Riccardo Palamà

Ico_CTTC
Riccardo Palama | CTTC

Geomatics (GM)

Phd , Researcher

Phone: +34 93 645 29 00

Riccardo Palamà received the Bachelor (2008) and Master (2011) degrees in Telecommunication Engineering and the PhD in Information Engineering (2016) from the University of Pisa, Italy. In the period 2016-2019 he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Sensors, Systems and Circuits Group of the University College London. In June 2019, he joined the Division of Geomatics of the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, where he is currently working as a Researcher.

Research

His research activity is included in two of the research lines of the Remote Sensing Department of the Geomatics Division, i.e. satellite and terrestrial radar remote sensing techniques. He is contributing to these research lines by leading research activities and seeking external collaborations. His research topics are summarized in the following.

(i) Development of signal and data processing tools for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Differential Interferometry, applied to both satellite-borne and ground-based radar data, focusing on geophysical applications. To this aim, he is currently developing an automatic version of the Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) processing chain, with a particular focus on devising algorithms to correct the atmospheric disturbance affecting PSI data, on data post-processing and data-quality assessment.
(ii) Analysis of interferometric ground-based SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data to monitor landslides in Barbera de la Conca and in the Asturias region (Spain).
(iii) Analysis of the radar scattering from the sea surface and of the radar micro-Doppler signatures of rotor-blade drones and wind turbines, by means of time-frequency analysis and machine learning classification techniques.
(iv) Development and performance evaluation of Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) target detection algorithms for monostatic and multi-channel radars in non-Gaussian disturbance and implementation of data-fusion techniques.
(v) Development of algorithms for radar waveform design, using convex optimisation algorithms to adapt the radar transmit waveforms to the dynamically changing radar scene and enabling the coexistence between radar and communications systems.

Experimental work  

(i) Testing and validation of a novel prototype of Real Aperture Radar, working at 24 GHz, with the objective of measuring the vibration frequencies of critical infrastructures.
(ii) Development and testing of a multi-static multi-band netted radar system, NeXtRAD, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cape Town and University College London. Development of signal and data processing algorithms to analyse both online and offline the data recorded by the system.
(iii) Participation to experimental campaigns using ground-based radars to measure terrain deformation (CTTC GB-SAR), radar scattering from the sea surface, boats, UAVs and wind turbines.

Research Projects

During his career, he has participated to several international both in the proposal preparation stage and in the project execution. Since January 2020, he has been the Technical Manager of the Cuprum project (funded by the Olsztyn University), involving the development of automatic analysis tools to monitor para-seismic events due to mining activity, based on the fusion of PSI and GNSS data. He has been participating into the H2020 Savemedcoast2 project, analysing PSI and GNSS data to monitor terrain subsidence on coastal areas around the Mediterranean Sea. In the period 2017-2019 he participated to the NeXtRAD project (funded by the Office of Naval Research – Global USA), for the development of a multi-static multiband netted radar, for which he was leading the work package involving data analysis and waveform design. National research projects include: (i) “Beyond the Ambiguity Function” (technical leader, 01/2016 – 08/2016, funded by DSTL UK), (ii) “Measurement and modelling of radar signatures of large wind turbines “ (WP leader, 04/2017-08/2017). (iii) “UDRC Signal Sensing, Design and Delivery for Electronic Warfare” (02/2019-03/2019, funded by EPSRC UK and DSTL UK)  (iv) GBASTUR, Vigor (participant to measurement campaigns and data analysis, 2020). He has contributed (2018-2019) as nominated researcher to writing the proposal (shortlisted in the top three list but not successful) for the research program “UDRC Phase 3 – Signal Processing in the Information Age” (funders: EPSRC UK and DSTL UK).

IPR contributions

He has participated to the technology transfer to the spin-off of CTTC called Geokinesia, reviewing and improving one of the technologies that have been transferred from the CTTC Remote Sensing Department.

