![Juan Hernandez Vega](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/1576?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Juan Hernandez Vega
(he/him)
Senior Lecturer and Director of PGR
School of Computer Science and Informatics
- HernandezVegaJ@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29208 74791
- Abacws, Room 4.58, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the School of Computer Science and Informatics, where I am part of the Human-centred Computing Group.
Before joining Cardiff University, I had worked in robotics for more than 10 years. During my BSc in electronic engineering (in Cali, Colombia), I worked on developing computationally efficient algorithms to model and simulate a biped robot under the supervision of Prof. Andrés Jaramillo-Botero. Then, during my MSc in robotics and automation (Madrid, Spain) and under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Barrientos, I designed and built a robotic sphere (ROSPHERE), including its software and hardware architectures. Then, I moved to Girona (Catalonia, Spain) to work at a well-known underwater robotics laboratory (CIRS), where I conducted my doctoral research in motion planning for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) under the guidance of Prof. Marc Carreras. In my doctoral research, I focused on AUVs that do not have any a priori map and are required to build one online, while safely navigating through unexplored environments.
After completing my PhD in 2017, I joined TNO (Helmond, Netherlands), where I worked as a research robotics engineer. At TNO I was the technical leader for automated valet parking applications. After this experience in industry, I joined Prof. Lydia E. Kavraki's laboratory at Rice University (Houston, USA) in 2018. My research at Rice was mainly focused on developing motion planning techniques to endow robots with better decision-making capabilities for human-robot collaboration scenarios. After completing my postdoctoral research, I joined Apple Inc. and its Special Projects Group (SPG) in 2019. At Apple, I was a senior engineer and I worked on developing tools for simulation of autonomous systems.
Publication
2024
- Munguia‐Galeano, F., Zhu, J., Hernández, J. D. and Ji, Z. 2024. Learning to bag with a simulation‐free reinforcement learning framework for robots. IET Cyber-Systems and Robotics 6(2), article number: e12113. (10.1049/csy2.12113)
- Mosquera Maturana, J. S., Hernández, J. D. and Romero Cano, V. 2024. Sampling-based motion planning for guide robots considering user pose uncertainty. Presented at: 25th Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS) Conference, London, UK, 21-23 August 2024.
- He, Y., Wallbridge, C., Hernandez, J. D. and Colombo, G. 2024. Few-shot transfer learning for deep reinforcement learning on robotic manipulation tasks. Presented at: 25th Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2024), London, UK, 21-23 August 2024.
2023
- Rivero-Ortega, J. D., Mosquera-Maturana, J. S., Pardo-Cabrera, J., Hurtado-López, J., Hernández, J. D., Romero-Cano, V. and Ramírez-Moreno, D. F. 2023. Ring attractor bio-inspired neural network for social robot navigation. Frontiers in Neurorobotics 17, article number: 1211570. (10.3389/fnbot.2023.1211570)
- Munguia-Galeano, F., Veeramani, S., Hernández, J. D., Wen, Q. and Ji, Z. 2023. Affordance-based human-robot interaction with reinforcement learning. IEEE Access 11, pp. 31282-31292. (10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3262450)
- Silva Mendoza, S., Verdezoto, N., Paillacho, D., Millan Norman, S. and Hernandez, J. D. 2023. Online social robot navigation in indoor, large and crowded environments. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, United Kingdom, 29 May – 2 June 2023. , (10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160603)
2022
- Pairet, ?., Hernández, J. D., Carreras, M., Petillot, Y. and Lahijanian, M. 2022. Online mapping and motion planning under uncertainty for safe navigation in unknown environments. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 19(4), pp. 3356-3378. (10.1109/TASE.2021.3118737)
