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Robotics and Autonomous Systems

At CRAS, our mission is to develop innovative robotic solutions for complex environments and multiple operations, including data gathering, inspection, mapping, surveillance, and intervention.

We work in four main areas of research: autonomous navigation; long-term deployments; sensing, mapping, and intervention; multiple platform operations.

Latest News
Robotics

INESC TEC’s research in underwater noise monitoring highlighted at the 36th European Cetacean Society conference

INESC TEC participated in the 36th edition of the European Cetacean Society conference (ECS), one of Europe's leading events dedicated to the study and preservation of cetaceans; this year’s edition took place in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores.

29th May 2025

Robotics

INESC TEC supports underwater inspection of port infrastructures in the Azores

The AI4Ports project is underway, aiming to automate the detection of irregularities in underwater infrastructures at ports in the Azores - using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

29th May 2025

Robotics

The revolution in the operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms involves robots and Artificial Intelligence - featuring INESC TEC

AEROSUB (Automated Inspection Robots for Surface, Aerial and Underwater Substructures) is the name of the new €12.1M project coordinated by INESC TEC, whose main objective is to revolutionise the operation and maintenance of fixed and floating offshore wind farms. How? Through the development of world-class technological solutions that reduce the operating costs of renewable energy production infrastructures in extreme environments. To achieve this goal, the project will - by 2030 - equip several robotic solutions with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analysis technologies.

30th January 2025

Robotics

INESC TEC part of pilot experiment for underwater noise monitoring

South of São Miguel, in the archipelago of the Azores, three buoys spent 24 hours at sea collecting data - in this case, noise related to human activities that has an impact on the behaviour of cetaceans. For the first time, it was possible to collect information about underwater noise off São Miguel - more than 10 kilometres from the coast; INESC TEC joined this initiative.

02nd December 2024

Robotics

INESC TEC researchers organised underwater location challenge at the Breaking the Surface 2024 conference

INESC TEC researchers organised and carried out a technical challenge at the international conference Breaking the Surface 2024 (BTS), which took place from September 30 to October 7 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. This interdisciplinary event (currently in the 16th edition) focuses on robotics and marine technology. This year's edition brought together 198 experts and researchers from different areas (representing more than 20 countries), who exchanged knowledge and experiences in the field of marine robotics and associated applications.

28th October 2024

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Featured Projects

OPMAR2_EPISEA

Embarcação EPISEA

2025-2025

VICTORIOUS

INNOVATIVE AI-ENHANCED, REMOTELY POWERED, INDIRECT FIRE OBSERVATION SYSTEM UTILIZING UNMANNED VEHICLES

2025-2028

Silos_Portos

Inspeção interior e exterior dos Silos de Cereais Porto de Leixões

2025-2025

AI4PORTS

AI techniques for anomaly assessment in Port Structures

2025-2026

INESCTEC.OCEAN

Centre of Excellence in Ocean Research and Engineering

2025-2030

AEROSUB

Automated Inspection Robots for Surface, Aerial and Underwater Substructures

2024-2028

SEAGUARD

Sea Environmental Awareness and Guard enhanced with Unmanned AI Robotic Detection

2024-2027

ADVISOR

Cooperative Missions of Autonomous Vehicle Swarms for Surveillance Tasks

2024-2027

NuClim

Nuclear observations to improve Climate research and GHG emission estimates

2024-2028

BioProtect

ADVANCING AREA-BASED MANAGEMENT TOOLS TO ACCELERATE THE PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF MARINE BIODIVERSITY ACROSS THE EUROPEAN SEA BASINS

2024-2028

SENTINEL

SpacE operatioNs, moniToring, and mappINg ExpLorer: a smart Orb-system

2024-2025

TALOS

roboTics and Artificial intelligence Living labs improving Operations in PV Scenarios

2023-2026

NETTAGPlus

Preventing, avoiding and mitigating environmental impacts of fishing gears and associated marine litter

2023-2026

NMicroARTIC

Nitrogen Microbiome in the Changing Artic

2023-2026

ATE

Alliance for Energy Transition

2023-2026

TRIDENT

Technology based impact assessment tool foR sustaInable, transparent Deep sEa miNing exploraTion and exploitation

