Latest News
After years of research, learning, and collaboration, I'm excited to share that last week I defended my thesis and received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering!
Our paper on frame-invariant motion gesture recognition for human-robot interaction has been accepted for the CASE 2025 conference in Los Angeles, California, USA!
Our paper on rigid-body trajectory segmentation has been accepted for the ICRA 2024 conference in Yokohama, Japan!
Our paper on interpreting contact tasks using coordinate-invariant trajectory representations has been published in the December 2023 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics!
We achieved a Best Poster Award at the Flanders Make Conference on Machines, Vehicles and Production Technology, which took place on 30 March 2023 at Antwerp Expo.
Our paper on trajectory generation for robotic spray painting has been accepted for the 2023 CASE conference in Auckland, New Zealand!
Personal info
I was born on March 28, 1996 in Antwerp (Wilrijk), Belgium. I obtained a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering from KU Leuven, Belgium, in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
I recently earned a PhD at KU Leuven. I have always been drawn to the deeper questions behind how things move and interact, which is why my research focuses on abstract yet powerful concepts like invariant trajectory descriptors. It's the kind of work that lives in equations and theory, until it suddenly clicks in a real-world application. That's when it gets really exciting.
Beyond research, I like to keep things balanced. Drawing lets me slow down and focus on detail and creativity, while athletics, especially the 400m, teaches me the value of consistency, grit, and pushing through the tough stretches. Whether it's in science, art, or sport, I enjoy the process of setting goals and seeing them come to life.
CV Summary
I am a PhD researcher as a member of the Robotics Research Group at KU Leuven, with a background in mechanical and electrical engineering. My research focuses on invariant descriptors for rigid-body motion as part of the European Research Council's ROBOTGENSKILL project, aimed at generalizing human-demonstrated robot skills. I also contributed to projects in industrial robotics, such as trajectory planning for robotic spray painting. This research is supervised by Prof. Dr. ir. Joris De Schutterand Dr. ir. Maxim Vochten.
My experience includes publishing peer-reviewed papers, presenting at international conferences (ICRA 2023, CASE 2024), mentoring master's students, and collaborating across disciplines. I have received recognition such as a Best Poster Award (Flanders Make 2023) and served as a session chair at the 2024 CASE conference.
I hold a PhD degree and Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering (cum laude) and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering (cum laude), obtained at KU Leuven. My technical skills include MATLAB, Python, ROS, LaTeX, and C++, with hands-on experience using the Franka Emika Panda robot and HTC Vive.
CV Download
You can find my complete CV as a PDF using this link.
Contact info
Feel free to reach out to me via email: arno.verduyn@kuleuven.be or any of the social media platforms listed below:
You can also explore my code repositories on GitHub, or explore my research contributions on ORCID, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar:
Published journal papers
Invariant Descriptors of Motion and Force Trajectories for Interpreting Object Manipulation Tasks in Contact. Maxim Vochten, Ali Mousavi Mohammadi, , Tinne De Laet, Erwin Aertbeliën, and Joris De Schutter. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2023. [PDF] IEEE.org
An Optimal Method for Calculating an Average Screw Axis for a Joint, with Improved Sensitivity to Noise and Providing an Analysis of the Dispersion of the Instantaneous Axes. Andrea Ancillao, Maxim Vochten, , Joris De Schutter, and Erwin Aertbeliën. PLOS One, 2022. [PDF] plos.org
Published conference papers
Enhancing motion trajectory segmentation of rigid bodies using a novel screw-based trajectory-shape representation. , Maxim Vochten, and Joris De Schutter. In 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2024. [PDF] IEEE.org
Shape-based path adaptation and simulation-based velocity optimization of initial tool trajectories for robotic spray painting. , Joris De Schutter, Wilm Decré, and Maxim Vochten. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2023. [PDF] IEEE.org
Papers in preparation
BILTS: A Bi-Invariant Similarity Measure for Robust Object Trajectory Recognition under Reference Frame Variations. , Erwin Aertbeliën, Glenn Maes, Joris De Schutter, Maxim Vochten. Submitted to Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (JIRS), 2025. [PDF] arxiv.org
Enhancing Hand Palm Motion Gesture Recognition by Eliminating Reference Frame Bias via Frame-Invariant Similarity Measures. , Maxim Vochten, and Joris De Schutter. Accepted for presentation at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2025. [PDF] arxiv.org