- Silva Mendoza, S., Paillacho, D., Verdezoto Dias, N. and Hernandez, J. D. 2022. Towards online socially acceptable robot navigation. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, Mexico City, Mexico, 20-24 August 20222022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE). IEEE pp. 707-714., (10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926686)
- Fajardo, J. M., González Roldan, F., Realpe, S., Hernandez, J. D., Ji, Z. and Cardenas, P. 2022. FRobs_RL: A flexible robotics reinforcement learning library. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Mexico City, 20 - 24 August 20222022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE). IEEE, (10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926586)
2021
- Wang, Y., Newaz, A. A. R., Hernandez, J. D., Chaudhuri, S. and Kavraki, L. 2021. Online partial conditional plan synthesis for POMDPs with safe-reachability objectives: methods and experiments. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 54(6), pp. 383-384. (10.1109/TASE.2021.3057111)
- Scharff Willners, J., Gonzalez-Adell, D., Hernández, J. D., Pairet, E. and Petillot, Y. 2021. Online 3-dimensional path planning with kinematic constraints in unknown environments using hybrid A* with tree pruning. Sensors 21(4), article number: 1152. (10.3390/s21041152)
2020
- Hernández, J. D. 2020. Sampling-based roadmap planners (PRM and variations). In: Ang, M. H., Khatib, O. and Siciliano, B. eds. Encyclopedia of Robotics. Springer, (10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_169-1)
- Hernández, J. D., Sobti, S., Sciola, A., Moll, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2020. Increasing robot autonomy via motion planning and an augmented reality interface. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 5(2), pp. 1017-1023. (10.1109/LRA.2020.2967280)
2019
- Hernández, J. D., Moll, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2019. Lazy evaluation of goal specifications guided by motion planning. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, Canada, 20-24 May 2019Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 944-950., (10.1109/ICRA.2019.8793570)
- Vidal, E., Moll, M., Palomeras, N., Hernández, J. D., Carreras, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2019. Online multilayered motion planning with dynamic constraints for autonomous underwater vehicles. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, QC, Canada, 20-24 May 2019Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 8936-8942., (10.1109/ICRA.2019.8794009)
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Moll, M., Palomeras, N., Carreras, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2019. Online motion planning for unexplored underwater environments using autonomous underwater vehicles. Journal of Field Robotics 36(2), pp. 370-396. (10.1002/rob.21827)
- Vidal, E., Palomeras, N., Istenic, K., Hernández, J. D. and Carreras, M. 2019. Two-dimensional frontier-based viewpoint generation for exploring and mapping underwater environments. Sensors 19(6), article number: 1460. (10.3390/s19061460)
2018
- Vidal, E., Hernández, J. D., Palomeras, N. and Carreras, M. 2018. Online robotic exploration for autonomous underwater vehicles in unstructured environments. Presented at: OCEANS’18 MTS/IEEE Kobe/Techno-Ocean 2018, Kobe, Japan, 28-31 May 20182018 OCEANS - MTS/IEEE Kobe Techno-Oceans (OTO). IEEE pp. 1-4., (10.1109/OCEANSKOBE.2018.8559224)
- Pairet, ?., Hernández, J. D., Lahijanian, M. and Carreras, M. 2018. Uncertainty-based online mapping and motion planning for marine robotics guidance. Presented at: 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, 1-5 October 20182018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). , (10.1109/IROS.2018.8593394)
- Vidal, E., Hernández, J. D., Istenic, K. and Carreras, M. 2018. Optimized environment exploration for autonomous underwater vehicles. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 21-25 May 20182018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 6409-6416., (10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460919)
