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About

Pere Ridao is a leading researcher in marine robotics and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), whose work has fundamentally advanced how robots perceive, navigate, and operate in challenging underwater environments. Based at the University of Girona, Ridao has made landmark contributions across autonomous navigation, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), underwater inspection, and robotic intervention. His development of the Sparus II AUV platform introduced sophisticated path-planning algorithms enabling hovering vehicles to adapt trajectories in real time for inspection tasks, while his pioneering work on visual inspection of hydroelectric dams demonstrated practical, four-degree-of-freedom autonomous exploration of submerged structures. Ridao has pushed the boundaries of underwater perception through point-cloud SLAM using 3D laser scanners and imaging sonar, enabling robots to build accurate maps of complex subsea environments. His COLA2 control architecture has provided a reusable, modular framework widely adopted in AUV research, and his work on underwater manipulation opened new frontiers for seabed intervention. With his most cited paper on marine robotics challenges accumulating over 260 citations and a cumulative body of work exceeding 1,100 citations across these ten papers alone, Ridao stands as one of the most influential figures shaping the future of underwater autonomy.