Hendrik Van Brussel
Encyclopedia
Hendrik Van Brussel (October 24, 1944, Ypres
, Belgium
) is a Belgian emeritus
professor of mechanical engineering
of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
, world-renowned for his research on robotics
, mechatronics
and holonic manufacturing
systems.
, Belgium; of ‘civil
engineer’ in electronic engineering (M.Sc.) in 1968 from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
(K.U. Leuven), Belgium and of Doctor of Applied Sciences
(Ph.D.
) in 1971, also from K.U. Leuven, thesis: "Dynamical analysis of the cutting process". In his whole career, spanning a period of more than 40 years, he has been active in the intersection zone between several disciplines: mechanical engineering, electronics
and control engineering
, information technology
; a domain which is presently called "mechatronics
".
He started his career as Expert at the Metal Industries Development Centre (MIDC), Bandung
, Indonesia
, where he also occupied the post of Associate Professor at Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia (1971—1973). Thereafter he returned to the K.U.Leuven to pursue an academic career, becoming Full Professor in 1980. He was Head of Division PMA (Production Engineering, Machine design and Automation) of K.U. Leuven, (1980–93 and 2001–03) and subsequently chairman thereof (2003–2010). He was Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (1993–2001). He was Project leader of Interuniversity Attraction Pole Projects on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (Centre of Excellence), from 1987 until 2006.
Robotics: Pioneering work in robotics research in Belgium, and in Europe; work includes: active force feedback; methodology for model-based task-specification and control of "compliant motion" tasks; universal three-finger gripper; LOLA, an off-line robot programming language with structured data base; KARMEN, a general analysis and design program for the inverse and direct kinematics and dynamics of 3D -mechanisms; multi-component force-torque sensors and a tactile sensor array; robotic force-controlled deburring; Service robotics: LiAS, an autonomous mobile manipulator; intelligent wheelchairs with shared autonomy; medical robotics, e.g. robotised laparoscopy involving innovative haptic interfaces.
Mechatronics: Development of a mechatronic design philosophy, aiming at the ‘mechatronic compiler’ where the mechanical structure and the motion controller are simultaneously optimised, for designing high-performance machines and machine systems. This includes: optimisation of the mechanical structure in the conceptual design phase; derivation of robust control algorithms (H-infinity, sliding mode, ..) that can guarantee performance in the presence of important disturbances, such as changing machine configuration, cutting forces, friction, …; derivation of simple control models from finite-element models of the mechanical structure as a basis for developing control algorithms; development of an integrated design framework for simultaneous optimisation of structure and controller of complex flexible-multi-body mechatronic systems with time-varying configurations.
Holonic Manufacturing Systems (Multi-agent systems): In the framework of the factory-of-the-future idea and along the lines of the Intelligent Manufacturing System (IMS) programme, launched in 1990 by Prof. H. Yoshikawa, Japan. Main achievement is setting up reference architectures and a design methodology for holonic manufacturing systems. The developed PROSA architecture is presently generally accepted by the international research community as a reference architecture. Application of biologically inspired control paradigms, like pheromones in ant colonies, to control complex manufacturing systems, which leads to a multi-agent control framework.
Ypres
Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
) is a Belgian emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
professor of mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a Dutch-speaking university in Flanders, Belgium.It is located at the centre of the historic town of Leuven, and is a prominent part of the city, home to the university since 1425...
, world-renowned for his research on robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
, mechatronics
Mechatronics
Mechatronics is the combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering, software engineering, control engineering, and systems design engineering in order to design, and manufacture useful products. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of engineering, that is...
and holonic manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
systems.
Biography
Van Brussel received the degrees of technical engineer in mechanical engineering (B.Sc.), in 1965 from HTI, OstendOstend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
, Belgium; of ‘civil
engineer’ in electronic engineering (M.Sc.) in 1968 from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a Dutch-speaking university in Flanders, Belgium.It is located at the centre of the historic town of Leuven, and is a prominent part of the city, home to the university since 1425...
(K.U. Leuven), Belgium and of Doctor of Applied Sciences
(Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
) in 1971, also from K.U. Leuven, thesis: "Dynamical analysis of the cutting process". In his whole career, spanning a period of more than 40 years, he has been active in the intersection zone between several disciplines: mechanical engineering, electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
and control engineering
Control engineering
Control engineering or Control systems engineering is the engineering discipline that applies control theory to design systems with predictable behaviors...