- Carreras, M., Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Palomeras, N., Ribas, D. and Ridao, P. 2018. Sparus II AUV - a hovering vehicle for seabed inspection. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 43(2), pp. 344-355. (10.1109/JOE.2018.2792278)
2017
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Greer, J., Fiasco, R., Jaussaud, P., Carreras, M. and García, R. 2017. AUV online mission replanning for gap filling and target inspection. Presented at: IEEE OCEANS 2017, Aberdeen, Scotland, 19-22 June 2017OCEANS 2017 - Aberdeen. IEEE pp. 1-4., (10.1109/OCEANSE.2017.8084740)
- Vidal, E., Hernández, J. D., Istenic, K. and Carreras, M. 2017. Online view planning for inspecting unexplored underwater structures. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 2(3), pp. 1436-1443. (10.1109/LRA.2017.2671415)
2016
- Hernández, J. D., Moll, M., Vidal, E., Carreras, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2016. Planning feasible and safe paths online for autonomous underwater vehicles in unknown environments. Presented at: 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, Korea, October 9-14 20162016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). pp. 1313-1320., (10.1109/IROS.2016.7759217)
- Hernández, J. D. et al. 2016. Autonomous underwater navigation and optical mapping in unknown natural environments. Sensors 16(8), article number: 1174. (10.3390/s16081174)
2015
- Hernández, J. D. 2015. Autonomous seabed inspection for environmental monitoring. Presented at: 2nd Iberian Robotics Conference (Robot 2015), Lisbon, Portugal, 19-21 November 2019Robot 2015: Second Iberian Robotics Conference: Advances in Robotics, Volume 2. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing Springer, Cham pp. 27-39., (10.1007/978-3-319-27149-1_3)
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Vallicrosa, G., Paire, ?. and Carreras, M. 2015. Simultaneous mapping and planning for autonomous underwater vehicles in unknown environments. Presented at: OCEANS'15 MTS/IEEE Genova, Genova, Italy, 18-21 May 2015OCEANS 2015 - Genova. IEEE pp. 1-6., (10.1109/OCEANS-Genova.2015.7271469)
- Hernández, J. D., Vallicrosa, G., Vidal, E., Pairet, ?., Carreras, M. and Ridao, P. 2015. On-line 3D path planning for close-proximity surveying with AUVs. Presented at: 4th IFAC Workshop on Navigation, Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles (NGCUV 2015), Girona, Spain, 28-30 April 2015, Vol. 48. Vol. 2. pp. 50-55., (10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.06.009)
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Vallicrosa, G., Galceran, E. and Carreras, M. 2015. Online path planning for autonomous underwater vehicles in unknown environments. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2015), Seattle, WA, USA, 26-30 May 20152015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 1152-1157., (10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139336)
2013
- Hernandez, J. D., Sanz, D., Rodríguez-Canosa, G. R., Barrientos, J., del Cerro, J. and Barrientos, A. 2013. Sensorized robotic sphere for large exterior critical infrastructures supervision. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 7(1), article number: 73522. (10.1117/1.JRS.7.073522)
- Hernández, J. D., Barrientos, J., del Cerro, J., Barrientos, A. and Sanz, D. 2013. Moisture measurement in crops using spherical robots. Industrial Robot: An International Journal 40(1), pp. 59-66. (10.1108/01439911311294255)
Articles
- Munguia‐Galeano, F., Zhu, J., Hernández, J. D. and Ji, Z. 2024. Learning to bag with a simulation‐free reinforcement learning framework for robots. IET Cyber-Systems and Robotics 6(2), article number: e12113. (10.1049/csy2.12113)
- Rivero-Ortega, J. D., Mosquera-Maturana, J. S., Pardo-Cabrera, J., Hurtado-López, J., Hernández, J. D., Romero-Cano, V. and Ramírez-Moreno, D. F. 2023. Ring attractor bio-inspired neural network for social robot navigation. Frontiers in Neurorobotics 17, article number: 1211570. (10.3389/fnbot.2023.1211570)