2023-2027

MineIO

A Holistic Digital Mine 4.0 Ecosystem

2023-2026

AIRSHIP

AUTONOMOUS FLYING SHIPS FOR INTER-ISLAND AND INLAND WATERS TRANSPORT

2023-2026

AOWINDE

ATLANTIC OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY

2023-2025

AEROGANP

Creación de un eje transfronterizo de investigación y transferencia de conocimiento en el sector aeronáutico y espacial en la Eurorregión Galicia-Norte de Portugal

2023-2026

SEAWINGS

Sea/Air Interphasic Wing-in-Ground Effect Autonomous Drones

2022-2026

OVERWATCH

Integrated holographic management map for safety and crisis events

2022-2025

NEXUS

Innovation Pact - Digital and Green Transition

2022-2025

NewSpacePortugal

Agenda New Space Portugal

2022-2025

Drivolution

Agenda Drivolution

2022-2025

StoneByPortugal

SUISTANABLE StoneByPortugal: Valorização da Pedra Natural para um futuro digital, sustentável e qualificado

2022-2025

FLYPASS

FoiL boat using clean energY for PASSenger transportation

2022-2024

TIMREX

T-Shaped Master Programme for Innovative Mineral Resource Exploration

2022-2024

FIRELOGUE

Cross-sector dialogue for Wildfire Risk Management

2021-2025

MAGPIE

sMArt Green Ports as Integrated Efficient multimodal hubs

2021-2026

EUSCORES

EUropean - Scalable and Complementary Offshore Renewable Energy Sources

2021-2025

Connect2Oceans

Connecting Atlantic and Arctic Oceans to Decipher Climate Change Impact on Plankton Microbiome Functions

2021-2024

MARIMAR

eMbarcação Autónoma para Remoção de lIxo MARinho

2020-2023

PORT XXI

Space Enabled Sustainable Port Services

2020-2022

SHIELD

Safeguard Heritage in Endangered Looted Districts

2020-2023

REV@CONSTRUCTION

Digital construction revolution

2020-2023

FLY_PT

Mobilizar a indústria aeronáutica nacional para a disrupção no transporte aéreo urbano do futuro

2020-2023

K2D

Knowledge and Data from the Deep to Space

2020-2023

NEWSAT

Development of a compact integrated sensor and satellite for earth observation

2020-2023

inSITE

inSITE. Insitu ore grading system using LIBS in harsh environments

2020-2022

ATLANTIS

The Atlantic Testing Platform for Maritime Robotics: New Frontiers for Inspection and Maintenance of Offshore Energy Infrastructures

2020-2023

UNEXUP

UNEXMIN Upscaling

2020-2022

QuALTOS

Quality Assurance in Long Term Observation Systems

2020-2022

Sail2020

Space-Atmosphere-Ocean Interactions in the marine boundary Layer

2020-2020

DEEPFIELD

DeepField- Deep Learning in Field Robotics: from conceptualization towards implementation

2019-2023

ESAPlastics

De-risk assessment: spectrometer for marine litter

2019-2021

SPRING

Strategic planning for water resources and implementation of novel biotechnical treatment solutions and good practices

2019-2024

Prince

Preparedness Response for CBRNE INCidEnts

2019-2022

Nettag

Tagging fishing gears and enhancing on board best-practices to promote waste free fisheries

2019-2021

Mine_Heritage

Historical Mining – tracing and learning from ancient materials and mining technology

2019-2021

NESSIE

moNitoring offshorE StructureS with robotIc systems intEgration

2019-2023

GROW

Long-range broadband underwater wireless communications

2018-2021

DIIUS

Distributed perceptIon for inspectIon of aqUatic Structures

2018-2022

ENDURANCE

Underwater wireless energy and communications enabling long-term deep-sea presence

2018-2020

HiperSea

Sistema Hiperbárico para Recolha e Manutenção de Organismos do Mar Profundo

2018-2022

BIOREM

Bioremediation of hydrocarbon pollutants by autochthonous microorganisms in aquatic environment

2018-2021

INTENDU

Integrated Technologies Longterm Deployment of Robotic Underwater platforms

2018-2021

FEEDFIRST

Desenvolvimento de uma nova tecnologia para cultivo de larvas de peixes à primeira alimentação

2018-2021

PROTOATLANTIC

Development and validation of a program for the prototyping and exploitation of innovative ideas

