Josep Maria Porta Pleite

Josep Maria Porta Pleite is an Associate Researcher at the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). He leads the Kinematics and Robot Design (KRD) research group and has been actively contributing to robotics and computational kinematics since 2007. His work bridges theoretical algorithm development and practical applications in robotics, molecular biology, and environmental toxicology.

Porta’s research spans motion planning, robot kinematics, SLAM, and planning under uncertainty. He has made significant contributions to solving complex kinematic problems in closed-chain systems and molecular conformational spaces. His work often involves developing efficient algorithms and open-source software tools such as the CuikSuite, Cuik-KDtree, and Pose SLAM, which are widely used in robotics research.

His recent publications (2019–2025) reveal a strong trend toward interdisciplinary applications, particularly in zebrafish behavioral analysis and neurotoxicology, where computational methods are applied to assess environmental contaminants. He also continues to advance core robotics problems, including trajectory optimization, hand-eye calibration, and closed-form solutions in rotation geometry. His work appears in top-tier journals such as IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Mechanism and Machine Theory, and Science of the Total Environment.

Porta has served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Robotics (2015–2018) and has supervised numerous students and collaborators. He has led long-term software development efforts and secured research funding through national and European projects.

Scientific Contributions:

• Lead developer of the CuikSuite for motion analysis of closed-chain systems.
• Coordinator of the KRD research group since 2011.
• Contributor to ambient intelligence and robot localization during his postdoc at the University of Amsterdam.

He advises multiple students in robotics, computer vision, and biomedical applications, and his team develops tools for path planning, singularity analysis, grasp optimization, and molecular modeling. There is no indication of part-time status, retirement, or former affiliation.