Biomechanics Research group (Prof. Van Gheluwe): collaboration on the development of the ALTACRO automated rehabilitation orthoses and an active foot prostheses with variable compliance.
Human Physiology and Sportsmedicine Research Group (Prof. Meeusen): collaboration on the development of the ALTACRO project.
Rehabilitation Research Group (Prof. Kerckhofs): collaboration on the development of the ALTACRO project.
Experimental Anatomy Research Group (Prof. Van Roy): collaboration on the development of the ALTACRO project.
Digital speech and Signal Processing Research Group (Prof. Verhelst): Collaboration on the development of Probo, an interactieve kuddle robot which will visit seriously ill children who have to stay for long periods in a hospital.
At the national level there are good contacts with UCL (Jean-Claude Samin, Paul Fisette), EP
Mons (Olivier Verlinden), KUL (Joris De Schutter, Jan Swevers, Herman Bruyninckx, Marnix
Nuttin, Georges Van der Perre, Louis Peeraer), ULB (Andre Preumont) and RMA (Yvan Baudoin)
The research group is collaborating with the Hogeschool Antwerpen in order to design a new
generation of the PPAM. The focus lies on developing an industrial process to produce the
artificial muscles.
In the context of a TETRA-funding, a project 'Automated harvesting of tomatoes' (Automatisering
van de tomatenteelt) was filed in by. Hogeschool Antwerpen
Departement Industriële Wetenschappen en Technologie.(ir. Walter Van Gilsen), together with
the Department of agro-engineering and -economics (KUL, Josse De Baerdemaeker), the Dept.
of Electronics & Information Processing (VUB) and the R&MM group
Together with the Erasmus Hogeschool, the group focuses on advanced robotic applications of
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). An FPGA is a reprogrammable chip that can be
used for very fast data-processing. In this context a TETRA-project entitled 'Use of State of
the art Embedded HW/SW Techniques in Mechatronics' is proposed.
European CLAWAR (Climbing And Walking Robots) Network.
The group is member of CLAWAR (Climbing And Walking Robots).
The CLAWAR Network has been funded by the European Union as one of the first industry-led
"thematic networks" under the Brite Euram programme in 1997 (BRRT-CT97-5030) investigating
state-of-the-art technologies in the area of innovative robotics in Europe. Clawar 2 started
in May 2002 under the Growth programme (G1RT-CT-2002-05080) The purpose of CLAWAR is
to investigate and report upon all aspects of technology and systems relating to mobile robotics.
During the past 9 years Clawar gathered together 40 research groups in Europe to discuss, in
the context of climbing and walking machines, themes such as as modularity, application sectors,
R&D project clustering, societal needs, economic prospects, exploitation and dissemination.
Based on the Clawar membership, our group established good contacts with a number of
renowned European research groups and industrial companies such as:
- University of Leeds (Gurvinder Virk)
- University of Salford (Darwin Caldwell, Dave Howard)
- QinetiQ (Bill Warren)
- Shadow Robot Company(Nick Singer)
- IAI-CSIC (Manuel Armada)
- Unversity Carlos III of Madrid (Carlos Balaguer)
- FZI (Karsten Berns)
- Helsinki University of Technology (Aarne Halme)
- Ecole central de Nantes (Christine Chevallereau)
- Space Application Services (Leif Steinicke)
- Università degli Studi di Catania (Giovanni Muscato)
Department of Aeronautical
Engineering at the University of Zagreb
The research group also has a longlasting relationship with the Department of Aeronautical
Engineering at the University of Zagreb. Prof Zdravko Terze, head of that department, focuses
his research and activities on multibody dynamics. In that framework, Joris Naudet, PhD
student at R&MM, has visited Zagreb for 2 months to collaborate on research about differentialgeometric
methods
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan
Bjorn Verrelst will work for 1 year at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan. He obtained a 'Postdoctoral Fellowship for Foreign
Researchers grant' from FWO and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.He will continue
the work of Yisheng Guan as post-doc to develop strategies for humanoid robots to overcome
given obstacles. His research will be performed on the world famous humanoid robot HRP2,
supervised by prof. Yokoi Kazuhito.
Delft Biorobotics Laboratory
The group also has contacts with the Delft Biorobotics Laboratory, which is part of the BioMechanical
Engineering department of the Technical University of Delft (dr. ir. Martijn Wisse).
They also investigate the role of compliance in bipedal locomotion. There are regular meetings
to exchange and discuss the ongoing research. In the same context the group is in contact with
prof Stefano Stramigioli of the University of Twente
Philips Eindhoven, CFT
The group has close contacts with Philips Eindhoven, CFT (Thom Warmerdam) as well.
The same vision is shared about the important role social robots will play in
future society.
ANTY Foundation
Close collaboration with the ANTY Foundation vzw (Ivan
Hermans) on the development of Probo, an interactieve kuddle robot which will visit seriously ill children who have to stay for long periods in a hospital.
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