picture Doctoral researcher
Mechanical Engineering Department
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Contact

Mailing address
postbusnr.: 2420
Mechanical Engineering Department - PMA Division
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Celestijnenlaan 300B
B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

Contact info
steven dot bellens at mech dot kuleuven dot be
Phone: ++32 16 32 80 59
Office: 01.053

Research

  • What?

  • My research project aims at performing manipulation tasks with a flying robot. The goal of the project is (i) performing manipulation tasks using an autonomous quadrotor, (ii) applying the sensor-based framework for task specification and control, developed in our research group, to the autonomous quadrotor and (iii) robust control of the quadrotor during manipulation task execution. My research focusses on the application of the task framework to the quadrotor in order to facilitate the definition of complex tasks. These tasks involve navigation, observation and manipulation in partially unknown and/or human-populated environments.

  • How?

  • A first step will implement a robust and stable control strategy to carry out simple navigation tasks. Therefor I will use Orocos to set up real-time communication with the quadrotor and implement a suitable control strategy. This control strategy makes use of a simple dynamical model to predict the behavious of the quadrotor. Once this is done, the dynamical model and the control strategy will be extended to handle manipulation tasks. The project makes use of other research projects involving hardware design (gripper) and object recognition (visual detection).

  • Why?

  • Quadrotors have more freedom then mobile, driving robots and have the ability to operate in areas, inaccesible for driving robots. The project extends the navigation capabilities of flying robots with manipulation capabilities, which broadens the range of possible applications of these robots. The project doesn't aim at a particular application. Possible applications however are:
    - Detection and highlighting of mines.
    - Cutting and picking operations in agriculture.


    Links

  • prof. H. Bruyninckx
  • prof. J. De Schutter
  • Mechanical Engineering Department
  • OROCOS