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About

Davi Henrique dos Santos is a Brazilian robotics researcher whose work centers on autonomous maritime systems, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), and disaster robotics. He has made particularly significant contributions to the emerging field of robotic sailboats, tackling the uniquely complex challenge of harnessing unpredictable wind forces for autonomous propulsion and navigation in harsh open-water environments. Santos's most influential work, a 2019 survey on USVs for disaster robotics (197 citations), established a critical roadmap for a then-underexplored platform type, highlighting autonomous boats as a vital complement to aerial, ground, and underwater systems in emergency response. His subsequent research developed practical tools and algorithms to advance the field, including a realistic USV simulator accounting for waves, wind, and currents (71 citations), and a Q-learning-based path planning framework for sailboat robots (70 citations). He has also pioneered gain-scheduling control strategies and genetic algorithm optimization for autonomous sailing navigation. Beyond algorithmic contributions, Santos has engaged deeply with hardware design and sustainability, developing the N-Boat and F-Boat twin sailboat platforms capable of energy self-generation for long-endurance sea monitoring missions. His body of work, spanning simulation environments, control architectures, and physical prototyping, reflects a comprehensive and enduring commitment to advancing autonomous maritime robotics.