Lidia Furno

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Lidia Furno is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of autonomous underwater systems, modular robotics, and fault-tolerant control. Her research focuses on the design and coordination of collaborative underwater robotic platforms capable of adapting their physical configurations and control strategies to meet complex, real-world operational demands. Furno's most influential contribution, "Self-reconfiguration of modular underwater robots using an energy heuristic" (2017, 26 citations), introduced a novel energy-aware framework enabling clusters of modular underwater vehicles to autonomously reshape their morphology based on task requirements — a significant step forward in adaptive marine robotics. Her 2015 work on centralised versus decentralised fault-tolerant reconfiguration (12 citations) demonstrated practical pathways for maintaining mission integrity when individual robotic units fail, leveraging the virtual actuator approach to compare control architectures. Complementing this, her contribution to collective modular underwater systems for long-term autonomous inspection (8 citations) highlighted the real-world viability of heterogeneous robotic teams capable of docking, communication, and tool deployment in confined offshore environments. Furno's research addresses critical challenges in underwater autonomy, making her work particularly relevant for offshore inspection, infrastructure monitoring, and the broader development of resilient, self-organizing marine robotic systems.