Michael F Forte

U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Dr. Michael F. Forte is a leading researcher in coastal engineering and autonomous robotics, with a focus on developing safer, more efficient methods for surveying hazardous nearshore environments. His primary contributions lie in the integration of uncrewed ground vehicles for seamless topographic and bathymetric data collection across the beachface, surfzone, and very nearshore—a notoriously difficult area to survey due to dangerous wave conditions. Forte’s most cited work, "Amphibious Uncrewed Ground Vehicle for Coastal Surfzone Survey" (2023, 4 citations), demonstrates the use of a commercial off-the-shelf amphibious robot equipped with a real-time-kinematic (RTK) antenna to achieve high-accuracy coastal mapping. His 2022 paper, "Evaluating autonomous system performance in the surfzone" (3 citations), further advances this field by assessing robotic capabilities at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Field Research Facility in Duck, North Carolina—a premier testbed for coastal innovation. Through this work, Forte is pioneering cost-effective, safer alternatives to traditional manned surveys, directly improving data availability and operational safety in dynamic coastal zones. His research is instrumental for students and engineers seeking to bridge robotics and coastal science.