Pedro Trindade

UAS Swarm AI Engineer

Apr 2025 – now

• Working across TEKEVER's autonomy stack, contributing to architecture definition, mission-level autonomy, and integration with ground control and flight systems for testing on real platforms.
• Contributed to the company's first swarming initiative from the start, helping define requirements, shape the system architecture, and build foundational autonomy modules, including path planning and ROS2 message translation.
• Designed and implemented distributed cooperative formation flight, enabling UAVs to execute planned routes synchronously.
• Drove the migration of a vision-based GNSS-denied navigation project to ROS2. Prepared the base repository and CI/CD pipeline, defined message interfaces, built tools to convert legacy logs into replayable rosbags, and standardised development with Docker and DevContainers.
• Supported team growth by running technical interviews and providing input into hiring decisions, and helped onboard new engineers by sharing system and operational context.

Researcher, Distributed Formation Control

Feb 2019 – Mar 2025

• Developed and analysed distributed consensus and formation control algorithms for multi-vehicle systems, from theory through to flight experiments on multirotors.
• Designed, procured and assembled custom quadrotors to meet research requirements: hardware selection, PX4 integration, 3D printing, thrust testing, PID and EKF tuning.
• Set up an indoor flight arena with a motion capture system, so students and researchers could test and validate algorithms on multirotors.
• Prepared two interfaces for quadrotor control, one using Simulink and one using ROS and Python, for fast implementation and testing of control algorithms.
• Published nine peer-reviewed papers, four in journals and five at international conferences.

Researcher, Quadrotor Control and Integration

Jul 2018 – Sep 2018 Short

• Integrated the PX4 autopilot and onboard computers into DJI quadrotors, enabling execution of project software and real-time remote monitoring.
• Tested and validated control algorithms for target tracking using a gimbal camera.

PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Feb 2021 – Jan 2026

Advisors: Pedro Batista and Rita Cunha

• Pass with Distinction and Honour
• Coursework grade: 20/20
• Thesis: Decentralized Consensus-Based Formation Control of Autonomous Vehicles, submitted March 2025 and defended January 2026.
• Graduate school: EECI International Graduate School on Control, 2022, a one-week module at Paris-Saclay on equivariant systems and observer design for autonomous systems.

MSc in Aerospace Engineering

Sep 2017 – Nov 2019 2 thesis awards

• Final grade: 18/20, for the integrated BSc and MSc
• Specialisation: Major in Avionics, Minor in Systems and Control
• Thesis: Distributed Formation Control of Double-Integrator Vehicles in the Presence of Unknown Constant Disturbances, graded 20/20.

BSc in Engineering Sciences (Aerospace Engineering)

Sep 2014 – Jul 2017

• First cycle of the integrated master's in Aerospace Engineering.

Organiser and coordinator

May 2025 – now

• Co-organising an international student UAV competition: event design, technical rules, logistics and operations.

Laboratory teaching, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sep 2021 – Feb 2022 Short Teaching excellence

• Taught the lab classes of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for a semester: modelling, motion estimation and motion control of a small quadrotor.
• Connected the lab's motion capture system to the students' Simulink kit, so their controllers could fly the quadrotor on precise position and attitude data.
• Helped fix problems in the student kit: sensor message decoding, and a software conflict that crashed the lab computers.
• Reviewed lab handouts and exam questions, and marked student reports.
• Awarded the Certificate of Teaching Excellence 2021/2022, based on student surveys.

Laboratory teaching, Control of Cyber-Physical Systems

Sep 2021 – Nov 2021 Short

• Taught the lab classes of Control of Cyber-Physical Systems for a quarter: sensor calibration, plant model identification and controller design.
• Helped plan the classes and the assessment with the other lab staff, and built a working example to show students the goal of the lab.
• Marked student reports, agreed the marks with the other lab staff, and supervised the first exam.

Board Member as Project Manager

2018/2019

• Communication between project teams, resource allocation, and keeping schedules aligned across concurrent projects.

Vice President

2017/2018

• Elected to the board. Partner companies and organisations, events, fundraising and finances, and a revision of the statutes.
• The association grew from around 35 to around 120 members.

Team Leader of the Test Plane project

2017/2018

• Led a team through the design and construction of a UAV, while mentoring new members for the following year's Air Cargo Challenge.

Collaborator

2016/2017

• Member of the Air Cargo Challenge 2017 competition team, working on a payload-optimised aircraft.
• Helped organise Semana Aeroespacial, and presented introductory courses on aeromodelling and model rocketry.