Research Team

The research in the FlexCRAFT program is done by a strong consortium of Dutch universities. The following groups and PIs are involved:

Wageningen University and Research, Farm Technology group

  • Prof.dr.ir. Eldert van Henten, program leader.

    Eldert is the head of the Farm Technolo- gy Group. He will contribute with his vast knowledge of agro-food, 20 years’ experience with vision and robotics in agriculture, and robotic systems integration resulting in proof-of-concept systems of harvesting robots, vi- sion-based weeding systems, egg-collecting robots, and autonomous mobile platforms. He is co-chair TG Agri- cultural Robotics of EuRobotics, co-chair TC Agricultural Robotics and Automation of IEEE RAS.

  • Dr. Gert Kootstra, project leader of P5 “Greenhouse Robotics”.

    Gert is an assistant professor in computer vision and robotics with applications in agriculture. He will contribute with his knowledge of perception for robotic grasping and his experiences with applying such concepts in the EU project PicknPack, addressing robotic handling of food products.

Eindhoven University of Technology, Control Systems Technology Group

  • Prof.dr.ir. Maarten Steinbuch.
    Maarten is a Distinguished University Professor and head of the Control Systems Technology Group within the Mechanical Engineering Department. He will contrib- ute with his vast experience with (control of) mechatronic and robotic systems.

  • Prof.dr.ir. Herman Bruyninckx, project leader of P7 “Packaging Robotics”.

    Herman is a part-time professor in robot- ics (full professor in robotics at KU Leuven, Belgium). He will contribute with his vast experience in knowledge- driven robot programming, perception and learning for real-time applications.

  • Dr.ir. René van der Molengraft, project leader of P2 “World Modelling”.

    René is an associate professor (with promotion rights). Founder of the Tech United Robocup team (world champion MSL autonomous robot soccer in 2012, 2014 and 2016). He will contribute with more than 30 years of experience in motion control and robotics, world modeling and task-based motion planning.