I am (part-time) employed as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Twente. I teach mostly in the Creative Technology BSc program and the Interaction Technology MSc program. As a researcher, I am affiliated with the Robotics and Mechatronics group and with the DesignLab. I work on research projects involving social robotics and wearables – and industrial robots for service and maintenance.

tinkering

A topic I am much interested in, from the perspective as maker and educator, is ‘tinkering’. Together with Angelika Mader, we try to find a place to -fit- tinkering into academia, both in (co)design methods for artefacts, tangibles and embodiment as well as a method for teaching and education. We teach an MSc level course ‘Mastering Tinkering’, not in the least for ourselves to increase our understanding. We have been developing and piloting a number of tinkering toolkits for wearable technology.

Tinkering Toolkit for wearables, consisting of cards and components

flexo

The FleXo project has been a collaboration with bio-media designer Kristin Neidlinger as part of the WEARSustain project. The aim of this project was to design a soft wearable for mediated touch. Previously we collaborated on other designs such as the AWE goosebumps and AWE electric.

Project video (artist impression) by Kristin Neidlinger(SENSOREE) and Local Androids (2018)

pirate

From 2006 to 2014 I have been working on a Pipe Inspection Robot for Autonomous Exploration as part of a PhD research at the University of Twente. The thesis has been downloaded more than 2000 times. Recently, development has continued in the project SmartTooling.

tiscali

The TISCALI project is part of the NWO project TISCA and aims at developing new integrated data layers for assessing the quality of the sewer system. For this project we are realising new non-destructive sensing method that can be used in a sewer pipe, targeting the immediate environment around the pipe. The focus lies on detecting cavities and anomalies in the environment around the pipe, using an acoustic sensor (currently under development) and a ground penetration radar (GPR) system.

testbed/prototype pipe inspection robot ‘R4D4’ as carrier vehicle for the developed sensor (2020)

weafing

Goal of the EU funded project WEAFING is to develop actuated haptic wearables powered by woven or knitted electroactive polymers. At the University of Twente two parts of this project are researched: the haptics (in the HMI group) and modelling and simulation (in the RaM group)

prototype of a knitted electroactive polymer coated ‘muscle’ (Linköping, 2018)

prospero

The prospero project aims at developing educational material on the use of social robots in care and cure. The Prospero project is an Erasmus+ project with partners in Denmark and Ireland. At University of Twente toolkits and educational materials are being developed, as well as a scoping interview listing relevant topics and technologies.

Working on receptionist prototype R3D3 for HMI, one of University of Twente social robots – picture UToday, Rikkert Harink (2017)