- Munguia-Galeano, F., Veeramani, S., Hernández, J. D., Wen, Q. and Ji, Z. 2023. Affordance-based human-robot interaction with reinforcement learning. IEEE Access 11, pp. 31282-31292. (10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3262450)
- Pairet, ?., Hernández, J. D., Carreras, M., Petillot, Y. and Lahijanian, M. 2022. Online mapping and motion planning under uncertainty for safe navigation in unknown environments. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 19(4), pp. 3356-3378. (10.1109/TASE.2021.3118737)
- Wang, Y., Newaz, A. A. R., Hernandez, J. D., Chaudhuri, S. and Kavraki, L. 2021. Online partial conditional plan synthesis for POMDPs with safe-reachability objectives: methods and experiments. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 54(6), pp. 383-384. (10.1109/TASE.2021.3057111)
- Scharff Willners, J., Gonzalez-Adell, D., Hernández, J. D., Pairet, E. and Petillot, Y. 2021. Online 3-dimensional path planning with kinematic constraints in unknown environments using hybrid A* with tree pruning. Sensors 21(4), article number: 1152. (10.3390/s21041152)
- Hernández, J. D., Sobti, S., Sciola, A., Moll, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2020. Increasing robot autonomy via motion planning and an augmented reality interface. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 5(2), pp. 1017-1023. (10.1109/LRA.2020.2967280)
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Moll, M., Palomeras, N., Carreras, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2019. Online motion planning for unexplored underwater environments using autonomous underwater vehicles. Journal of Field Robotics 36(2), pp. 370-396. (10.1002/rob.21827)
- Vidal, E., Palomeras, N., Istenic, K., Hernández, J. D. and Carreras, M. 2019. Two-dimensional frontier-based viewpoint generation for exploring and mapping underwater environments. Sensors 19(6), article number: 1460. (10.3390/s19061460)
- Carreras, M., Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Palomeras, N., Ribas, D. and Ridao, P. 2018. Sparus II AUV - a hovering vehicle for seabed inspection. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 43(2), pp. 344-355. (10.1109/JOE.2018.2792278)
- Vidal, E., Hernández, J. D., Istenic, K. and Carreras, M. 2017. Online view planning for inspecting unexplored underwater structures. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 2(3), pp. 1436-1443. (10.1109/LRA.2017.2671415)
- Hernández, J. D. et al. 2016. Autonomous underwater navigation and optical mapping in unknown natural environments. Sensors 16(8), article number: 1174. (10.3390/s16081174)
- Hernandez, J. D., Sanz, D., Rodríguez-Canosa, G. R., Barrientos, J., del Cerro, J. and Barrientos, A. 2013. Sensorized robotic sphere for large exterior critical infrastructures supervision. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 7(1), article number: 73522. (10.1117/1.JRS.7.073522)
- Hernández, J. D., Barrientos, J., del Cerro, J., Barrientos, A. and Sanz, D. 2013. Moisture measurement in crops using spherical robots. Industrial Robot: An International Journal 40(1), pp. 59-66. (10.1108/01439911311294255)
Book sections
- Hernández, J. D. 2020. Sampling-based roadmap planners (PRM and variations). In: Ang, M. H., Khatib, O. and Siciliano, B. eds. Encyclopedia of Robotics. Springer, (10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_169-1)
Conferences
- Mosquera Maturana, J. S., Hernández, J. D. and Romero Cano, V. 2024. Sampling-based motion planning for guide robots considering user pose uncertainty. Presented at: 25th Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS) Conference, London, UK, 21-23 August 2024.
- He, Y., Wallbridge, C., Hernandez, J. D. and Colombo, G. 2024. Few-shot transfer learning for deep reinforcement learning on robotic manipulation tasks. Presented at: 25th Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2024), London, UK, 21-23 August 2024.