, information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
; a domain which is presently called "mechatronics
Mechatronics
Mechatronics is the combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering, software engineering, control engineering, and systems design engineering in order to design, and manufacture useful products. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of engineering, that is...
".
He started his career as Expert at the Metal Industries Development Centre (MIDC), Bandung
Bandung
Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's third largest city, and 2nd largest metropolitan area in Indonesia, with a population of 7.4 million in 2007. Located 768 metres above sea level, approximately 140 km southeast of Jakarta, Bandung has cooler...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, where he also occupied the post of Associate Professor at Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia (1971—1973). Thereafter he returned to the K.U.Leuven to pursue an academic career, becoming Full Professor in 1980. He was Head of Division PMA (Production Engineering, Machine design and Automation) of K.U. Leuven, (1980–93 and 2001–03) and subsequently chairman thereof (2003–2010). He was Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (1993–2001). He was Project leader of Interuniversity Attraction Pole Projects on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (Centre of Excellence), from 1987 until 2006.
Work
Apart from his extensive work in Cutting dynamics, Structural dynamics, Computer-Integrated Manufacture (CIM), and Micro and Precision Engineering, the rest of Van Brussel’s work may be organized under the following three main topics:Robotics: Pioneering work in robotics research in Belgium, and in Europe; work includes: active force feedback; methodology for model-based task-specification and control of "compliant motion" tasks; universal three-finger gripper; LOLA, an off-line robot programming language with structured data base; KARMEN, a general analysis and design program for the inverse and direct kinematics and dynamics of 3D -mechanisms; multi-component force-torque sensors and a tactile sensor array; robotic force-controlled deburring; Service robotics: LiAS, an autonomous mobile manipulator; intelligent wheelchairs with shared autonomy; medical robotics, e.g. robotised laparoscopy involving innovative haptic interfaces.
Mechatronics: Development of a mechatronic design philosophy, aiming at the ‘mechatronic compiler’ where the mechanical structure and the motion controller are simultaneously optimised, for designing high-performance machines and machine systems. This includes: optimisation of the mechanical structure in the conceptual design phase; derivation of robust control algorithms (H-infinity, sliding mode, ..) that can guarantee performance in the presence of important disturbances, such as changing machine configuration, cutting forces, friction, …; derivation of simple control models from finite-element models of the mechanical structure as a basis for developing control algorithms; development of an integrated design framework for simultaneous optimisation of structure and controller of complex flexible-multi-body mechatronic systems with time-varying configurations.
Holonic Manufacturing Systems (Multi-agent systems): In the framework of the factory-of-the-future idea and along the lines of the Intelligent Manufacturing System (IMS) programme, launched in 1990 by Prof. H. Yoshikawa, Japan. Main achievement is setting up reference architectures and a design methodology for holonic manufacturing systems. The developed PROSA architecture is presently generally accepted by the international research community as a reference architecture. Application of biologically inspired control paradigms, like pheromones in ant colonies, to control complex manufacturing systems, which leads to a multi-agent control framework.
Awards
Amongst the many awards and honours Prof. Van Brussel has received, here is a list of the more prominent ones:- 1976: Taylor Medal of CIRP (International Academy for Production Engineering).
- 1984: KVIV-TI Research Prize for research in robotics. (KVIV-TI: Technological Institute of the Royal Flemish Engineering Society).
- 1987: ASEAASEAAllmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget was a Swedish industry company. It merged with the Swiss Brown, Boveri & Cie in 1988 to form Asea Brown Boveri...
Golden Robot Award. - 1989: Society of Manufacturing EngineersSociety of Manufacturing EngineersThe Society of Manufacturing Engineers is a non-profit organization.-History of the Society:Founded in 1932 with 33 members, the organization was originally named The Society of Tool Engineers . A year later, it was renamed the American Society of Tool Engineers...
(SME) Fellow. - 1990—: Member of The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of BelgiumThe Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of BelgiumThere are two Royal Academies for Science and the Arts in Belgium, corresponding to the two main languages of the country, Dutch and French . The Academies are located in the Palace of Academies in Brussels....
, becoming Director of the Class of Natural Sciences. - 1994: Doctor honoris causa at Politehnica University of Bucharest.
- 1994: IEEE Fellow.
- 1994: Doctor honoris causa at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule RWTH Aachen University.
- 1998: Recipient of the SME/CASA LEAD Award, for excellence in teaching and research in integrated manufacturing.
- 2002: Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering SciencesRoyal Swedish Academy of Engineering SciencesThe Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien , founded in 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...
