Two hands, one goal: Functional coupling in the wrist joints during a bimanual task

Bimanual coordination is essential for the performance of daily activities, but the underlying motor control mechanisms are not yet fully understood. The goal of the present study is to identify the contribution of contralateral responses in the wrist joints to the performance of a bimanual task. Contralateral responses could possibly be used in...

Robust on-line planning for automated inspection with a MAV in the presence of disturbances

Safe and reliable autonomous inspection tasks using \ac{MAVs} in cluttered environments are challenging due uncertainties encountered during inspections. In general, algorithms consist of pre-planning paths and executing them. These precomputed inspection paths do not consider potential occlusion by obstacles. In turn, this could render the path...

Improving Dynamic Route Optimisation by making use of Historical Data

In thedynamic world we live in, the transportation of people and goods in a reliable,efficient and timely manner has grown to be more important than ever. Roads andcities are becoming more congested and the impact of greenhouse gasses canalready be observed. The need for controlling transportation systems, andspecifically fleets of vehicles,...

Guidance and Control for Spinning, Gun-Launched Projectiles

This thesis report is focused on the design of a guidance and control system that is able to minimize the deviation from the desired impact point for a firing range of 1 kilometer, given a 30mm spinning gun-launched projectile with a novel actuator design. This actuator is fixed on the projectile and offers a single force that can only be...

Framework Design and Image Registration for Sonar-Based Underwater SLAM

The startup company Fleet Cleaner has developed a mobile robot, specialized in the hull cleaning of large cargo vessels. Navigation and localization of this robot is currently performed manually. This is a difficult process that is greatly complicated during operation. This is mainly due to the availability of relative positioning sensors only,...

Automatic Segmentation of Ships in Digital Images: A Deep Learning Approach

Knowledge on adversaries during military missions at sea heavily influences decision making, making identification of unknown vessels an important task. Identification of surrounding vessels based on visual data offers an alternative to AIS information (Automatic Identification System), the current standard in vessel identification, which can be...

Smart Curtailment of Renewable Energy Resources for Increasing Capacity of Distribution Grids

Nowadays renewable energy sources (RES) are growing at a rapid pace, particularly the wind energy. The high amount of wind power penetration into the power grids poses a major challenge to Transmission System Operators (TSO) in terms of the operational management, as wind power is highly uncertain. The highly uncertain nature of the wind power...

Motion Planning for Non-holonomic Autonomous Vehicles in Parking Spaces: An optimal Control Problem Approach

This MSc. thesis explores the design and implementation of a motion planner for non-holonomic autonomous vehicles in parking spaces. The planner must avoid collisions with static obstacles, satisfy performance, comfort and safety constraints for the motion, satisfy the non-holonomic constraints of the vehicle model, consider the dynamics of the...

The Interpretation and Application of 300 Years of Optimal Control in Economics

Neoclassical economics dictates the decision-making process of economic agents as the mathematical problem of maximizing utility over a prescribed planning horizon. The mathematical similarities with optimal control theory lead to a new interpretation of economic agents as optimal controllers. Pontryagin's maximum principle generates the...

Comparison of Fail-Operational Strategies to Make Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control Resilient to an Electronic Control Unit Failure

With the tremendous increase of vehicles and limited infrastructure for its smooth movement, traffic jams have become a significant problem these days. To address this issue, significant research and development in the field of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is currently being carried out. One such technological development that allows...