Dr. Vicente Arévalo Espejo

Associate Professor

Short bio

I was born in Cabra, a beautiful small city of the province of Córdoba (Spain). I received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Málaga, Spain, in 2001 and 2008, respectively. I joined the Dept. of System Engineering and Automation (University of Malaga) as pre-doctoral researcher in 2003 (granted by the Spanish Government), getting the positions of Assistant Professor in 2009, and Associate Professor in 2011. My research mainly focusses on mobile robotic, computer vision, machine learning, and remote sensing, being author of more than 40 journal and conference papers.

Software

My profiles at (access restricted for some repositories):

Some of my developments (contact for more info):

• turtlebot2-noetic: Port of the original nodes of the turtlebot2 robotic platform (developed for ROS1 Melodic) to ROS1 Noetic. This port “drinks” of some partial works of the community. Most important nodes are fully functional, but there exists some incompatibilities because of some used libraries, unsupported in Ubuntu 20.04 Jammy, or the usage of python2 in some ROS packages. I am currently working in it. Open to collaborations :-).
• arduino-modbus-codesys: This firmware sets up an Arduino Uno/Mega as RTU Modbus input/output boards. This is especially useful for teaching purposes, as it provides hardware compatible with commercial PLC programming solutions such as CoDeSys at a low cost. This project uses the excellent work of epsilonrt (for everything related to the Modbus protocol) providing a device that is easy to use and allows the student to abstract from low-level work and focus on the design and implementation of automatisms.
• tests: “tests” (a display of originality, I know :-P) is a webapp to perform self-correcting quizzes on the MATLAB Control Toolbox in a degree level. The app presents a particular feedback system that must be used by the students in a variety of exercises. The params’ set of each student is randomly selected to avoid the “transfer of information” :-D. The student must accomplish, among others, the following tasks: feedback system simplification, computation of the typical parameters of the temporal / frequency response, and design of a P controller according to a custom control requirements. The app is partially integrated with the Moodle-based platform used by the University of Málaga.
• automatica: “automatica” (other super original name) is a webapp developed in the frame of the innovative education projects entitled “Design and development of freely available video tutorials to reinforce traditional teaching in the ​​Systems Engineering and Automation Area” funded by the University of Malaga. This app acts as a sort of interface between Moodle and my channel in YouTube with the aim of controlling the contents to be shown to the students, presenting quizzes while the videos are played, or collecting suggestions and typos.
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Research

(Always) under construction :-S.

PhD Students

• Santiago Asensio-Huonder
• Eduardo Fernandez-Moral

Projects

• Surgical robot for Autonomous Bleeding Suction (09/2022 – 09/2025). Funded by Spanish National Research Program.
• PREMOVE. Movement prediction of traffic participants for the safe integration of self-driving cars in urban areas (12/2022 – 12/2025). Funded by Andalucia Regional Research Program.
• ARPEGGIO. Advanced Robotic Perception for Mapping and Localization (09/2021 – 08/2024). Funded by Spanish National Research Program.
• GARTHIM. Remote Reinforcement Learning for Mobile Robots Connected to Internet (11/2019 – 06/2022). Funded by Andalucia Regional Research Program.
• PROMOVE. Advances in mobile robotics for promoting independent life of elders (01/2015 – 12/2017). Funded by Spanish National Research Program.
• IRO. Improvement of the sensorial and autonomous capability of Robots through Olfaction (01/2014 – 02/2019). Funded by Andalucia Regional Research Program.
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Publications

My profiles at:

My publications at our server:

Teaching

Visit my space at the “Campus Virtual” de la University of Málaga for more information about tutoring (schedules, offices, …), “TFGs” / “TFMs” lines, news, calls for positions, etc. Please, refer to the “Campus Virtual” of the subjects to access to the teaching contents (access restricted).

Current subjects

• Automática, Grado en Ingeniería en Tecnologías Industriales (Escuela de Ingenierías Industriales).
• Tecnología de los Sistemas de Producción, Grado en Ingeniería Informática (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática).

Educational Innovation Projects

As principal researcher:

• Diseño y desarrollo de videotutoriales de libre disposición como refuerzo del aprendizaje presencial en el Área de Ingeniería de Sistemas Automática (1ª fase 10/2017 – 07/2019, 2ª fase 10/2019 – 07/2021). Funded by the University of Málaga.

As researcher:

• Mejora del aprendizaje mediante una planta industrial de entrenamiento realista y de bajo coste para la docencia en Industria Inteligente (03/2023 – ). No funded.
• Intensificación de la movilidad e internacionalización en la ETSI Informática (10/2017 – 07/2019). Funded by the University of Málaga.
• Análisis, despliegue y evaluación de competencias transversales en los grados de ingeniería informática (10/2017 – 07/2019). Funded by the University of Málaga.
• Innovación en el trabajo en laboratorio de una diversidad de asignaturas de ingeniería mediante el diseño y aplicación de una extensión de la plataforma de hardware abierto Arduino (12/2015 – 09/2017). Funded by the University of Málaga.
• Orientación y tutorización en la E.T.S.I. Informática (12/2015 – 09/2017) . Funded by the University of Málaga.
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