Luis Miguel Díaz Pichardo
Luis Miguel Díaz Pichardo
PhD Researcher in Robotics and Mechatronics
My current PhD research focuses on autonomous navigation for unmanned ground vehicles operating in unknown, unstructured and difficult terrain.
I work across terrain perception, 2.5D mapping, planning and sampling-based predictive control, while remaining broadly interested in robotics, autonomous systems and related engineering problems.
LATEST WORK
Accepted at IROS 2026
IROS 2026 · ACCEPTED
Observation-Conditioned Rollout Allocation for Sampling Model Predictive Control on Myopic Egocentric Elevation Maps
This work studies how to allocate predictive-control rollouts according to the robot’s current local observation. The objective is to use a limited sampling budget more effectively while navigating with only a myopic 2.5D elevation map.
CURRENT PHD RESEARCH
Terrain representation
Elevation, slope, roughness, clearance, unknown space and vehicle-footprint constraints represented in local and global terrain maps.
Planning and guidance
Terrain-aware global routes, local guidance and reactive decisions for partially observable environments.
Predictive control
Real-time MPPI methods that evaluate feasible motion while preserving explicit control and safety constraints.
Real-robot deployment
ROS 2 pipelines integrating RGB-D cameras, LiDAR, embedded GPU computation and field experiments.
Research developed from simulation to real robots
My PhD currently investigates how UGVs can navigate autonomously in unknown outdoor terrain, with particular interest in field and search-and-rescue robotics.