Biography
I am a PhD Candidate in the Soft Robotics Lab at the University of Twente, originally from Costa Rica. A clear goal drives my academic journey: to invent safe, co-assisting robotic systems that positively impact human health and/or facilitate social interactions. Building on my background in mechatronics, my current doctoral research focuses on the proprioception of soft artificial hearts.
Research Interests and Expertise
- Soft Robotics and Automation: Developing compliant mechanisms and utilizing physical artificial intelligence to create adaptive robotic systems.
- Mechanical Design: Precision mechanisms, flexure mechanisms, and topology optimization.
- Rapid Prototyping: Advanced additive manufacturing and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
- Control and Electronics: Embedded systems, kinematics, dynamics, and real-time control architectures.
Beyond the Lab
When I am not working on research, I stay highly active by surfing, bouldering, and running. I also spend a lot of my downtime writing songs, improvising on the guitar and bass, and constantly designing and prototyping new, strange, and curious things on my 3D printer at home.
Links
- GitHub: https://github.com/esteeslucas
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucasduboisc/
Organisations
Academic Background and Experience
- I hold an MSc in Robotics Engineering from the University of Twente, where I specialized in Mechatronics and Physical AI.
- Working under the supervision of Ali Sadeghi, my Master's research culminated in Project PRIMO: a novel 1.63 kg climbing robot capable of in-situ additive manufacturing directly on vertical surfaces.
- For this project, I designed the entire 12-DOF mechatronic system and architected a hierarchical ROS 2 (Jazzy) control stack in C++, which earned a 10/10 grade for novelty and execution.
- I completed a research internship at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Material Aesthetics Lab, where I developed "The Sociobench," a human-scale soft robotic installation, and investigated human-robot interaction dynamics for adaptive public infrastructure.
- Prior to my studies in the Netherlands, I earned my Licentiate degree in Mechatronics Engineering (Cum Laude) from Tecnológico de Costa Rica, after completing my thesis at the Robotics and Mechatronics (RAM) group as an exchange student.
- I also enjoyed mentoring and have served as a Teaching Assistant for Software Development for Robotics and Programming courses at the University of Twente and other programming courses in Costa Rica.
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