Alvaro P. F. Negreiros
Papers
10
Total Citations
352
H-Index
5
About
Alvaro P. F. Negreiros is a robotics researcher whose work centers on autonomous maritime systems, with a particular focus on robotic sailboats and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). His most influential contribution, a 2019 survey on unmanned surface vehicles for disaster robotics (197 citations), established a comprehensive foundation for the field by mapping its core challenges and future directions, helping to legitimize disaster-oriented marine robotics as a distinct research discipline. Negreiros has made sustained contributions to autonomous sailboat technology across multiple dimensions — from high-level path planning using reinforcement learning techniques such as Q-Learning (70 citations) to low-level control systems, gain-scheduling PID controllers, and electromechanical design. His 2016 series of papers laid critical groundwork for practical sailboat prototypes capable of long-endurance ocean monitoring missions. More recently, his work on energy-sustainable twin sailboat platforms and the Yara virtual ocean simulation environment reflects a maturing research vision that bridges hardware development with software testing infrastructure. Across his career, Negreiros has championed wind-propelled autonomous vessels as practical tools for environmental monitoring, demonstrating that sustainable, low-energy robotics platforms can address real-world oceanic challenges.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2High-Level Path Planning for an Autonomous Sailboat Robot Using Q-Learning70 citations · 2020
- 3Design and Implementation of a Control System for a Sailboat Robot34 citations · 2016
- 4
- 5
- 6Towards the Electromechanical Design of an Autonomous Robotic Sailboat5 citations · 2016
- 7
- 8Gain-Scheduling PID Low-Level Control for Robotic Sailboats4 citations · 2018
- 9
- 10Cloud based low cost educational robot2 citations · 2013