QUT - Academic profiles - Dr Juan Sandino Mora

Dr Sandino is a research engineer with a passion for developing drone-based remote sensing solutions to address some of the biggest Australia's environmental and surveillance needs, especially in precision agriculture, biosecurity, Australia's and Antarctica's environmental monitoring, and automated systems for search and rescue. His primary interests comprise autonomous small UAV decision-making, machine learning and computer vision for UAV remote sensing, with a focus on hyperspectral and high-resolution image processing. Dr Sandino has over five years of experience in projects involving hyperspectral and high‑resolution image processing from airborne UAV data in areas such as biosecurity and environment monitoring. He has worked for research projects in biosecurity, environment monitoring and time-critical applications such as land SAR to find lost people in collapsed buildings and bushlands.

j.sandino@qut.edu.au

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QUT alumni

Centre for Robotics

Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future

Personal details

Positions

Research Fellow in Remote Sensing
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Electrical Engineering & Robotics

Keywords

drones, decision making under uncertainty, environmental monitoring, biosecurity, precision agriculture, hyperspectral image processing, onboard drone object detection, embedded systems, computer vision

Research field

Artificial intelligence, Other engineering, Aerospace engineering

Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology)
BEng (Mechatronics) (Other)

Publications

Research outputs by year

Book
Chapter in Book / Report / Conference Proceeding
Contribution to a Journal
Thesis

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1 new publication in 2015

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3 new publications in 2016

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2 new publications in 2017

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5 new publications in 2018

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2 new publications in 2020

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1 new publication in 2021

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10 new publications in 2022

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3 new publications in 2023

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3 new publications in 2024

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2 new publications in 2025201520162017201820202021202220232024202502468102015201620172018202020212022202320242025

Sandino, J., Maire, F., Caccetta, P., Sanderson, C. & Gonzalez, L. (2021). Drone-Based Autonomous Motion Planning System for Outdoor Environments under Object Detection Uncertainty. Remote Sensing, 13(21). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/225962
Vanegas Alvarez, F., Maire, F., Caccetta, P., Sanderson, C., Gonzalez, L. & Sandino, J. (2020). UAV framework for autonomous onboard navigation and people/object detection in cluttered indoor environments. Remote Sensing, 12(20). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/205546
Sandino , J., Vanegas, F., Gonzalez, F. & Maire, F. (2020). Autonomous UAV navigation for active perception of targets in uncertain and cluttered environments. Proceedings of 2020 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 1–12. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/200148
Sandino Mora, J., Pegg, G., Gonzalez, F. & Smith, G. (2018). Aerial mapping of forests affected by pathogens using UAVs, hyperspectral sensors, and artificial intelligence. Sensors, 18(4), 1–17. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/223634
Sandino Mora, J., Gonzalez, F., Mengersen, K. & Gaston, K. (2018). UAVs and machine learning revolutionising invasive grass and vegetation surveys in remote arid lands. Sensors, 18(2), 1–13. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/223456

QUT ePrints

For more publications by Juan, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).

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Filter publications:

2025

Lockhart, K., Sandino, J., Amarasingam, N., Hann, R., Bollard, B. & Gonzalez, F. (2025). Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Real-Time Vegetation Monitoring in Antarctica: A Review. Remote Sensing, 17(2). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/255234
Amarasingam, N., Powell, K., Sandino, J., Bratanov, D., Ashan Salgadoe, A. S. & Gonzalez, F. (2025). Mapping of insect pest infestation for precision agriculture: A UAV-based multispectral imaging and deep learning techniques. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Article 104413, 137. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/255886

2024

Raniga, D., Amarasingam, N., Sandino, J., Doshi, A., Barthelemy, J., Randall, K., Robinson, S. A., Gonzalez, L. F. & Bollard, B. (2024). Monitoring of Antarctica's Fragile Vegetation Using Drone-Based Remote Sensing, Multispectral Imagery and AI. Sensors, Article 1063, 24(4). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/246328
Amarasingam, N., Kelly, J. E., Sandino, J., Hamilton, M., Gonzalez, L. F., Dehaan, R. L., Zheng, L. & Cherry, H. (2024). Bitou bush detection and mapping using UAV-based multispectral and hyperspectral imagery and artificial intelligence. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, Article 101151, 34. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/247899
Debnath, D., Vanegas Alvarez, F., Sandino, J., Hawary, A. F. & Gonzalez, L. F. (2024). A Review of UAV Path-Planning Algorithms and Obstacle Avoidance Methods for Remote Sensing Applications. Remote Sensing, 16(21). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/253333

2023

Amarasingam, N., Hamilton, M., Kelly, J. E., Zheng, L., Sandino, J., Gonzalez, F., Dehaan, R. L. & Cherry, H. (2023). Autonomous Detection of Mouse-Ear Hawkweed Using Drones, Multispectral Imagery and Supervised Machine Learning. Remote Sensing, Article 1633, 15(6). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239294
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, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/240525
Sandino, J., Bollard, B., Doshi, A., Randall, K., Barthelemy, J., Robinson, S. A. & Gonzalez, F. (2023). A Green Fingerprint of Antarctica: Drones, Hyperspectral Imaging, and Machine Learning for Moss and Lichen Classification. Remote Sensing, Article 5658, 15(24). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/245097

2022

Mandel, N., Sandino, J., Galvez Serna, J., Vanegas Alvarez, F., Milford, M. & Gonzalez, L. F. (2022). Resolution-adaptive Quadtrees for Semantic Segmentation Mapping in UAV Applications. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), 1–17. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/226554
Galvez-Serna, J., Mandel, N., Sandino, J., Vanegas Alvarez, F., Ly, N., Flannery, D. & Gonzalez, L. F. (2022). Real-time Segmentation of Desiccation Cracks onboard UAVs for Planetary Exploration. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), 1–12. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/226553
Sandino, J., Caccetta, P., Sanderson, C., Maire, F. & Gonzalez, L. F. (2022). Reducing Object Detection Uncertainty from RGB and Thermal Data for UAV Outdoor Surveillance. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), 1–16. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/226961
Sandino, J., Galvez-Serna, J., Mandel, N., Vanegas Alvarez, F. & Gonzalez, L. F. (2022). Autonomous Mapping of Desiccation Cracks via a Probabilistic-based Motion Planner Onboard UAVs. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), 1–14. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/226787
Sandino Mora, J. D. (2022). Autonomous decision-making for UAVs operating under environmental and object detection uncertainty.
Luxton, C., Sandino, J., Vanegas Alvarez, F. & Gonzalez, L. F. (2022). Design and Flight Testing of a Two DOF Decoupled Pantograph Aerial Manipulator for Commercial UAVs. Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 1–10. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/234276
Ng, M., Vanegas Alvarez, F., Morton, K., Sandino, J. & Gonzalez, L. F. (2022). Design and Flight Test of an Aerial Manipulator for Applications in GPS-Denied Environments. Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 20–29. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/234552

A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/j.sandino

Dr Juan Sandino Mora

Biography

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