Research Interests

My main research focus is on autonomous navigation of mobile robots, which includes simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM), terrain mapping, detection and tracking of moving objects (DATMO), collision prediction, and motion planning. My research draws from the fields of robotics, computer vision, control systems and machine learning. The primary underlying technique that I use for autonomous navigation is inference in probabilistic graphical models, but I use sampling-based planning, Gaussian processes, Bayesian optimisation and random finite sets as well. A secondary research focus is modelling of complex biological systems.

Publications

Journal publications

  • Müller, C.J. and van Daalen, C.E., “Map point selection for visual SLAM”, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (Elsevier), Vol. 167, 2023. (DOI, preprint)
  • Roelofse, C.E. and van Daalen, C.E., “An accurate and efficient approach to probabilistic conflict prediction”, Automatica (Elsevier), Vol. 153, 2023. (DOI, preprint)
  • Robertson, S.C.J., van Daalen, C.E. and du Preez, J.A., “Efficient approximations of the multi-sensor labelled multi-Bernoulli filter”, Signal Processing (Elsevier), Vol. 199, 2022. (DOI, preprint)
  • Schoeman, J.C., van Daalen, C.E. and du Preez, J.A., “Degenerate Gaussian factors for probabilistic inference”, The International Journal of Approximate Reasoning (Elsevier), Vol. 143, p. 159-191, 2022. (DOI, preprint)
  • Lombard, C.D., and van Daalen, C.E., “Stochastic triangular mesh mapping: A terrain mapping technique for autonomous mobile robots”, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (Elsevier), Vol. 127, 2020. (DOI, preprint)
  • De Jongh, W.C., Jordaan, H.W., and van Daalen, C.E., “Experiment for pose estimation of uncooperative space debris using stereo vision”, Acta Astronautica (Elsevier), Vol. 168, pp. 164-173, 2020. (DOI)
  • Esterhuizen, N., Clusella-Trullas, S., van Daalen, C.E., Schoombie, R.E., Boardman, L. and Terblanche, J.S., “Effects of within-generation thermal history on flight performance of Ceratitis capitata: Colder is better”, Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol. 217 No. 19, pp. 3545-3556, 2014. (DOI)
  • Schoombie, R., Boardman, L., Groenewald, B., Glazier, D.S., van Daalen, C.E., Clusella-Trullas, S., and Terblanche, J.S., “High metabolic and water-loss rates in caterpillar aggregations: evidence against the resource-conservation hypothesis”, Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol. 216 No. 23, pp. 4221-4325, 2013. (DOI)
  • van Daalen, C.E. and Jones, T.,“Fast conflict detection using probability flow”, Automatica (Elsevier), Vol. 45, No. 8, pp. 1903-1909, 2009. (DOI)

Conference publications

  • Dorfling, A. and van Daalen, C.E., A motion segmentation technique for mobile robots using probabilistic models, The RAPDASA-RobMech-PRASA-CoSAAMI Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2022. (DOI)
  • Strauss, M.B. and van Daalen, C.E., Neural network-based stereo vision outlier removal, The RAPDASA-RobMech-PRASA-CoSAAMI Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2022. (DOI)
  • Visser, E., van Daalen, C.E. and Schoeman, J.C., Lossy compression of observations for Gaussian process regression, The RAPDASA-RobMech-PRASA-CoSAAMI Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2022. (DOI)
  • Maseko, B.B., van Daalen, C.E. and Treurnicht, J., Optimised Informed RRTs for Mobile Robot Path Planning, The Control Conference Africa, Magaliesberg, South Africa, 2021. (DOI, preprint)
  • Smulders, D., Uren, K., van Schoor, G., van Daalen, C.E. and Engelbrecht, J.A.A., CREAK descriptor evaluation for visual odometry, SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 2019. (DOI)
  • Botha, F.J., van Daalen, C.E. and Treurnicht, J., Data fusion of radar and stereo vision for detection and tracking of moving objects, Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics International Conference (PRASA-RobMech), Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2016. (DOI)
  • Chiu, A., Jones, T. and van Daalen, C.E., A comparison of linearisation and the unscented transform for computer vision applications, Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics International Conference (PRASA-RobMech), Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2016. (DOI)
  • Lombard, C.D. and van Daalen, C.E., Extrinsic calibration of a push-broom lidar and camera using 3-D multi-planar association, Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa and Robotics and Mechatronics International Conference (PRASA-RobMech), Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2016. (DOI)
  • van den Aardweg, W., Engelbrecht, J.A.A. and van Daalen, C.E., Sampling-based Collision Avoidance for Commercial Airliners with Intruder Aircraft and Terrain, IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, U.S.A., 2015. (DOI)
  • Brink, L.J., van Daalen, C.E. and Brink, W.H., Probabilistic Outlier Removal for Robust Landmark Identification in Stereo Vision Based SLAM, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vilamoura, Portugal, 2012. (DOI)
  • Brink, L.J., van Daalen, C.E. and Brink, W.H., FastSLAM with Stereo Vision, 23rd Annual Symposium of the Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, 2012.
  • Brink, L.J., van Daalen, C.E. and Brink, W.H., Stereo Vision as a Sensor for EKF SLAM, 22nd Annual Symposium of the Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2011.

PhD Dissertation

van Daalen, C.E. 2010. Conflict Detection and Resolution for Autonomous Vehicles. PhD dissertation, Stellenbosch University.