Dissemination

He is regular author of peer-reviewed journal papers and internal conference proceedings in the field of radar signal processing, collaborating with international research centers and universities. He is co-author of two book chapters together with Prof Hugh Griffiths (University College London): “Bistatic clutter modelling” and “Clutter diversity”, in “Novel Radar Techniques and Applications”, R.Klemm,U.Nickel,C.H. Gierull,P.Lombardo,H.Griffiths,W.Koch eds., IET publishing, 2017.

Best Paper Award. F.Fioranelli, J.Patel, C.Horne, R.Palamà, H.Griffiths, L.Danoon, A.Brown, “Experimental measurements of radar signatures of large wind turbine”, IET Radar Coonference, Nanjing, 2018

Top-5 Shortlist for the Best Poster Award. R.Palamà, F.Fioranelli, M.Ritchie, M.Inggs, S.Lewis, H.Griffiths, Measurements of Multistatic X&L Band Radar Signatures of UAVs, IEEE International Radar Conference, Toulon, France, 30 Sep – 04 Oct 2019

His Google Scholar page is available at https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=it&user=jdmyxf0AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

He served as a member of the Scientific Committee for the International Workshop on Compressed Sensing Theory and its Application to Radar, Sonar and Remote Sensing (Pisa, June 2015), of the Organizing Committee for the Vectors in Radar Technology Workshop (London, November 2017). Since 2016, he has been regularly serving as technical review committee member for the IEEE Radar Conference and as reviewer for several journals in his field (IEEE TAES & TGRS, IET RSN, Elsevier Signal Processing ,ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing). He is member of the IEEE and of the IEEE Sensors Council.

Communication

During his research career, he has been actively communicating his research to a wider audience of scientific and industrial stakeholders. In the period 2016-2019, he participated to the annual workshop between university and industry working in radar-related research in the United Kingdom. In August-December 2018 he participated to a series of meetings with the medical research community to discuss the feasibility of using small radars to diagnose and monitor the status of neurological diseases in patients affected.

Teaching activity

2015 – 2018. Teaching Assistant for the courses First Year Electronics, Electromagnetic Theory, Radar Systems, University College London.

2013 – 2015. Teaching Assistant for the courses Estimation and Detection Theory, Analysis and Simulation of Random Signals, Signals and Systems, Telecommunication Engineering and Space Engineering, University of Pisa.

He advised 2 MSc and 1 PhD projects.

 

 

 

 

Stability Monitoring of Bridges via Dual Frequency Terrestrial Radar Measurements
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering. Vol 254 LNCE. pp. 876-884 January 2023.
Palamà R., Luzi G., Barros-González B., Riveiro-Rodríguez B., Breschi M.
10.1007/978-3-031-07258-1_88 Google Scholar
Radargrammetry DEM Generation Using High-Resolution SAR Imagery Over La Palma During the 2021 Cumbre Vieja Volcanic Eruption
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS. Vol 20. January 2023.
Palama R., Monserrat O., Crippa B., Crosetto M., Bru G., Ezquerro P., Bejar-Pizarro M.
10.1109/LGRS.2023.3238182 Google Scholar
Analysis of SAR-derived products to support emergency management during volcanic crisis: La Palma case study
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT. Vol 295. January 2023.
Ezquerro P., Bru G., Galindo I., Monserrat O., García-Davalillo J.C., Sánchez N., Montoya I., Palamà R., Mateos R.M., Pérez-López R., González-Alonso E., Grandin R., Guardiola-Albert C., López-Vinielles J., Fernández-Merodo J.A., Herrera G., Béjar-Pizarro M.
10.1016/j.rse.2023.113668 Google Scholar
Automatic Ground Deformation Detection from European Ground Motion Service Products
International Geoscience And Remote Sensing Symposium (igarss). Vol 2023-July. pp. 8190-8193 January 2023.
Palama R., Cuevas-Gonzalez M., Barra A., Gao Q., Shahbazi S., Navarro J.A., Monserrat O., Crosetto M.
10.1109/IGARSS52108.2023.10281998 Google Scholar
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