Dr. Francesco Maurelli is a Professor in Marine Systems and Robotics at Constructor University, in Bremen (Germany, EU), where he also serves as Program Chair for the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Program. He has obtained his PhD at the Oceans Sytems Lab, Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, Scotland) with a thesis on intelligent AUV localisation. He has been Scientific Manager at Technical University of Munich (Germany, EU) where he lead European-wide initiatives to support moving robotics technology from the lab to the market. After a research stay at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA), as a Marie Curie Fellow, he has accepted a faculty position in Jacobs University Bremen, currently Constructor University. Dr. Maurelli’s research interests are focused on persistent autonomy for marine robotics, perception, autonomous navigation, intelligent decision making, sensor data processing and fault management. When not busy with robots or students, he likes to speak the international language Esperanto and play the piano.