Activities’ Outline

· Principal investigator (PI) of the CHOPIN R&D project.

· Member of the research team of several R&D Projects.

· Senior researcher of the Mobile Robotics Lab (MRL) at the Institute of Systems and Robotics of Coimbra (ISR - Coimbra).

· Supervisor of Ph.D. thesis and M.Sc. dissertations on Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Click here to see a list of publications.

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Active Projects

· CHOPIN − Cooperation between Human and rObotic teams in catastroPhic Incidents
FCT contract PTDC/EEA-CRO/119000/2010
PI: Rui P. Rocha
Recommended for funding by evaluation panel on Sep. 2011. Not started yet.

· HANDLE − Developmental pathway towards autonomy and dextery in robot-hand manipulation
EU-contract FP7-ICT-2008-1-231640

· TICE.Mobility − User-Centered Mobility System
AdI-QREN-COMPETE-13843

· TICE.Healthy − Systems of Health and Quality of Life
AdI-QREN-COMPETE-13842

Click here to see a list of publications.

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Past Projects

· IRPS − Intelligent Robotic Porter System
EU-contract FP6-IST-045048
(dissemination video, MPEG-4 format, 18.9 MB)
(final event, media, AVI format, 68.2 MB)

· Prometheus − PRediction and interpretatiOn of huMan beHavior based on probabilistic sTructures and HEterogeneoUs Sensors
EU-contract FP7-ICT-2007-1-214901

· BACS − Bayesian Approach to Cognitive Systems
EU-contract FP6-IST-027140

· RAC – Robótica Académica de Coimbra (Coimbra’s robot soccer team)
FCT contract POSI/ROBOT/43890/2002 / Supervision of 2 M.Sc. Dissertations and 2 Graduate Projects
(RACbot-RT poster, PDF format, 17.7 MB | RAClearning poster, PDF format, 1.2 MB | RACmanager, poster, PDF format, 23.4 MB | RACmotion poster, PDF format, 7.7 MB)

· Building Volumetric Maps with Cooperative Mobile Robots and Useful Information Sharing: a Distributed Control Approach based on Entropy
Ph.D. thesis

· RoboCops − Coordination Algorithms for Autonomous Mobile Robots in Patrolling Missions
Supervision of M.Sc. Dissertation
(poster, PDF format, 1012 KB)

· PET-IRPS – Path Planning and Robot Navigation in Hierarchical and Hybrid Maps
Supervision of M.Sc. Dissertation
(poster, PDF format, 925 KB)

· CyberCar2 − Embedded System to Control an Electrical Intelligent Vehicle
Supervision of Graduate Project

· CoFleet − Fleet of Intelligent Vehicles for Short-Distance People Transportation in Urban Environments
Supervision of Graduate Project
(poster, PDF format, 542 KB)

Click here to see a list of publications.

