Jaime Boal obtained the degrees of Industrial Engineer (major in Electronics), M.Sc. in Research in Engineering Systems Modeling, and PhD from Comillas Pontifical University in 2010, 2012, and 2014, respectively. After finishing his PhD, he joined the Electronics, Control and Communications Department, where he currently teaches courses on Electronic Systems and Autonomous Mobile Robots. Since June 2019 he is also the Coordinator of the M.Eng. in Intelligent Industry.
He combines his teaching duties with research projects at the Institute for Research in Technology (IIT), mainly on topics related to robotics, artificial intelligence applications, and energy efficiency. As a result of his work on energy efficiency at the IIT, in May 2018 he co-founded a spin-off called Stemy Energy, in which he served as CTO until June 2024.

Areas of interest:

Autonomous mobile robots · Computer vision · Reinforcement learning · Internet of Things (IoT) · Industry 4.0 · Energy efficiency and flexibility

Experience:

Throughout his career he has focused on the tight integration of hardware and software. He has designed and developed electronic control boards and real-time software for embedded systems, connected these devices to cloud servers using IoT protocols with end-to-end encryption and mutual authentication, and implemented applications capable of managing multiple concurrent connections with low latency. He has also worked on the design of platforms based on microservices interconnected through REST APIs.

Skills:

- Languages: Spanish (native), English (C2), French (B1)
- Programming languages: Python, C, C++, SQL, MATLAB, LaTeX
- Operating systems: Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeRTOS
- Cloud computing: Google Cloud
- Frameworks and libraries: TensorFlow, OpenCV, ROS, ORY
- DevOps tools: Git, Docker
- Software: CoppeliaSim, TIA Portal
- Hardware: Raspberry Pi, Google Coral, dsPIC, Arduino, Particle, ESP32, Intel RealSense cameras

Current research interests:

Computer vision and reinforcement learning applied to industrial manipulators and mobile robots, Graph neural networks (GNN) generation, Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), IoT energy efficiency platforms

Highlighted Publications

L. Güitta-López, L. Güitta-López, J. Boal, A.J. López López, "Sim-to-real transfer via a Style-Identified Cycle Consistent Generative Adversarial Network: Zero-shot deployment on robotic manipulators through visual domain adaptation", Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 159, nº. Part A, pp. 111510, November 2025. [Online: July 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.engappai.2025.111510
JCR-JIF: 9,000 Q1 (2025); - SJR: 1,782 Q1 (2025);
F. Martín, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, C. Becker Robles, R. Rodríguez-Vilches, "Technical deployment of aggregator business models", Heliyon, Vol. 10, nº. 9, pp. e30101, May 2024. [Online: April 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30101
JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024); - SJR: 0,644 Q1 (2024);
M. Martín Lopo, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "A literature review of IoT energy platforms aimed at end users", Computer Networks, Vol. 171, pp. 107101, April 2020. [Online: January 2020] doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107101
JCR-JIF: 4,474 Q1 (2020); 4,700 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,798 Q1 (2020); 1,144 Q1 (2025)
I. Fernández, C. Calvillo, A. Sánchez, J. Boal, "Capacity fade and aging models for electric batteries and optimal charging strategy for electric vehicles", Energy, Vol. 60, pp. 35 - 43, October 2013. [Online: September 2013] doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2013.07.068
JCR-JIF: 4,159 Q1 (2013); 10,100 Q1 (2025) - SJR: Q1 (2013); 2,060 Q1 (2025)
L. Güitta-López, V. Suriani, J. Boal, A.J. López López, D. Nardi, "Boosting Deep Reinforcement Learning with Semantic Knowledge for Robotic Manipulators", Robotics, Vol. 14, nº. 7, pp. 86, July 2025. [Online: June 2025] doi: 10.3390/robotics14070086
JCR-JIF: 3,300 Q2 (2024) - SJR: 0,737 Q1 (2025); 0,737 Q1 (2025)

