This is the home page of the Sensor-based Cooperative Robotics Research (SCORE) laboratory, at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau.
The work carried out in the laboratory is directed towards furthering knowledge in the general area of dynamical systems theory and applying it to the design and operation of autonomous marine and aerial robots. Theoretical areas of research include navigation, guidance, and control (NGC), mission control, and cooperative control of autonomous vehicles.
The laboratory is currently involved in a number of multidisciplinary projects using advanced robotic systems that include:
• Delmac surface craft – a platform for testing new navigation and control strategies with the goal of developing intelligent acoustic bathymetric tools to accurate map shallow water regions;
• Small quadrotors – sensorless vehicles that are used for prototyping and rapid testing of new control algorithms. Their operation requires an optical motion capture system for position and attitude measurements;
• Large quadrotors – outdoor capable vehicles that are equipped with accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers for attitude estimation and laser sensors and cameras for relative positioning. These vehicles are capable of fully autonomous flight and do not need to rely on the motion tracking system;
• Hovercraft – an air cushion allows the hovercraft to operate in mixed land and water environments but it introduces a low-drag mode that raises important challenges to the accurate control of the vehicle.