Experimental Infrastructure

LARSyS has built and developed unique experimental facilities over many years. This capacity plays a crucial and strategic role in highly competitive national and international research & innovation projects and advanced training, where a tight symbiosis between theory and practice is a decisive factor. LARSyS is involved in three research infrastructures of the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures – RBCog-Lab, EMSO-Pt, and BIM – see details below. Key facilities and equipment include:

• The ROBOTICS, BRAIN & COGNITION LAB (RBCog-Lab) is part of the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures, and home to the only iCub in Portugal, the most sophisticated humanoid robot worldwide in terms of degrees of freedom, developed as an open-source project (mechanical design, electronics, software), with 45+ copies worldwide. RBCog-Lab includes the Vizzy social robot, developed in-house, a Baxter two-arm manipulator, a Kinova industrial arm, two Temi mobile platforms, dexterous robotic hands, eye-tracking and motion capture systems, for multidisciplinary research on Robotics, AI, and Human-robot Interaction, crossing engineering, neuroscience, psychology, and machine learning.
• The MARINE & AEROSPACE ROBOTICS ARENA includes a 60,000-liter 4m deep test tank, a pressure chamber rated to 700 bar (unique in the country), a drone arena equipped with a motion capture system, and a micro-gravity simulation table. Access is granted to a protected in-water 190x340m testing facility (old dock on the Tagus River) to launch and operate multiple robotic vehicles. During peak periods, several trials have been done with up to 30 researchers. LARSyS owns 9 autonomous vehicles ranging (30-600 kg), which include 3 MEDUSA and 2 DELFIM class vehicles developed in-house and 2 SLOCUM gliders that can stay up to 2 months at sea. Most vehicles are equipped with advanced motion and scientific sensor suites, control/navigation and mission control systems. Specialized sensor suites include multibeam and side scan sonars, a magnetic gradiometer, cameras, and a network of 12 acoustic and optical modems. A research vessel supports operations in the water. LARSyS participates in the EMSO-PT (EU Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory-Portugal) of the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures, and the EU Marine Robotics Research Infrastructure Network.
• The ISROBONET@HOME started with 10 IP cameras, wirelessly networked with several mobile robots, and includes an apartment mockup serving as a domestic robot testbed designed during the FP7 RoCKIn project, equipped with home automation devices and a motion capture system. The test bed also includes the MBOT robot, developed during the EU project MOnarCH, and a PAL Robotics TIAGo. It is used to benchmark robot systems through competitions.
• The COMBUSTION, ENERGY & MICRO-FLUIDICS labs are equipped with unique, state-of-the-art apparatus and customized micro-scaled techniques, such as micro-PIV , high-speed imaging, time and spatially resolved thermography and confocal microscopy, to study the underlying physics of microscale transport processes at interfaces. Complementarily, possesses infrastructures for testing isothermal and reacting systems, supported by modern non-intrusive light scattering techniques, Schlieren imaging, Imagiology and Acoustic Measurements for flow analysis in industrial environments.
• LARSyS participates in the NATIONAL BRAIN IMAGING NETWORK Infrastructure, Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures, that supports basic, translational, and clinical neuroscience by designing new molecular probes for human imaging of structure, chemistry and function, mainly targeting the human brain (PET/MRI).
• Facilities for DIGITAL FABRICATION AND EXPERIMENTATION are available in Lisbon and Funchal, with 3D printers, CNCs, laser cutters, and other prototyping equipment for electronics, robotics, experimenting with renewable materials and interactive textiles and surfaces. The labs are equipped with AR/VR devices and sensors for prototyping/testing mixed reality and mobile applications, including haptics and other feedback modalities. The facilities are open to communities as part of the Bauhaus of the Seas lighthouse project.