Mechanical Engineering Design

Production and Supply Chain Management

Automation and Manufacturing Technologies

Field Robotics

Mechanical Engineering Design

• New product development and design creativity
• Material characterization and advanced machine design
• Design optimization of lightweight structural-mechanical systems
• Kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems

Production and Supply Chain Management

• Adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in corporations and SMEs
• Application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to support the planning and monitoring of processes and projects
• Adoption of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies and implications on firm performance
• Interrelationship between lean production and Industry 4.0
• Impact of Industry 4.0 on production and logistics, with particular attention to the manufacturing, plant building as well as civil industry
• Impact of Industry 4.0 on sustainability (social and environmental)
• Sustainability in linear as well as circular supply chains, productions systems, and companies

Automation and Manufacturing Technologies

• High-performance machines, robotics and mechatronics
• Automatic control and optimal motion planning
• Mechatronics for predictive maintenance and energy efficiency in automated systems
• Advanced and additive manufacturing technologies
• Safety in industrial (collaborative) robotics

Field Robotics

• Dynamic modelling, design and development of field robots
• Advanced automatic- and shared- control of field robots (e.g. non-linear, adaptive, robust control)
• Mobile manipulators, perception and actuation
• Applied research in, e.g., agriculture, forestry, environmental monitoring