazil.
Nuno Cruz holds a MSc. in Digital Systems Engineering from UMIST, UK, and a PhD. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Porto, in Portugal. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and a Research Coordinator at the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems at INESC TEC. He has been involved in the development and deployment of marine robotic vehicles for more than 20 years. He has led the design of multiple autonomous maritime vehicles at the University of Porto and INESC TEC, namely the Zarco and Gama ASVs and the MARES and TriMARES AUVs. His current research interests include the development of strategies for the efficient use of autonomous vehicles at sea, including the concept of adaptive sampling.
Orlando C. Rodríguez received the M.Sc. degree in Physics from Lomonosov State University, Moscow, Russia, in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree in Geophysics from the University of Algarve (UALG), Faro, Portugal, in 2001. Currently he is Assistant Professor at the Physics Department of UALG, with a broad and long experience of teaching. His research is being developed at the Signal Processing Laboratory (SiPLAB – LARSyS), working in the field of ocean underwater acoustics, mostly focused in three-dimensional modeling and ray tracing. Connected to his research he has acted as advisor of M.Sc. and Ph.D. students from Portugal and abroad. He is the author of the TRACEO and TRACEO3D Gaussian Beam models.
Pedro Margarido is currently studying for a degree in Mechanical Engineering in Faro, Portugal, at the University of Algarve (UAlg). His main interests are in the field of 3D technical drawing and CNC machines operation.
Rui Almeida received his MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering with specialization in Robotics by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, in 2010. Since then, he has been a research fellow at the Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems at INESC TEC, developing his work in the field of Underwater Robotics. His main work is related with the design of embedded systems for AUVs, as well as underwater navigation and tracking systems. In 2012, he received training in the USA for the operation of the Slocum glider. He also participated in several national and international projects that include the Lajeado and TriMARES projects in Brazil.
Vítor Pinto holds a MsC in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Porto and after its conclusion, he has worked as an Assistant in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the same University for 3 years. He is a PhD candidate, started in September 2016, at the University of Porto and a Junior Researcher at INESC TEC. His current research interests are Multi-Heterogeneous Autonomous Vehicles with Manipulation Capabilities.