Marcelo Petry

Marcelo Petry

“We’d like to nominate Marcelo Petry to acknowledge his dedication and significant contribution to CRIIS’s activities, particularly within the iiLab. His standout work include leadership across various R&D activities, supervision of master’s and PhD theses, and his role in securing new projects and driving scientific development – particularly in the creation of new virtual and augmented reality solutions for simplified robot programming, mobile robot teleoperation, and quality inspection tasks. Marcelo’s role was – and still is – essential to the success of numerous projects, including Mari4_YARD, Be@T, iBot4CRMs, and Produtech R3, as well as to the advancement of the scientific area and the team.”

– CRIIS coordinators

Your contributions to the Centre’s activities – especially within the iiLab – were highlighted, focusing on your work in virtual and augmented reality and their impact on robotics. Could you tell us a bit more about said solutions, and how they cover the different projects you’re involved in (which surely have different goals and specificities)?

At iiLab, we’ve been exploring virtual and augmented reality-based solutions to make interaction with robotic systems more intuitive and accessible. For example, in the iBot4CRMs project, the team will use augmented reality to support interaction between humans, industrial manipulators, equipment in motor dismantling and the treatment of electrical and electronic waste. Concerning the Produtech R3 project, we’ve applied virtual reality to support the supervision and teleoperation of fleets of mobile robots in real time. As for Mari4_YARD, we’ve developed tools that allow operators to plan internal logistics operations using mobile manipulators supported by augmented reality.
In every case, our goal is to lower the technical barriers for end users and improve the efficiency and flexibility of industrial processes.

Your involvement in R&D leadership and student supervision is also mentioned. Do you find it easy to balance these responsibilities with day-to-day lab work? Are there any challenges you’d like to highlight?

Achieving that balance is a constant challenge; R&D leadership and student supervision require close attention and ongoing engagement, but they’re also extremely rewarding. Perhaps the greatest challenge is ensuring quality time for hands-on experimentation and technical development in the lab, while also maintaining a strategic vision for projects and supporting team development. The key lies in working collaboratively and trusting in the team’s skills and expertise.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

I particularly enjoy the freedom to experiment and develop innovative solutions that have a real impact on industry. Witnessing an idea move from concept to reality, validating it in a real-world setting, or contributing to improve a process or empowering someone is incredibly rewarding. Moreover, working with a motivated and multidisciplinary team makes every day more inspiring.

How do you comment on this nomination?

It’s a great honour; this nomination reflects not only my personal effort, but above all the collective work of the CRIIS team – especially at iiLab – and the collaborative environment we enjoy at INESC TEC. It’s also an extra source of motivation to continue investing in excellent scientific research and meaningful technological solutions, as well as in the training of the next generation of researchers.