Simone Tani, founding member of PerSEAve and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa, has been named the winner of the fifth edition of the Seafuture Award, a prestigious prize recognizing outstanding doctoral research in marine technologies and innovation for the Blue Economy. The award competition took place during Seafuture 2025, one of the leading international events dedicated to maritime systems and technologies. Organized by the Ligurian District of Marine Technologies in collaboration with Italian Blue Growth, the competition promotes young researchers and innovative projects capable of advancing the sustainable development of the maritime economy.
Advancing the autonomous capabilities of underwater robots
The award was granted for Simone Tani’s PhD thesis, “Autonomy of Underwater Robots in Environmental Monitoring and Infrastructures Inspection by Exploiting Exteroceptive Sensors”. The awarded research addresses one of the key challenges in marine robotics: enabling underwater robots to operate effectively during monitoring and inspection activities without requiring prior knowledge of the operational scenario or continuous human supervision. To achieve this goal, a framework was developed that tightly integrates environmental perception and vehicle navigation within a single unified architecture. By leveraging data collected from onboard exteroceptive sensors, the robot can interpret its surroundings in real-time, plan its actions, and dynamically adapt the mission according to the information gathered during inspection operations.
From research to real-world applications
The proposed technology was validated through an experimental campaign at sea using the Zeno AUV, which was deployed to autonomously inspect a port infrastructure. During the trials, the developed framework enabled the vehicle to automatically maintain a safe distance from the target structure while ensuring a constant inspection velocity and the optimal orientation of the perception payload for data acquisition. The mission was successfully completed without human intervention, producing high-quality imagery and an accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of the inspected infrastructure. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach and represent a significant step toward the deployment of fully autonomous underwater robots for critical infrastructure inspection, environmental monitoring, and offshore operations.
Driving innovation through research
This recognition highlights the impact of Simone Tani’s work in the field of marine robotics and reinforces the importance of bridging cutting-edge academic research with real-world industrial applications. This achievement is a source of great pride and reflects PerSEAve’s commitment to advancing innovative technologies that contribute to safer, more sustainable, and increasingly autonomous maritime operations.