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Students

Name	Type	Subject	Status
*Current Students*
David Portugal	Ph.D. student	Effective cooperation and scalability in multi-robot teams for automatic patrolling and inspection of infrastructures	2nd year of Ph.D. FCT scholarship: SFRH/BD/64426/2009 M.Sc. concluded on Sep. 2009
Micael Couceiro	Ph.D. student (co-advised)	Multi-agent cooperation over unreliable mobile ad hoc communication networks	2nd year of Ph.D. FCT scholarship: SFRH/BD/73382/2010 M.Sc. concluded on Apr. 2010 at ISEC
André Araújo	M.Sc. student	Control and integration of a mobile robot in ROS toolkit
Amadeu Fernandes	M.Sc. student	Wireless ad hoc communication in teams of mobile robots
João Barros	M.Sc. student	Robust auto-localization of mobile robots endowed with odometry and ultrasonic range sensors	Technician at Olympus, Coimbra
Walter Miani	M.Sc. student	Arduino Programming using Block Diagrams in Matlab / Simulink	Erasmus student from Univ. of Udine, Italy
*Past Students*
Mónica Asperilla Moreno	M.Sc. student (Erasmus)	Novelty detection in robotic maps with GPGPU
André Pedro Neves	M.Sc. student	Study of GridSLAM using Player/Stage	M.Sc. concluded on Sep. 2010
Luis Carlos Santos	M.Sc. student	Human-machine interaction device based on a touch screen	R&D Engineer at Magnum Cap, Aveiro M.Sc. concluded on Jul. 2010
Márcio Henriques	M.Sc. student	Trajectory planning and execution in hybrid maps	Researcher at IPN-LAS Formerly, researcher of IRPS project M.Sc. concluded on Jul. 2009
Luis Duarte	M.Sc. student	Reinforcement learning	Consultant at Innowave Technologies M.Sc. concluded on Sep. 2008
Audrey Sabarthès Univ. Paul Sabatier, France	M.Sc. student (Erasmus, co-advised)	GridSLAM	M.Sc. concluded on Jul. 2008
João Monteiro	M.Sc. student	Digital control of differential soccer robots	R&D Engineer at Deimos, Lisbon Formerly, researcher of IRPS project M.Sc. concluded on Jul. 2008
Claúdio Gomes	Graduate student (co-advised)	Embedded controller for an intelligent electrical vehicle	Graduation proj. concluded on Sep. 2007
Pedro Lucas	Graduate student (co-advised)	Embedded controller for an intelligent electrical vehicle	Graduation proj. concluded on Sep. 2007
André Ferraz Ribeiro	Graduate student	Distributed control of a robotic team for the RoboCup small-size-league	CEO of Endiprev R&D Engineer at European Space Agency Graduation proj. concluded on Jul. 2007
José Cecílio	Graduate student	Intelligent vehicles for short distance transportation	Graduation proj. concluded on Jul. 2006
Pedro Martins	Graduate student	Intelligent vehicles for short distance transportation	Graduation proj. concluded on Jul. 2006
Pedro Serra	Graduate student	Intelligent vehicles for short distance transportation	Currently R&D Engineer at IPN-LAS Graduation proj. concluded on Jul. 2006
João Rodrigues	Graduate student	Trajectory control of a holonomic mobile robot for the RoboCup small-size-league	Graduation proj. concluded on Jul. 2005
Sérgio Brandão	Graduate student	Trajectory control of a holonomic mobile robot for the RoboCup small-size-league	Graduation proj. concluded on Jul. 2005

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Research Interests

· Multi-Robot Systems

· Cooperation in Robotic Teams

· Cooperation in Mixed Human-Robot Teams

· Distributed and Decentralized Control

· Autonomous Mobile Robotics

· Novelty Detection in Large Datasets

· Bayesian Probabilistic Models

· Robotic Mapping

· Information Utility

· Intelligent Transportation Systems

· Software Engineering

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Ph.D. Thesis

Rui Rocha carried out research activities on Multi-Robot Cooperation towards his Ph.D., between Sep. 1998 and Oct. 2005. Before getting his position at the University of Coimbra, i.e. between Sep. 1998 and Feb. 2000, these activities were carried out at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. After that, his Ph.D. research was conducted at the Mobile Robotics Laboratory (MRL) of the Institute of Systems and Robotics of Coimbra (ISR - Coimbra), where he is currently a researcher.

The Ph.D. thesis was submitted to the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in Oct. 13, 2005:

· Theme: Building Volumetric Maps with Cooperative Mobile Robots and Useful Information Sharing: a Distributed Control Approach based on Entropy

· Supervisors: Doctor Adriano da Silva Carvalho (Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of FEUP) and Doctor Jorge Manuel Miranda Dias (Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of University of Coimbra)

The Ph.D. defense was in May 8, 2006 at FEUP, with the following committee:

· Doctor Jorge Leite Martins de Carvalho, FEUP (Chairman)

· Doctor Wolfram Burgard, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany

· Doctor Maria Isabel Lobato de Faria Ribeiro, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa

· Doctor José Manuel Araújo Baptista Mendonça, FEUP

· Doctor Paulo José Cerqueira Gomes da Costa, FEUP

· Doctor Jorge Manuel Miranda Dias, University of Coimbra (Supervisor)

· Doctor Adriano da Silva Carvalho, FEUP (Supervisor)

The thesis was approved by unanimity.