Robots & Design

Design plays a fundamental role in engineering and how well its solutions can be implemented in the real world. Pablo Valdivia y Alvarado Ph.D.

  • Monitoring the environment
  • Monitoring the environment

Monitoring the environment

Using a network of surface, aerial, and underwater robots to explore and monitor coastal marine environments. Robots deploy sensors that measure water quality and environmental conditions. Data collected during each mission is used by our collaborators to model anthropogenic effects and improve predictive models for various phenomena including algal blooms and land reclamation impacts.
Field experiments are also used to test new vehicles, new propulsion mechanisms, sensors, and control approaches to improve energy efficiency, mechanical robustness, and maneuverability of mobile robots.

I design simple and elegant mechanisms that exploit natural phenomena to achieve their function by drawing inspiration from nature and a deep understanding of the physics of a problem.