Vincent Laurense

Vincent Laurense obtained the BSc (2009) and MSc (2012) degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. During his studies, he worked as a data engineer for a Dutch racing team with BMW Z4 GT3, and briefly as a race engineer in the Formula Renault 1.6 NEC Junior championship. During his internship at the Nissan Advanced Technology Center in Japan, and later at Entropy Control Inc. in San Diego, he worked on human machine interaction in the automotive domain. In a project at TNO Automotive in The Netherlands, he worked on sensor fusion for cooperative adaptive cruise control and autonomous driving applications. Vincent is currently pursuing a PhD degree in the Dynamic Design Lab, focusing on autonomous vehicle control at the limits of handling.

Next to bringing mobility to those not capable of driving, and bringing comfort, autonomous vehicles have the potential to significantly improve road safety: in more than 90% of vehicle crashes in the US the reason for the critical pre-crash event was found to be the driver. In order to avoid collisions and road departures, it is important to be able to use all of the friction between the tires and the road - a skill that race car drivers have perfected to complete laps around a race track as fast as possible. Vincent is working on online estimation of tire-road friction, and controllers for Stanford's autonomous race car aimed at using all of the available friction while tracking a racing line.

Publications

Speed Control for Robust Path-Tracking for Automated Vehicles at the Tire-Road Friction Limit

Path-Tracking for Autonomous Vehicles at the Limit of Friction