- Silva Mendoza, S., Verdezoto, N., Paillacho, D., Millan Norman, S. and Hernandez, J. D. 2023. Online social robot navigation in indoor, large and crowded environments. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, United Kingdom, 29 May – 2 June 2023. , (10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160603)
- Silva Mendoza, S., Paillacho, D., Verdezoto Dias, N. and Hernandez, J. D. 2022. Towards online socially acceptable robot navigation. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, Mexico City, Mexico, 20-24 August 20222022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE). IEEE pp. 707-714., (10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926686)
- Fajardo, J. M., González Roldan, F., Realpe, S., Hernandez, J. D., Ji, Z. and Cardenas, P. 2022. FRobs_RL: A flexible robotics reinforcement learning library. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Mexico City, 20 - 24 August 20222022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE). IEEE, (10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926586)
- Hernández, J. D., Moll, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2019. Lazy evaluation of goal specifications guided by motion planning. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, Canada, 20-24 May 2019Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 944-950., (10.1109/ICRA.2019.8793570)
- Vidal, E., Moll, M., Palomeras, N., Hernández, J. D., Carreras, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2019. Online multilayered motion planning with dynamic constraints for autonomous underwater vehicles. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, QC, Canada, 20-24 May 2019Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 8936-8942., (10.1109/ICRA.2019.8794009)
- Vidal, E., Hernández, J. D., Palomeras, N. and Carreras, M. 2018. Online robotic exploration for autonomous underwater vehicles in unstructured environments. Presented at: OCEANS’18 MTS/IEEE Kobe/Techno-Ocean 2018, Kobe, Japan, 28-31 May 20182018 OCEANS - MTS/IEEE Kobe Techno-Oceans (OTO). IEEE pp. 1-4., (10.1109/OCEANSKOBE.2018.8559224)
- Pairet, ?., Hernández, J. D., Lahijanian, M. and Carreras, M. 2018. Uncertainty-based online mapping and motion planning for marine robotics guidance. Presented at: 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, 1-5 October 20182018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). , (10.1109/IROS.2018.8593394)
- Vidal, E., Hernández, J. D., Istenic, K. and Carreras, M. 2018. Optimized environment exploration for autonomous underwater vehicles. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 21-25 May 20182018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 6409-6416., (10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460919)
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Greer, J., Fiasco, R., Jaussaud, P., Carreras, M. and García, R. 2017. AUV online mission replanning for gap filling and target inspection. Presented at: IEEE OCEANS 2017, Aberdeen, Scotland, 19-22 June 2017OCEANS 2017 - Aberdeen. IEEE pp. 1-4., (10.1109/OCEANSE.2017.8084740)
- Hernández, J. D., Moll, M., Vidal, E., Carreras, M. and Kavraki, L. E. 2016. Planning feasible and safe paths online for autonomous underwater vehicles in unknown environments. Presented at: 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, Korea, October 9-14 20162016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). pp. 1313-1320., (10.1109/IROS.2016.7759217)
- Hernández, J. D. 2015. Autonomous seabed inspection for environmental monitoring. Presented at: 2nd Iberian Robotics Conference (Robot 2015), Lisbon, Portugal, 19-21 November 2019Robot 2015: Second Iberian Robotics Conference: Advances in Robotics, Volume 2. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing Springer, Cham pp. 27-39., (10.1007/978-3-319-27149-1_3)
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Vallicrosa, G., Paire, ?. and Carreras, M. 2015. Simultaneous mapping and planning for autonomous underwater vehicles in unknown environments. Presented at: OCEANS'15 MTS/IEEE Genova, Genova, Italy, 18-21 May 2015OCEANS 2015 - Genova. IEEE pp. 1-6., (10.1109/OCEANS-Genova.2015.7271469)
- Hernández, J. D., Vallicrosa, G., Vidal, E., Pairet, ?., Carreras, M. and Ridao, P. 2015. On-line 3D path planning for close-proximity surveying with AUVs. Presented at: 4th IFAC Workshop on Navigation, Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles (NGCUV 2015), Girona, Spain, 28-30 April 2015, Vol. 48. Vol. 2. pp. 50-55., (10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.06.009)
- Hernández, J. D., Vidal, E., Vallicrosa, G., Galceran, E. and Carreras, M. 2015. Online path planning for autonomous underwater vehicles in unknown environments. Presented at: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2015), Seattle, WA, USA, 26-30 May 20152015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE pp. 1152-1157., (10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139336)