show 5 highlighted publications

Journal Publications

I. de Rodrigo, A.J. López López, J. Boal, "VERSE: Visual Embedding Reduction and Space Exploration - Latent-space clustering for improving document understanding", Pattern Recognition, Vol. 180, nº. Part D, pp. 114448, December 2026. [Online: July 2026] doi: 10.1016/j.patcog.2026.114448
JCR-JIF: 9,100 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 2,147 Q1 (2025)
L. Güitta-López, J. Boal, A.J. López López, "Evaluating the Perception, Understanding, and Forgetting of Progressive Neural Networks: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis", AI, Vol. 7, nº. 4, pp. 120, April 2026. [Online: March 2026] doi: 10.3390/ai7040120
JCR-JIF: 6,500 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 1,124 Q1 (2025)
I. de Rodrigo, A. Sánchez-Cuadrado, J. Boal, A.J. López López, "The MERIT Dataset: Modelling and efficiently rendering interpretable transcripts", Pattern Recognition, Vol. 172, nº. Part B, pp. 112502, April 2026. [Online: September 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.patcog.2025.112502
JCR-JIF: 9,100 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 2,147 Q1 (2025)
L. Güitta-López, L. Güitta-López, J. Boal, A.J. López López, "Sim-to-real transfer via a Style-Identified Cycle Consistent Generative Adversarial Network: Zero-shot deployment on robotic manipulators through visual domain adaptation", Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 159, nº. Part A, pp. 111510, November 2025. [Online: July 2025] doi: 10.1016/j.engappai.2025.111510
JCR-JIF: 9,000 Q1 (2025); - SJR: 1,782 Q1 (2025);
L. Güitta-López, V. Suriani, J. Boal, A.J. López López, D. Nardi, "Boosting Deep Reinforcement Learning with Semantic Knowledge for Robotic Manipulators", Robotics, Vol. 14, nº. 7, pp. 86, July 2025. [Online: June 2025] doi: 10.3390/robotics14070086
JCR-JIF: 3,300 Q2 (2024) - SJR: 0,737 Q1 (2025); 0,737 Q1 (2025)
F. Martín, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, C. Becker Robles, R. Rodríguez-Vilches, "Technical deployment of aggregator business models", Heliyon, Vol. 10, nº. 9, pp. e30101, May 2024. [Online: April 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30101
JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024); - SJR: 0,644 Q1 (2024);
L. Güitta-López, J. Boal, A.J. López López, "Learning more with the same effort: how randomization improves the robustness of a robotic deep reinforcement learning agent", Applied Intelligence, Vol. 53, nº. 12, pp. 14903 - 14917, June 2023. [Online: November 2022] doi: 10.1007/s10489-022-04227-3
JCR-JIF: 3,400 Q2 (2023); 3,500 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 1,193 Q2 (2023); 0,889 Q2 (2025)
M. Martín Lopo, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "A literature review of IoT energy platforms aimed at end users", Computer Networks, Vol. 171, pp. 107101, April 2020. [Online: January 2020] doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107101
JCR-JIF: 4,474 Q1 (2020); 4,700 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,798 Q1 (2020); 1,144 Q1 (2025)
M. Martín Lopo, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "Transitioning from a meta-simulator to electrical applications: an architecture", Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, Vol. 94, pp. 177 - 198, July 2019. [Online: February 2019] doi: 10.1016/j.simpat.2019.02.007
JCR-JIF: 2,219 Q2 (2019); 4,600 Q1 (2025) - SJR: 0,609 Q1 (2019); 0,962 Q1 (2025)
J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "Online topological segmentation of visual sequences using the algebraic connectivity of graphs", Robótica, Vol. 34, nº. 10, pp. 2400 - 2413, October 2016. [Online: February 2015] doi: 10.1017/S0263574715000053
JCR-JIF: 1,554 Q4 (2016); 2,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: Q2 (2016); 0,656 Q1 (2025)
J. Boal, A. Sánchez, M. Alvar, "Matching monocular lightweight features using n-gram techniques for topological location identification", Robótica, Vol. 33, nº. 9, pp. 1835 - 1849, November 2015. [Online: May 2014] doi: 10.1017/S0263574714001076
JCR-JIF: 0,824 Q4 (2015); 2,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: 0,656 Q1 (2025)
J. Boal, A. Sánchez, A. Arranz, "Topological simultaneous localization and mapping: a survey", Robótica, Vol. 32, nº. 5, pp. 803 - 821, August 2014. [Online: December 2013] doi: 10.1017/S0263574713001070
JCR-JIF: 0,688 Q4 (2014); 2,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: Q2 (2014); 0,656 Q1 (2025)
I. Fernández, C. Calvillo, A. Sánchez, J. Boal, "Capacity fade and aging models for electric batteries and optimal charging strategy for electric vehicles", Energy, Vol. 60, pp. 35 - 43, October 2013. [Online: September 2013] doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2013.07.068
JCR-JIF: 4,159 Q1 (2013); 10,100 Q1 (2025) - SJR: Q1 (2013); 2,060 Q1 (2025)
J. Boal, A. Arranz, A. Sánchez, "Redefiniendo las ciudades: hacia un futuro más eficiente", Anales de Mecánica y Electricidad, Vol. LXXXVIII, nº. VI, pp. 5 - 10, November 2011.

show 14 journal publications

Projects

show 22 projects

Ph.D. Thesis

Developed:

J. Boal, "Indoor topological SLAM using frontal computer vision", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain, 2014.

