"I dream of robots that can explain to us what they do and why.”
How do we pass on our knowledge of the world to robots so that they better understand their environment to perform their tasks robustly? This is quite complicated. During the Mobile Robot Control course, we had to programme a robot to escape from a maze. The robot had to recognise walls and corridors, and understand which corridors it had already visited. We also devised an autonomous referee system with drones for a robot football match, and we completed a demo with a drone formation for ESA. What I liked about these projects was the systems thinking. You do not choose the most obvious solution, but think about which functional components you need and how they work together.
I have now completed my PhD at the Robotics group and will continue as a project manager within the AIMatters project. I tell companies about the research within our group and together we solve specific and practical problems. We would also like to share our ideas, knowledge and skills with SMEs by opening our doors and tackling challenges together.
As a Limburger, I believe that the atmosphere should be good, then good results often follow automatically. In my student days this was mainly clear at Stratumseind, but nowadays this also applies in the workplace at TU/e: if you surround yourself with smart and pleasant people, you always enjoy going to work.