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About

Pedro Santos is a researcher whose work spans robotics, computer vision, and digital cultural heritage, with a particular focus on automated 3D digitization systems. He is best known for his contributions to developing intelligent robotic pipelines that enable efficient, high-fidelity three-dimensional capture of artifacts for Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM institutions) — a research agenda that has grown increasingly vital in the context of Europe's Digital Agenda and Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21st century. His 2015 paper on virtual robotic systems for automated digitization of cultural heritage artifacts remains his most cited work with 17 citations, and subsequent contributions on mass digitization workflows and lessons learned from GLAM deployments have further solidified his standing in the field. Beyond cultural heritage, Santos has demonstrated breadth through work on cooperative robot localization, point cloud quality metrics for image-based 3D reconstruction, and applied robotics for nuclear power plant decommissioning. He has also contributed to large-scale astronomical instrumentation, including the MOONS multi-object spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope. Collectively, his research reflects a versatile command of robotic sensing and automation, making him a valuable voice at the intersection of applied robotics and digital preservation.