Keila Lima

Postdoc @ GSSI

IoT and Robotics Software Engineering

I have been investigating and experimenting with fixed and mobile autonomous sensing systems in constrained environments, such as those found in underwater and space application domains. My work focuses on engineering the collective behavior and integration of these autonomous systems into more complex, composed systems to enable seamless control and data provision.

Common communication protocols are needed to enable seamless control and data flows among and with autonomous systems, assuring syntactic interoperability. Complementary to ensuring a common understanding of commands and data exchanged, there is a need for shared vocabularies to facilitate semantic interoperability.

Currently, I am investigating network implications on the autonomy of space robotics systems.

Data Flow and Quality

While conducting research on engineering IoT and robotics systems and the data they generate, other research topics emerged, such as incorporating data quality into various stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). As systems become more data-dependent, the different quality attributes of data, such as currentness and precision, also start to have a significant impact on the decision-making systems driven by these data. In SDLC, understanding data quality requirements and the software systems’ implications for them is crucial not only for development but also for monitoring.

Get in touch if you want to collaborate or discuss any of these research topics of interest.

Marine Tech

I have started my Research and Development (R&D) career in marine robotics, being part of a multidisciplinary laboratory in Portugal that was in the vanguard of the development, integration, and deployment of Light Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (LAUV), Underwater Surface Vehicles (USV), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), drifting buoys, and communication gateways. During these 4.5 years, I have developed a strong domain knowledge of Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSN) and gained practical fieldwork experience.

Furthermore, my knowledge in the marine technology domain expanded during my PhD, which was funded and part of the SFI Smart Ocean consortium in Norway. Within the consortium, I collaborated with multiple organizations, serving as part of the team that architected and integrated marine sensor data from various vendors.

These past experiences have provided me with an in-depth understanding of both underwater mobile and fixed systems, as well as their applications in various contexts.

More details can be found in:

Research Data

Links to studies and field trials which I have participated on the data collection:

Research Services

I have reviewed for the following journals and conferences:

  • The IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering (JOE)
  • Artifact Evaluation Track @ The International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA)

Field Operations

Below is a map showing the locations of robotic field experiments, survey services, and fixed prototypes. Most of these works were conducted between 2017 and 2021, while I was working at LSTS and ISR-Porto, and more recently, in Norway.