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About

About

M. F. Silva was born in April 11, 1970. He graduated, received the MSc. and the PhD. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1993, 1997 and 2005, respectively. Presently he is Coordinator Professor at the Institute of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Department of Electrical Engineering, and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems of INESC TEC. He is the author or more than 150 publications in international journals and conferences and has been involved in several R&D projects. He has also been actively involved in the organization of several international conferences, belongs to the CLAWAR Association Management Team and was President of the Portuguese Robotics Society. His research focuses on modelling, simulation, industrial robotics, mobile robotics, biological inspired robotics, and education in engineering.

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Details

Details

  • Name

    Manuel Santos Silva
  • Role

    Centre Coordinator
  • Since

    03rd January 2012
026
Publications

2026

Active learning for industrial defect detection: a study on hybrid sampling strategies

Authors
Gonzalez, DG; Nascimento, R; Rocha, CD; Silva, MF; Filipe, V; Rocha, LF; Magalhaes, LG; Cunha, A;

Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Abstract
In modern industrial environments, ensuring the quality of manufactured components is critical, particularly when dealing with reflective surfaces that hinder conventional inspection techniques. Although deep learning-based methods offer robust solutions for visual defect detection, their performance often hinges on the availability of substantial annotated datasets. In industrial scenarios, labeling such datasets is costly and time-consuming. This study investigates applying sample selection techniques to reduce annotation efforts for porosity detection on machined aluminium parts. Several selection strategies were evaluated using a real-world dataset composed of high-resolution images, including uncertainty, diversity, random-based criteria, and hybrid combinations. The best-performing strategy, which combined entropy-based uncertainty, spatial diversity, and random-based, achieved an F1-score of 86.70% and a recall of 82.99% after ten iterations using only 2,400 annotated images, corresponding to 66.67% of the active learning pool. Although the fully supervised model achieved an F1-score of 88.84% and a recall of 86.30%, the proposed approach proved a competitive alternative. These results demonstrate that selective data annotation can significantly reduce labeling effort while maintaining reliable performance in defect detection, even under the challenging conditions posed by reflective industrial parts.

2026

AI Enabled Robotic Loco-Manipulation

Authors
Li, Q; Xie, M; Tokhi, MO; Silva, MF;

Publication
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Abstract

2026

Crisis or Redemption with AI and Robotics? The Dawn of a New Era

Authors
Silva, MF; Tokhi, MO; Ferreira, MIA; Malheiro, B; Guedes, P; Ferreira, P; Costa, MT;

Publication
Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Abstract

2026

Mapping Ethics in EPS@ISEP Robotics Projects

Authors
Malheiro, BA; Guedes, P; Silva, MF; Ferreira, P;

Publication
CRISIS OR REDEMPTION WITH AI AND ROBOTICS? THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA, ICRES 2025

Abstract
The European Project Semester (EPS), offered by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), is a capstone programme designed for undergraduate students in engineering, product design, and business. EPS@ISEP fosters project-based learning, promotes multicultural and interdisciplinary teamwork, and ethics- and sustainability-driven design. This study applies Natural Language Processing techniques, specifically text mining, to analyse project papers produced by EPS@ISEP teams. The proposed method aims to identify evidence of ethical concerns within EPS@ISEP projects. An innovative keyword mapping approach is introduced that first defines and refines a list of ethics-related keywords through prompt engineering. This enriched list of keywords is then used to systematically map the content of project papers. The findings indicate that the EPS@ISEP robotics project papers analysed demonstrate awareness of ethical considerations and actively incorporate them into design processes. The method presented is adaptable to various application areas, such as monitoring compliance with responsible innovation or sustainability policies.

2025

Towards an Artificial Intelligence System for Automated Accessory Removal in Textile Recycling: Detecting Textile Fasteners

Authors
Lopes D.; Silva M.F.; Rocha L.F.; Filipe V.;

Publication
IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation ETFA

Abstract
The textile industry faces economic and environmental challenges due to low recycling rates and contamination from fasteners like buttons, rivets, and zippers. This paper proposes an Red, Green, Blue (RGB) vision system using You Only Look Once version 11 (YOLOv11) with a sliding window technique for automated fastener detection. The system addresses small object detection, occlusion, and fabric variability, incorporating Grounding DINO for garment localization and U2-Net for segmentation. Experiments show the sliding window method outperforms full-image detection for buttons and rivets (precision 0.874, recall 0.923), while zipper detection is less effective due to dataset limitations. This work advances scalable AI-driven solutions for textile recycling, supporting circular economy goals. Future work will target hidden fasteners, dataset expansion and fastener removal.