(IVA). - 2002: Recipient of the SME F.W. Taylor Research Medal.
- 2003: Doctor honoris causa at Transylvania University of BraşovTransylvania University of BrasovTransylvania University is a state institution of higher education in Braşov, Romania which, by "offering education, scientific research and the number of students is one of the great universities of Romania, the representative of the region and university 7 Center" .It has sixteen faculties, a...
. - 2008: Recipient of the Joseph EngelbergerJoseph EngelbergerJoseph F. Engelberger is a physicist, engineer and entrepreneur who is referred to as the "Father of Robotics". Licensing the original patent awarded to inventor George Devol, Engelberger developed the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, in the 1950s...
Award of IFR For contributing to the advancement of the Science of Robotics in the Service of Mankind. - 2009: Foreign Associate of the National Academy of EngineeringNational Academy of EngineeringThe National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
(USA) for pioneering research in mechatronics and robotics applied to manufacturing and medical surgery, and for designing holonic manufacturing systems. - 2010: Recipient of the prestigious Georg-Schlesinger-Preis 2009 from the State Secretary for Science and Research of the State of Berlin, with the citation: für hervorragende wissenschaftliche Leistungen auf dem Gebiet der Werkzeugmaschinen und Fertigungstechnik.
Positions and Affiliations
- Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts, Class of Natural Sciences.
- Member of the International Institution for Production Engineering Research (CIRP). President of CIRP, 2000–2001, Past Chairman of Scientific Technical Committee on Assembly (STC-A).
- Fellow of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
- Fellow of SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers).
- Member of KVIV (Royal Flemish Engineering Society).
- Past Member of BIRA (Belgian Institute of Automatic Control and Automation).Past member of the Board. Past chairman of Working group on System Theory. Past chairman of Working group on Robotics.
- Member of BSMEE (Belgian Society of Mechanical and Environmental Engineers).
- Honorary Member of the National Committee of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.
- Past member and chairman of the Scientific Committee for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the FWO (Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders).
- Past Member of the Scientific Committee for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the FNRS (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique).
- Associate editor, Member of the Editorial Board and/or Reviewer for IFToMM Journal MMT, "IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation", "International Journal of Robotics Research", "International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology", "Mechatronics", "Mechatronic Systems Engineering", “Robotics and Computer-integrated Manufacturing”, “Robotics and Autonomous Systems”.
- Past-President of euspen (European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology), 2007-09.
Selected Bibliography
A full list of publications of Hendrik Van Brussel, including the over 80 (co)supervised PhD theses, is to be found on K.U.Leuven's publication repository. Here are a few selected papers:- Van Brussel H, Wyns J, Valckenaers P, et al., Reference architecture for holonic manufacturing systems: PROSA, COMPUTERS IN INDUSTRY, 37(3), pp. 255–274, 1998.
- Reynaerts D, Van Brussel H, Design aspects of shape memory actuators, MECHATRONICS, 8(6), pp. 635–656, 1998.
- De Fonseca P, Sas P, Van Brussel H, A comparative study of methods for optimising sensor and actuator locations in active control applications, JOURNAL OF SOUND AND VIBRATION, 221(4), pp. 651–679, 1999.
- Reynaerts D, Peirs J, Van Brussel H, Shape memory micro-actuation for a gastro-intestinal intervention system, SENSORS AND ACTUATORS A-PHYSICAL, 77(2), pp. 157–166, 1999.
- Van Brussel H, Sas P, Nemeth I, et al., Towards a mechatronic compiler, IEEE-ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, 6(1), pp. 90–105, 2001.
- Pritschow G, Altintas Y, Jovane F, Koren Y, Mitsuishi M, Takata S, Van Brussel H, Weck M, Yamazaki Y, Open controller architecture - Past, present and future, CIRP ANNALS-MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY, 50(2), pp. 463–470, 2001.
- Trendafilova I, Van Brussel H, Non-linear dynamics tools for the motion analysis and condition monitoring of robot joints, MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, 15(6), pp. 1141–1164, 2001.
- Valckenaers P, Van Brussel H, Kollingbaum M, et al., Multi-agent coordination and control using stigmergy applied to manufacturing control, MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS, Book Series: LECTURE NOTES IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, Vol. 2086, pp. 317–334, 2001.
- Al-Bender F, Symens W, Swevers J, Van Brussel H, Theoretical analysis of the dynamic behavior of hysteresis elements in mechanical systems, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NON-LINEAR MECHANICS, 39(10), pp. 1721–1735, 2004.