Dr Fernando Vanegas Alvarez
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Electrical Engineering & Robotics
Biography
Fernando Vanegas is a Lecturer at the School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics of the Queensland University of Technology. He holds a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Halmstad University and a PhD in Aerial Robotics from QUT. His research focuses on Drone Autonomy and Drone-based remote sensing. He has led the development of frameworks for planning UAV missions in GNSS-denied environments using reinforcement learning and optimal sequential decision-making. His current research interests include motion planning for UAV exploration in GPS-denied and cluttered environments, POMDP, SLAM and Visual Odometry, and AI-assisted Remote SensingPersonal details
Positions
- Research Fellow
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Electrical Engineering & Robotics
Research field
Aerospace engineering, Artificial intelligence, Control engineering, mechatronics and robotics
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
Teaching
EGH419 Advanced Design and Entrepreneurship
EGH455 Advanced Systems Design
EGB349 Systems Engineering and Design Project
EGH450 Advanced Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Publications
Research outputs by year
- Amarasingam, N., Vanegas, F., Hele, M., Warfield, A. & Gonzalez, F. (2024). Integrating Artificial Intelligence and UAV-Acquired Multispectral Imagery for the Mapping of Invasive Plant Species in Complex Natural Environments. Remote Sensing, 16(9), Article 1582. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/248651
- Debnath, D., Vanegas, F., Boiteau, S. & Gonzalez, F. (2024). An Integrated Geometric Obstacle Avoidance and Genetic Algorithm TSP Model for UAV Path Planning. Drones, 8(7), Article 302. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/251261
- Debnath, D., Vanegas Alvarez, F., Sandino, J., Hawary, A. & Gonzalez, L. (2024). A Review of UAV Path-Planning Algorithms and Obstacle Avoidance Methods for Remote Sensing Applications. Remote Sensing, 16(21), Article 4019. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/253333
- Boiteau, S., Vanegas, F. & Gonzalez, F. (2024). Framework for Autonomous UAV Navigation and Target Detection in Global-Navigation-Satellite-System-Denied and Visually Degraded Environments. Remote Sensing, 16(3), Article 471. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/247033
- Boiteau, S., Vanegas, F. & Gonzalez, F. (2024). A Comprehensive Framework for UAV-Based Autonomous Target Finding in Environments with Limited Global Navigation Satellite Systems and Reduced Visibility. Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 160–167. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/250707
- Vanegas Alvarez, F., Bratanov, D., Powell, K., Weiss, J. & Gonzalez, F. (2018). A novel methodology for improving plant pest surveillance in vineyards and crops using UAV-based hyperspectral and spatial data. Sensors, 18(1), 1–21. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/223581
- Boiteau, S., Vanegas, F., Sandino, J., Gonzalez, F. & Galvez-Serna, J. (2023). Autonomous UAV Navigation for Target Detection in Visually Degraded and GPS Denied Environments. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE Aerospace Conference. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/240525
- Amarasingam, N., Hele, M., Vanegas Alvarez, F., Warfield, A., Trotter, P., Burgos Granados, R. & Gonzalez, L. (2023). Broad-Leaved Pepper and Pandanus Classification and Mapping Using Drone Imagery - Proof of Concept Trial. Proceedings of the 2nd Pest Animal and Weed Symposium 2023 (PAWS 2023), 196–208. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/245476
- Sandino, J., Vanegas Alvarez, F., Maire, F., Caccetta, P., Sanderson, C. & Gonzalez, L. (2020). UAV framework for autonomous onboard navigation and people/object detection in cluttered indoor environments. Remote Sensing, 12(20), Article 3386. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/205546
- Walker, V., Vanegas, F. & Gonzalez, F. (2023). Multi-UAV Mapping and Target Finding in Large, Complex, Partially Observable Environments. Remote Sensing, 15(15), Article 3802. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/242489
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Fernando, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/f.vanegasalvarez
Supervision
Looking for a postgraduate research supervisor?
I am currently accepting research students for Honours, Masters and PhD study.
You can browse existing student topics offered by QUT or propose your own topic.
Current supervisions
- A Comprehensive Framework for Optimal Multi-UAV Path Planning, Obstacle Avoidance and Target Localisation
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Felipe Gonzalez - Development of a Continuum Arm Aerial Manipulation System (CAAMS)
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Felipe Gonzalez, Dr Krishna Manaswi Digumarti
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Enhancing UAV Autonomy: Decision Making under Uncertainty for Object Searching in GNSS-Denied and Low Visibility Environments (2025)
- Autonomous mission planning and biosignatures image detection for planetary exploration with drones (2024)
- Enabling multi-agent UAV Search and target-finding in partially observable environments (2023)
Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.