Vrije Universiteit Brussel

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Acoustics and Vibration

Robotics and Multibody Mechanics

• Group Members
• Dirk Lefeber
• Patrick Kool
• Frank Daerden
• Björn Verrelst
• Joris Naudet
• Ronald Van Ham
• Michaël Van Damme
• Bram Vanderborght
• Pieter Beyl
• Rino Versluys
• Jelle Saldien
• Kristof Goris
• Innes Vanderniepen
• Annemie Van Der Linden
• Research Topics
• Publications
• PhD theses
• Master's theses
• Collaborations

Fluid Mechanics & Thermodynamics

Education (Dutch)

Vacancies

Research Facilities

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Prof. Dr. ir. Bram Vanderborght

Professor Address Belgium: Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Applied Sciences Department of Mechanical Engineering Building Z - Room ZW105b Pleinlaan, 2 B-1050 Brussels Belgium Mobile: +32 486 522 962 Address Italy: Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) Robotics, brain and cognitive sciences Department Via Morego 30 16163, Genova Italy email: bram.vanderborght@vub.ac.be Skype:

Bram Vanderborght was born in Wilrijk, Belgium, in 1980. He received the degree in study of Mechanical Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2003. Since 2003 he was researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, supported by the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO). In May 2007 he received his PhD in Applied Sciences. The focus of his research is the use of adaptable compliance of pneumatic artificial muscles in the dynamically balanced biped Lucy. In May 2006 he performed research on the humanoids robot HRP-2 at the Joint Japanese/French Robotics Laboratory (JRL) in AIST, Tsukuba (Japan) in the ongoing research “Dynamically stepping over large obstacles by the humanoid robot HRP-2”. From October 2007- October 2008 he was working as post-doc researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genua (Italy). From October 2008 he works both at the VUB and IIT.

Dissertation available in STAR book

Bram Vanderborght is author of the book Dynamic Stabilisation of the Biped Lucy Powered by Actuators with Controllable Stiffness in the Springer series "STAR-Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics". More info on the Lucy project can be found on our Lucy site. More info ISBN: 978-3-642-13416-6 Price: 119,95 € 2010. 307 p. 111 illus. in color. (Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Vol. 63) Hardcover Order STAR book Dissertation (PDF—16MB) Promotor : Dirk Lefeber

Author science popularizing book "Robots Binnenstebuiten"

Bram Vanderborght is author of the science popularizing book "Robots Binnenstebuiten" for children from 10 years. The book is written in Dutch and will launched in September 2008. More info ISBN: 9789059320000 Price: 15.95 € Order robotbook "Robots Binnenstebuiten"

Publications

• My Publications (external link to VUB R&D database)
• Associate editor of the International Journal of Humanoid Robotics (IJHR).
• Associate editor of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine (IEEE RAM).
• Co-guest editor of a special issue on "Adaptable Compliance / Variable stiffness for Robotic Applications" in IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine (RAM).
• Co-guest editor of a special issue on CLAWAR 2006 in International Journal of Robotic Research.

Conferences

• Co-organizer of the ECCE 2010 Workshop: Robots That Care
• Co-organizer of the ICRA10 workshop: New variable impedance actuators for the next generation of robots
• Co-organizer of the Dynamic Walking 2008 conference
• Co-organizer Workshop Robotics Science and Systems 2008 (RSS 2008) Design and Control of Variable Impedance Actuators for Physical Interaction of Robots with Humans and their Environment
• Program committee of IEEE CASE 2008, 2008 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference and 2010 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference

Research

• site about the research concerning the biped Lucy.

• Dynamically stepping over large obstacles by the humanoid robot HRP-2, performed at Joint Japanese/French Robotics Laboratory (JRL) in AIST, Tsukuba (Japan).

• Compliant actuation and bipedal locomotion, performed at IIT. Part of the research will be performed on the humanoid robot iCub

• Cognitive human-robot interaction with the intelligent huggable robot Probo.

Media exposure

• Article Bram Vanderborght and Philippe De Backer about robo-ethics for cybirgs (in Dutch, De Morgen, 6/06/2009)
• Article Bram Vanderborght and Philippe De Backer about robo-ethics for military robots (in Dutch, De Morgen, 11/04/2009)
• Media exposure Bram Vanderborght about Probo (TV, Radio, written press)
• Media exposure Bram Vanderborght about RoboCup Junior (TV, Radio, written press)
• Media exposure Bram Vanderborght about Lucy (TV, Radio, written press)

Awards

• Winner Campus Party Science Forum 2010 with The AMPfoot: An Ankle Mimicking Prosthetic Foot
  
• Finalist Euron Georges Giralt PhD Award 2009
  
• Best Paper Award
  Modeling Hysteresis in Pleated Pneumatic Artificial Muscles
  Michael Van Damme, Pieter Beyl, Bram Vanderborght, Ronald Van Ham, Innes Vanderniepen, Rino Versluys, Frank Daerden, Dirk Lefeber
  IEEE International Conferences on Cybernetics & Intelligent Systems (CIS) and Robotics, Automation & Mechatronics (RAM), September 21 - 24, 2008, Chengdu, China
• Best Paper Award
  Efficient-walking with ankle actuation: learning from biomechanics
  Rino Versluys, Bram Vanderborght, Ronald Van Ham, Pieter Beyl, Pierre Cherelle, Dirk Lefeber
  CLAWAR 2008 - 11th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines, September 8 - 10, 2008, Coimbra, Portugal
• Finalist The Robotdalen Scientific Award 2007
• Best Conference Paper Award
  Mobility of Humanoid Robots: Stepping over Large Obstacles Dynamically
  Bjorn Verrelst, Kazuhito Yokoi, Olivier Stasse, Hitoshi Arisumi, and Bram Vanderborght
  International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, ICMA, LuoYang - Henan, China, June 25-28, 2006, pp 1072-1079
• Finalist for the Best Video Conference Award
  Integrating vision and walking to increase humanoid autonomy
  Olivier Stasse, Bjorn Verrelst, Andrew J Davison, Nicolas Mansard, Bram Vanderborght, Claudia Esteves, Francois Saidi, Kazuhito Yokoi
  IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, ICRA'07, Roma, Italia, April 2007, pages 2272-2273 (video session)
• Finalist Altran Foundation Award 2005 "Overcoming social exclusion through scientific and technological innovation" with our project ALTACRO - Helping people walk again

Science Popularization

• Organisation RoboCup Junior Belgium , see video for more information (in Dutch)

• See here for a complete list

Movies

Please go to my You Tube video page to watch my videos. This site contains videos of my work (Lucy and HRP-2) as well as a lot of videos of other famous robots.

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