Urbano Nunes

About

Urbano Nunes is a prominent robotics researcher whose work spans mobile robot navigation, autonomous control systems, assistive technologies, and human-robot interaction. Based at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, his research has made lasting contributions across several interconnected fields, earning him over 1,200 citations from his most impactful publications alone. Nunes pioneered olfaction-based robot navigation and swarm intelligence approaches to chemical source localization, with his foundational 2002 and 2006 papers accumulating over 400 citations combined. His 2006 work on laser scan feature detection introduced the Inscribed Angle Variance method for real-time geometric and people detection, garnering 185 citations and becoming a key reference in robot perception. His contributions to mobile robot path-following control using Kalman-based active observer strategies further cemented his reputation in nonlinear control theory. Perhaps most notably, Nunes has championed assistive robotics, developing brain-computer interface (BCI)-driven intelligent wheelchairs that empower individuals with severe motor disabilities. His research on self-paced BCI systems with collaborative controllers demonstrates exceptional reliability in real-world trials. More recently, his work on multi-object tracking and human activity recognition from RGB-D imagery reflects his continued leadership at the frontier of intelligent, human-aware robotic systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Olfaction-based mobile robot navigation

   207 citations · 2002
2. 2
   Particle swarm-based olfactory guided search

   194 citations · 2006
3. 3
   Fast Line, Arc/Circle and Leg Detection from Laser Scan Data in a Player Driver

   185 citations · 2006
4. 4
   Path-following control of mobile robots in presence of uncertainties

   133 citations · 2005
5. 5
   Assisted navigation for a brain-actuated intelligent wheelchair

   99 citations · 2012
6. 6
   Sort and Deep-SORT Based Multi-Object Tracking for Mobile Robotics: Evaluation with New Data Association Metrics

   95 citations · 2022
7. 7
   A probabilistic approach for human everyday activities recognition using body motion from RGB-D images

   85 citations · 2014
8. 8
   A Self-Paced BCI With a Collaborative Controller for Highly Reliable Wheelchair Driving: Experimental Tests With Physically Disabled Individuals

   80 citations · 2021
9. 9
   Lie algebra application to mobile robot control: a tutorial

   73 citations · 2003
10. 10
    Camera Pose Estimation Using Images of Planar Mirror Reflections

    68 citations · 2010

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links