2017-2023

TEC4Sea

Modular Platform for Research, Test and Validation of Technologies supporting a Sustainable Blue Economy

2017-2022

EMSO-PT

Observatório Europeu Multidisciplinar do Fundo do Mar e Coluna de Água - Portugal

2017-2023

SpilLess

First line response to oil spills based on native microorganisms cooperation (SpilLess)

2017-2019

SIDENAV

Smart infrastructure for deep sea navigation

2016-2018

RAWFIE

Road-, Air- and Water-based Future Internet Experimentation

2016-2019

MyTag-CRAS

Integrating natural and artificial tags to reconstruct fish migrations and ontogenetic niche shifts

2016-2019

DeepFloat

Sistema de variação de flutuação para aplicações submarinas

2016-2018

UNEXMIN-CRAS

Autonomous Underwater Explorer for Flooded Mines

2016-2019

CORAL-SENSORS

CORAL – Sustainable Ocean Exploitation: Tools and Sensors

2016-2018

STRONGMAR-CRAS

STRengthening MARritime Technology Research Center

2016-2018

CORAL-TOOLS

CORAL – Sustainable Ocean Exploitation: Tools and Sensors

2016-2018

EMSODEV

EMSO implementation and operation: DEVelopment of instrument module

2015-2018

MarineEye

MarinEye - A prototype for multitrophic oceanic monitoring

2015-2017

BLUECOM+

Connecting Humans and Systems at Remote Ocean Areas using Cost-effective Broadband Communications

2015-2017

ENDURE

Enabling Long-Term Deployments of Underwater Robotic Platforms in Remote Oceanic Locations

2015-2017

VAMOS

Viable Alternative Mine Operating System

2015-2019

SUNNY

Smart UNmanned aerial vehicle sensor Network for detection of border crossing and illegal entrY

2014-2018

ICARUS-CRAS

Integrated Components for Assisted Rescue and Unmanned Search operations

2012-2016

Team
001

Laboratories

Robotics and Autonomous Systems Laboratory

Publications

CRAS Publications

View all Publications

2025

Real-Time Registration of 3D Underwater Sonar Scans

Authors
Ferreira, A; Almeida, J; Matos, A; Silva, E;

Publication
ROBOTICS

Abstract
Due to space and energy restrictions, lightweight autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are usually fitted with low-power processing units, which limits the ability to run demanding applications in real time during the mission. However, several robotic perception tasks reveal a parallel nature, where the same processing routine is applied for multiple independent inputs. In such cases, leveraging parallel execution by offloading tasks to a GPU can greatly enhance processing speed. This article presents a collection of generic matrix manipulation kernels, which can be combined to develop parallelized perception applications. Taking advantage of those building blocks, we report a parallel implementation for the 3DupIC algorithm-a probabilistic scan matching method for sonar scan registration. Tests demonstrate the algorithm's real-time performance, enabling 3D sonar scan matching to be executed in real time onboard the EVA AUV.

2025

Evaluation of Deep Learning Models for Polymetallic Nodule Detection and Segmentation in Seafloor Imagery

Authors
Loureiro, G; Dias, A; Almeida, J; Martins, A; Silva, E;

Publication
JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Abstract
Climate change has led to the need to transition to clean technologies, which depend on an number of critical metals. These metals, such as nickel, lithium, and manganese, are essential for developing batteries. However, the scarcity of these elements and the risks of disruptions to their supply chain have increased interest in exploiting resources on the deep seabed, particularly polymetallic nodules. As the identification of these nodules must be efficient to minimize disturbance to the marine ecosystem, deep learning techniques have emerged as a potential solution. Traditional deep learning methods are based on the use of convolutional layers to extract features, while recent architectures, such as transformer-based architectures, use self-attention mechanisms to obtain global context. This paper evaluates the performance of representative models from both categories across three tasks: detection, object segmentation, and semantic segmentation. The initial results suggest that transformer-based methods perform better in most evaluation metrics, but at the cost of higher computational resources. Furthermore, recent versions of You Only Look Once (YOLO) have obtained competitive results in terms of mean average precision.

