CSIC Team won the Marc Esteva Vivanco award

ARISE project partner CSIC, through its Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics team, has been awarded the prestigious Marc Esteva Vivanco award for the best PhD thesis by the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence (ACIA). The award was presented during the 27th International Congress of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence (CCIA 2025), held at the Felix Hotel in Valls (Tarragona, Spain) on October 17.

The winning thesis, authored by Alberto Olivares Alarcos (part of CSIC’s team) and entitled ‘Foundations of ontology-based explainable robots’, was recognised for its quality and research relevance. The award ceremony was attended by his supervisors, Dr. Guillem Alenyà and Dr. Sergi Foix.

During the ceremony, Alberto delivered a short presentation showcasing his work and highlighting how it is being extended within the ARISE project  (gallery of images). His talk guided the audience through their research journey focused on the use of ontologies as the integrative framework for the construction of robot explanations, particularly in interactive human-robot settings. This approach combines solid theoretical work in applied ontology and explanation algorithms with its validation in real scenarios of human-robot interaction. 

Beyond its academic impact, the research has also contributed directly to the industrial field, supporting the development of new international robotics standards such as IEEE 1872.2-2021 and IEEE P1872.3.

This awarded work aligns with the objectives of the ARISE project.

The research developed in the thesis is currently being extended to long-term human-robot collaboration scenarios in industrial environments, in line with the European Green Deal. These include applications in low-water hydroponic lettuce plantations and solar panel fields.

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