HENC | Hogeschool Saxion

The role of teacher / researcher is the most important, but also least facilitated, role within the university of applied sciences. The teacher / researcher must continuously switch between the educational urgency (team leader) and the longer-term research priority (lecturer). In practical terms, the teacher / researcher has two employers. The RAAK-Postdoc project HENC aims to develop a pragmatic founder for the sustainable embedding of PhDs in this teacher / researcher role.

Research question

How can we apply advanced sensor fusion techniques to enable accurate indoor / outdoor navigation in unstructured environments?

The modular robotics techniques that will be further developed have a spin-off to the three Saxion research domains Areas & Living (drones), Smart Industry (ground robots) and Health & Wellbeing (cleaning robot). The educational activities focus on a, to be developed, module within the mechatronics study program, with the aim of giving concrete substance to the necessary innovation and integration of research and education. The most important points are defined by means of a matrix analysis and the main reasons for PhD to continue to function as a teacher / researcher are developed, tested, implemented and rolled out. In this way, the project gives concrete substance to Saxion's policy to enable PhDs to work on research and to ensure that the results flow into education through educational innovation.

Research outcome

In addition to the education-research integration component, a teaching package is being developed within the module for autonomously functioning robots. This package is developed from both from an operator and an engineering point of view and will therefore transcend the training in mechatronics. This makes the package widely applicable within the various courses of the Saxion academy of Life Science, Engineering and Design and Creative Technology, but also for international colleges elsewhere.