Abel Mendes

I am responsible for coordinating the innovation and product development activities, as well as project engineer in customer development projects. Performing the following roles: ♦ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (controlling budget, schedule, human resources and materials, and periodic reporting); ♦ 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁:   - Identification of user needs (mostly focused on market studies and direct interaction with customers);   - Capturing and specification of product requirements;   - System architecture design;   - CE marking (analysis of applicable standards and tailoring to product requirements);   - Vehicle navigation based in SLAM and RTK GPS technologies;   - Communication systems (RS422/485, CANBus/CANOpen, Profinet, Profisafe, Wifi, Lora). ♦ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿:   - PLC programming (Siemens, IFM, Rockwell) in Ladder, Siemens SCL, and CoDeSys;   - Design and development of safety architectures for AGVs (Sick and Siemens based). Currently, I have been leading the development of two AGVs for indoor and outdoor applications, with natural navigation (real-time mapping, the working environment, and automatic navigation).

It is a predominantly high-level technology role, in which I was mainly responsible for: ♦ Definition of research and development approach to potentiate the technological background of the company, namely focusing on the development of highly innovative and technologically disruptive products, on the aeronautics, space and industry markets; ♦ Technical coordination of the interaction between the functional departments of Active Space Technologies (Aerospace, aeronautics, industry, innovation, and production); ♦ Analysis and selection of the most suitable technologies to enhance the capabilities of the company, in straight alignment with the board strategy. Simultaneously to these technical responsibilities, I was also deeply involved in: ♦ Management of crises that go beyond projects framework; ♦ Integration of a team for the development of a collaborators performance appraisal model, with the responsibility for the technical component; ♦ Integration of a team for the development of a collaborators career model, supported by the collaborators' performance appraisal; ♦ Overall organization:   - Definition of the internal communication model and company knowledge database (supported by a Wiki online tool);   - Definition and coordination of an automatic solution for full manufacturing traceability control (from purchasing, production, testing, delivery, and after-sales) based in an ERP (Primavera). During this period, I had a crucial influence and responsibility on the conceptualization and development of ActiveONE AGV, which due to their unique characteristics (low profile, high payload capacity, central differential traction), have had great success along with several industrial sectors.

I was coordinator of the systems and control area, comprising the following technical and management activities: ♦ 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁:   - Definition of short, medium and long term strategy for the area, following the high-level administration guidelines;   - Selection and hiring human resources;   - Integration of the management board of Active Space Technologies;   - Integration of the team for the implementation of ISO9001 and EN9100 certification (being responsible for the “Development” process);   - Collaborators performance appraisal;   - Reporting to the administration. ♦ 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁:   - Identification and evaluation of leads and opportunities, nationally and at European level, focusing on complex electromechanical systems, comprising electronics, software, mechanics and thermal control;   - Main responsible for the preparation of bidding proposals for aerospace (ESA), aeronautics (Cleansky program of FP7 and H2020 frameworks), and national R&D programs (QREN and Portugal2020), being accountable for technical, financial and management components. ♦ 𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀:   - 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵: Responsible for controlling human and material resources, budget, plan, and reporting;   - 𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵: Responsible for systems specification, and definition of systems architecture (including mechanics, electronics, firmware, and software areas);   - 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳: Development of electronics using Altium Designer and LtSpice simulation, development of firmware using C, C++ (PIC, ESP32,…), and LabVIEW languages.

I performed the role of project engineer on several projects, such as: ♦ Gathergy was an R&D project which consisted of the development of an automatic thermal control system for a garment. This project encloses technologies from thermal distribution through forced fluid circulation, development of control, power and battery management electronics, and development of firmware for command and control; ♦ ESATAN Test Suite, an ESA contract, consisted of the development of a graphical testing tool to perform automatic tests to the software ESATAN under development at ESA. All the testing platform was developed in Python, allowing for simple testing parameterization, execution, and graphical presentation of results.

I was outsourced by Active Space Technologies to Critical Software, for working as project engineer in two projects: ♦ Software verification for Hershel and Planck satellites:   - Development of unit tests (full coverage, testing minimum, maximum, and nominal values) to verify the embedded software for the command and control of the two satellites (using Cantata++ testing tool). ♦ Design of a safety and redundant communication system for an autonomous bus, in the scope of Phileas project:   - Development of safety and redundant mechanisms to convert the non-safety CANOpen bus on a safety communications system;   - Risk analysis and development of a 2 out of 3 (2oo3) redundant architecture to meet the highest safety level (SIL4), of the standard IEC61508.

I performed the role of electronics engineer in a project that consisted of developing a distributed control system for automatic handling of the complete manufacturing processes of animal food production. The system was based on microcontrollers technology (PIC18F) and CANBus communications. The project was broken down into: ♦ Development of command and control electronics for the remote units; ♦ Development of embedded software for the remote units; ♦ Development of an HMI over Linux platform, which allowed the operator to monitor the status of the complete system, as well as creation of new production formulas.