Supervised:

L. Güitta-López, "Efficiently transferring deep reinforcement learning experience to industrial assets", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain, 2024.

In progress:

D. Cubillo Llanes, "Sim-to-real hybrid reinforcement learning and optimal control strategies for automous mobile robot coordination", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain.
I. Rodrigo Tobías, "Generating Synthetic Datasets: Towards Bridging the Gap Between Deep Learning and Applications with Limited Data", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain.
Ó. Llorente González, "SCALABLE POST-HOC EXPLAINABLITY FOR GRAPH NEURAL NETWORKS", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain.

show 5 Ph.D. Thesis

Conference Papers

A. Arranz, M. Alvar, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, A. de la Escalera, "Genetic algorithm for stereo correspondence with a novel fitness function and occlusion handling", presented at 8th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications - VISAPP 2013, Barcelona, Spain, 21-24 February 2013. In: VISAPP 2013: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, vol. Vol. 2, pp. 294-299, doi: 10.5220/0004291202940299

show 1 conference papers

International Exchanges

Jun - Sep 2013, Autonomous Systems Laboratory, ETH Zürich. Zurich (Switzerland).

show 1 international exchanges

Invited Conferences and Seminars

Seminar "Gitting to grips with version control (2nd part)". Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2017.
Seminar "Gitting to grips with version control (1st part)". Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2017.

show 2 invited conferences and seminars

External Training Courses

Introduction to image processing for object recognition. Carried out for Enel Green Power España, S.A. Dec/2024-Dec/2024

show 1 external training courses

Media and research dissemination

"6X03 -Engineering with a purpose". Casting the Future. (Nov 2024)

show 1 media and research dissemination

Fellowships and Awards

Director of prizewinning work in "Chair for Smart Industry Prize for the best Final Year Project 2022-23. PFC Supervisor «Training a Virtual Reinforcement Learning Agent for Obstacle Avoidance and Transferring It to a Real Mobile Robot» by J. J. Carrera Fresneda". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2024.
Director of prizewinning work in "Chair for Smart Industry Prize for the best Final Year Project 2021-22. PFC Supervisor «Implementación de algoritmos de navegación en un Turtlebot3» by Francisco Barragán Castro". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2023.
Director of prizewinning work in "Chair for Smart Industry Prize for the best Final Year Project 2020-21. PFC Supervisor «Sistema de picking de palés para un robot industrial equipado con una cámara RGB-D» by Lionel Güitta López". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). May 2022.
Director of prizewinning work in "Chair for Smart Industry Prize for the best Final Year Project 2019-20. PFC Supervisor «Optimización del sistema de visión artificial de un robot industrial para una aplicación de pick and place» by Ignacio Ortiz de Zúñiga Mingot". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Mar 2021.
"Extraordinary Award Best Student 2009-2010". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jan 2011.

show 5 fellowships and awards

Other Activities

Doctoral Defense Committee of "Domínguez Barbero, C. «Modeling and Optimizing Isolated Microgrids Using Reinforcement Learning»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jan 2026.
Doctoral Defense Committee of "Alonso Rivas, E. « Improvements in intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring towards a wireless technology»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jul 2023.
Reviewer in "Robotics and Autonomous Systems". Elsevier Science BV. Amsterdam (Netherlands). Jan 2019 - Today.
Reviewer in "Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems". Springer. Dordrecht (Netherlands). May 2013 - Today.
Reviewer in "Robotica". Cambridge Univ. Press. New York (United States of America). Feb 2013 - Today.

show 5 other activities

Dr. Jaime Boal Martín-Larrauri

Highlighted Publications

F. Martín, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, C. Becker Robles, R. Rodríguez-Vilches, "Technical deployment of aggregator business models", Heliyon, Vol. 10, nº. 9, pp. e30101, May 2024. [Online: April 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30101 JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024); - SJR: 0,644 Q1 (2024);

M. Martín Lopo, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "A literature review of IoT energy platforms aimed at end users", Computer Networks, Vol. 171, pp. 107101, April 2020. [Online: January 2020] doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107101 JCR-JIF: 4,474 Q1 (2020); 4,700 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,798 Q1 (2020); 1,144 Q1 (2025)

Journal Publications

F. Martín, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, C. Becker Robles, R. Rodríguez-Vilches, "Technical deployment of aggregator business models", Heliyon, Vol. 10, nº. 9, pp. e30101, May 2024. [Online: April 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30101 JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024); - SJR: 0,644 Q1 (2024);