Teaching
2024-now
- CM3118/CMT123 Introduction to Computational Robotics (Module leader)
2023-2024
- CM3118 Introduction to Computational Robotics (Module leader)
2022-2023
- CM1101 Computational Thinking
As a Lecturer in the School of Engineering (2021-2022):
2021-2022
- EN3037 Solid Mechanics
- ENT604 Measurement Systems
2020-2021
- EN3037 Solid Mechanics
Biography
Education
- 2017: PhD in Technology (with emphasis in robotics), University of Girona (Spain)
- 2012: MSc (2-year programme) in Robotics and Automation, Technical University of Madrid (Spain)
- 2009: BSc (5-year programme) in Electronic Engineering, Pontifical Xavierian University (Cali, Colombia)
Honours and awards
- 2019: Extraordinary ability nonimmigrant visa (O-1), USA
- 2019: Elevated to IEEE Senior Member Grade
- 2017: Outstanding Cum Laude Distinction in PhD Thesis, University of Girona
- 2016: IEEE-RAS Travel Grant to International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). Daejeon, Korea
- 2015: University of Girona’s team member, first place in the European Robotics Grand Challenge (euRathlon). Piombino, Italy
- 2015: IEEE-RAS Travel Grant to International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Seattle, USA
- 2014: University of Girona’s team member, first place in European sea challenge (euRathlon). La Spezia, Italy
- 2013-2017: PhD Scholarship Program awarded by Colciencias (Colombian science and technology department)
- 2009: Honor Distinction for Academic and Humanistic Excellence, Pontifical Xavierian University
- 2009: Honor Distinction for Excellence in Graduation Work. “Kinematics and Dynamics Model of a Walking Robot,” Pontifical Xavierian University
- 2006: Dean’s Award, academic excellence, Pontifical Xavierian University
- 2006: Dean’s Award, extracurricular activities as Chair of the IEEE Student Branch, Pontifical Xavierian University
Professional memberships
Senior Member of IEEE and its Robotics and Automation Society
Academic positions
- 2020 - present: Lecturer, Cardiff University
- 2019 - 2020: Senior Engineer, Apple Inc
- 2018 - 2019: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Rice University (Houston, USA)
- 2017 - 2018: Robotics Research Engineer, TNO (Helmond, Netherlands)
- 2013 - 2017: Junior Researcher, CIRS and ViCOROB at University of Girona (Catalonia, Spain)
- 2010 - 2012: Research Assistant, CAR UPM-CSIC (Madrid, Spain)
Committees and reviewing
- 2020 - present: Associated Editor of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
Referee for the following journals:
- IEEE Transactions on Robotics
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
- IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics
- IEEE Access
- IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering
- Journal of Field Robotics.
- MDPI Sensors
- Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems.
- Automatica.
Referee for the following conferences:
- IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
- IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
- Conferencia Internacional de Ambientes Virtuales de Aprendizaje Adaptativos y Accesibles (CAVA).
- Congreso Internacional de Innovaci ́on y Tendencias en Ingeniería (CONIITI).
Supervisions
Supervision Areas
I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:
- Path/motion planning for robotic and autonomous systems
- Shared autonomy for robotic and autonomous systems
- Social robot navigation
- Human-robot interaction/collaboration
- Field Robotics
- Robot learning
Current Supervision
Current PhD students at Cardiff University:
- Mr Steven Silva (as main supervisor)
- Mr Furkan Duman (as main supervisor)
- Mr Samul Millan-Norman (as main supervisor)
- Mr Jose Patiño (as main supervisor)
- Mr Ioannis-Marios Stavropoulos (as main supervisor)
- Mr Yuanzhi He (as co-supervisor)
Current MSc students in collaboration with National University of Colombia:
- Mr Juan S. Hernandez Reyes: Reinforcement Learning for Robot Navigation
Current PhD student in collaboration with Universidad Autónoma de Occidente (Colombia):
- Mr Juan S. Mosquera Maturana: Social Navigation Systems for Inclusive Guide Robots
Previous Supervision
Cardiff University:
- Dr Francisco Munguia-Galeano (as co-supervisor)
MSc students in collaboration with the University of Antwerp:
- Ms Daniëlle Jongstra: Learning-based Robot Social Navigation
- Mr Wei Wei: Grasping Regions through Learning and Computer Vision Techniques
Current supervision
Furkan Duman
Research student
Jose Patino Minan
Research student
Samuel Millan-Norman
Research student
Research themes
Specialisms
- Field robotics
- Intelligent robotics
- Social robotics