2025

A Multimodal Perception System for Precise Landing of UAVs in Offshore Environments

Authors
Claro, RM; Neves, FSP; Pinto, AMG;

Publication
Journal of Field Robotics

Abstract
The integration of precise landing capabilities into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is crucial for enabling autonomous operations, particularly in challenging environments such as the offshore scenarios. This work proposes a heterogeneous perception system that incorporates a multimodal fiducial marker, designed to improve the accuracy and robustness of autonomous landing of UAVs in both daytime and nighttime operations. This work presents ViTAL-TAPE, a visual transformer-based model, that enhance the detection reliability of the landing target and overcomes the changes in the illumination conditions and viewpoint positions, where traditional methods fail. VITAL-TAPE is an end-to-end model that combines multimodal perceptual information, including photometric and radiometric data, to detect landing targets defined by a fiducial marker with 6 degrees-of-freedom. Extensive experiments have proved the ability of VITAL-TAPE to detect fiducial markers with an error of 0.01 m. Moreover, experiments using the RAVEN UAV, designed to endure the challenging weather conditions of offshore scenarios, demonstrated that the autonomous landing technology proposed in this work achieved an accuracy up to 0.1 m. This research also presents the first successful autonomous operation of a UAV in a commercial offshore wind farm with floating foundations installed in the Atlantic Ocean. These experiments showcased the system's accuracy, resilience and robustness, resulting in a precise landing technology that extends mission capabilities of UAVs, enabling autonomous and Beyond Visual Line of Sight offshore operations. © 2025 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

2025

Raya: A Bio-Inspired AUV for Inspection and Intervention of Underwater Structures

Authors
Pereira, P; Silva, R; Marques, JVA; Campilho, R; Matos, A; Pinto, AM;

Publication
IEEE ACCESS

Abstract
This work presents a bio-inspired Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) concept called Raya that enables high manoeuvrability required for close-range inspection and intervention tasks, while fostering endurance for long-range operations by enabling efficient navigation. The AUV has an estimated terminal velocity of 0.82 m/s in an optimal environment, and a capacity to acquire visual data and sonar measurements in all directions. Raya was designed with the potential to incorporate an electric manipulator arm of 6 degrees of freedom (DoF) for free-floating underwater intervention. Smart and biologically inspired principles applied to morphology and a strategic thruster configuration assure that Raya is capable of manoeuvring in all 6 DoFs even when equipped with a manipulator with a 5 kg payload. Extensive experiments were conducted using simulation tools and real-life environments to validate Raya's requirements and functionalities. The stresses and displacements of the rigid bodies were analysed using finite element analysis (FEA), and an estimation of the terminal forward velocity was achieved using a dynamic model. To assess the accuracy of the perception system, a reconstruction task took place in an indoor pool, resulting in a 3D reconstruction with average length, width, and depth errors below 1. 5%. The deployment of Raya in the ATLANTIS Coastal Testbed and Porto de Leix & otilde;es allowed the validation of the propulsion system and the gathering of valuable 2D and 3D data, thus proving the suitability of the vehicle for operation and maintenance (O&M) activities of underwater structures.

2025

The SAIL dataset of marine atmospheric electric field observations over the Atlantic Ocean

Authors
Barbosa, S; Dias, N; Almeida, C; Amaral, G; Ferreira, A; Camilo, A; Silva, E;

Publication
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA

Abstract
A unique dataset of marine atmospheric electric field observations over the Atlantic Ocean is described. The data are relevant not only for atmospheric electricity studies, but more generally for studies of the Earth's atmosphere and climate variability, as well as space-Earth interaction studies. In addition to the atmospheric electric field data, the dataset includes simultaneous measurements of other atmospheric variables, including gamma radiation, visibility, and solar radiation. These ancillary observations not only support interpretation and understanding of the atmospheric electric field data, but also are of interest in themselves. The entire framework from data collection to final derived datasets has been duly documented to ensure traceability and reproducibility of the whole data curation chain. All the data, from raw measurements to final datasets, are preserved in data repositories with a corresponding assigned DOI. Final datasets are available from the Figshare repository (https://figshare.com/projects/SAIL_Data/178500, ), and computational notebooks containing the code used at every step of the data curation chain are available from the Zenodo repository (https://zenodo.org/communities/sail, Project SAIL community, 2025).

Facts & Figures

7R&D Employees

2020

8Papers in indexed journals

2020

15Senior Researchers

2016

Contacts