M. Martín Lopo, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "A literature review of IoT energy platforms aimed at end users", Computer Networks, Vol. 171, pp. 107101, April 2020. [Online: January 2020] doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107101 JCR-JIF: 4,474 Q1 (2020); 4,700 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,798 Q1 (2020); 1,144 Q1 (2025)

J. Boal, A. Sánchez, A. Arranz, "Topological simultaneous localization and mapping: a survey", Robótica, Vol. 32, nº. 5, pp. 803 - 821, August 2014. [Online: December 2013] doi: 10.1017/S0263574713001070 JCR-JIF: 0,688 Q4 (2014); 2,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: Q2 (2014); 0,656 Q1 (2025)

Projects

Ph.D. Thesis

Developed:

Supervised:

In progress:

D. Cubillo Llanes, "Sim-to-real hybrid reinforcement learning and optimal control strategies for automous mobile robot coordination", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain.

I. Rodrigo Tobías, "Generating Synthetic Datasets: Towards Bridging the Gap Between Deep Learning and Applications with Limited Data", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain.

Ó. Llorente González, "SCALABLE POST-HOC EXPLAINABLITY FOR GRAPH NEURAL NETWORKS", PhD. dissertation, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain.

Conference Papers

International Exchanges

Jun - Sep 2013, Autonomous Systems Laboratory, ETH Zürich. Zurich (Switzerland).

Invited Conferences and Seminars

Seminar "Gitting to grips with version control (2nd part)". Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2017.

Seminar "Gitting to grips with version control (1st part)". Instituto de Investigación Tecnológica. Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2017.

External Training Courses

Media and research dissemination

"6X03 -Engineering with a purpose". Casting the Future. (Nov 2024)

Fellowships and Awards

Director of prizewinning work in "Chair for Smart Industry Prize for the best Final Year Project 2021-22. PFC Supervisor «Implementación de algoritmos de navegación en un Turtlebot3» by Francisco Barragán Castro". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Apr 2023.

Director of prizewinning work in "Chair for Smart Industry Prize for the best Final Year Project 2020-21. PFC Supervisor «Sistema de picking de palés para un robot industrial equipado con una cámara RGB-D» by Lionel Güitta López". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). May 2022.

"Extraordinary Award Best Student 2009-2010". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jan 2011.

Other Activities

Doctoral Defense Committee of "Domínguez Barbero, C. «Modeling and Optimizing Isolated Microgrids Using Reinforcement Learning»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jan 2026.

Doctoral Defense Committee of "Alonso Rivas, E. « Improvements in intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring towards a wireless technology»". Universidad Pontificia Comillas. Madrid (Spain). Jul 2023.

Reviewer in "Robotics and Autonomous Systems". Elsevier Science BV. Amsterdam (Netherlands). Jan 2019 - Today.

Reviewer in "Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems". Springer. Dordrecht (Netherlands). May 2013 - Today.

Reviewer in "Robotica". Cambridge Univ. Press. New York (United States of America). Feb 2013 - Today.

F. Martín, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, C. Becker Robles, R. Rodríguez-Vilches, "Technical deployment of aggregator business models", Heliyon, Vol. 10, nº. 9, pp. e30101, May 2024. [Online: April 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30101
JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024); - SJR: 0,644 Q1 (2024);

M. Martín Lopo, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "A literature review of IoT energy platforms aimed at end users", Computer Networks, Vol. 171, pp. 107101, April 2020. [Online: January 2020] doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107101
JCR-JIF: 4,474 Q1 (2020); 4,700 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,798 Q1 (2020); 1,144 Q1 (2025)

F. Martín, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, C. Becker Robles, R. Rodríguez-Vilches, "Technical deployment of aggregator business models", Heliyon, Vol. 10, nº. 9, pp. e30101, May 2024. [Online: April 2024] doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e30101
JCR-JIF: 3,600 Q1 (2024); - SJR: 0,644 Q1 (2024);

M. Martín Lopo, J. Boal, A. Sánchez, "A literature review of IoT energy platforms aimed at end users", Computer Networks, Vol. 171, pp. 107101, April 2020. [Online: January 2020] doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107101
JCR-JIF: 4,474 Q1 (2020); 4,700 Q2 (2025) - SJR: 0,798 Q1 (2020); 1,144 Q1 (2025)

J. Boal, A. Sánchez, A. Arranz, "Topological simultaneous localization and mapping: a survey", Robótica, Vol. 32, nº. 5, pp. 803 - 821, August 2014. [Online: December 2013] doi: 10.1017/S0263574713001070
JCR-JIF: 0,688 Q4 (2014); 2,900 Q3 (2025) - SJR: Q2 (2014); 0,656 Q1 (2025)