Senior Researcher
Robotics & Autonomous Systems,
Royal Military Academy
Address
Avenue De La Renaissance 30, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Contact Information
Email: Ken.Hasselmann@mil.be
Ken Hasselmann is currently a senior researcher in the Robotics & Autonomous Systems unit of the Department of Mechanics at the Belgian Royal Military Academy, working on the European Defence Fund's AIDEDex project.
He obtained his Master's degree in engineering in electronics and embedded systems from the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (INP-ENSEEIHT) and a Master's in strategic management and innovation from Toulouse School of Management (TSM) in 2014.
He obtained his PhD in swarm robotics from IRIDIA, the artificial intelligence lab of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), in 2023, while working on the ERC DEMIURGE project, aiming to advance the state-of-the-art in automatic design methods for robot swarms. His research focuses on swarm robotics, machine learning, automatic design, optimization algorithms, and the application and design of such systems for real-world scenarios.
In addition to his research, Ken has significant teaching experience. Before joining the RMA, he was a teacher-researcher at ECAM Brussels Engineering School, responsible for courses in algorithms, machine learning, and deep learning in the Department of Computer Science and Electronics. During his PhD, he served as a teaching assistant at ULB, covering a wide range of subjects from digital and analog electronics to microprocessor architecture and artificial intelligence.
He is passionate about computer science, embedded systems, and artificial intelligence, strongly believes in Free, Libre, and Open-Source Software, and is dedicated to developing new projects with this philosophy.
Publications
2024
- M. Malizia, A. M. Casado Fauli, K. Hasselmann, E. Le Flecher, G. De Cubber, and R. Haelterman, “Assisted Explosive Ordnance Disposal: Teleoperated Robotic Systems with AI, Virtual Reality, and Semi-Autonomous Manipulation for Safer Demining Operations," in 20th International Symposium Mine Action, 2024, pp. 52-55.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF]@inproceedings{maliziamineact2024, title={Assisted Explosive Ordnance Disposal: Teleoperated Robotic Systems with AI, Virtual Reality, and Semi-Autonomous Manipulation for Safer Demining Operations}, author={Malizia, Mario and Casado Fauli, Ana Maria and Hasselmann, Ken and Le Flecher, Emile and De Cubber, Geert and Haelterman, Rob}, booktitle={20th International Symposium Mine Action}, publisher = {CTRO-HR}, year = {2024}, location = {Cavtat, Croatia}, unit= {meca-ras}, url={https://www.ctro.hr/userfiles/files/MINE%20ACTION_2024_ONLIINE.pdf}, pages={52-55}, project= {BELGIAN} } - K. Hasselmann, M. Malizia, R. Caballero, F. Polisano, S. Govindaraj, J. Stigler, O. Ilchenko, M. Bajic, and G. De Cubber, “A multi-robot system for the detection of explosive devices," in “IEEE ICRA Workshop on Field Robotics", 2024.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF] [DOI]@inproceedings{Hasselmannetal2024ICRAWSFRO, doi = {10.48550/ARXIV.2404.14167}, url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.14167}, booktitle = {"IEEE ICRA Workshop on Field Robotics"}, author = {Hasselmann, Ken and Malizia, Mario and Caballero, Rafael and Polisano, Fabio and Govindaraj, Shashank and Stigler, Jakob and Ilchenko, Oleksii and Bajic, Milan and De Cubber, Geert}, title = {A multi-robot system for the detection of explosive devices}, year = {2024}, unit= {meca-ras}, project= {AIDED, AIDEDEX} } - M. Kegeleirs, D. G. Ramos, K. Hasselmann, L. Garattoni, G. Francesca, and M. Birattari, “Transferability in the automatic off-line design of robot swarms: from sim-to-real to embodiment and design-method transfer across different platforms," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2024.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF] [DOI]@article{kegeleirs2024transferability, title={Transferability in the automatic off-line design of robot swarms: from sim-to-real to embodiment and design-method transfer across different platforms}, author={Kegeleirs, Miquel and Ramos, David Garz{\'o}n and Hasselmann, Ken and Garattoni, Lorenzo and Francesca, Gianpiero and Birattari, Mauro}, journal={IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, year={2024}, doi={https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2024.3360013}, url={https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10416330}, publisher={IEEE}, unit= {meca-ras}, project= {AIDEDEX} }
2023
- K. Hasselmann and Q. Lurkin, “Stimulating student engagement with an AI board game tournament," arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.11376, 2023.
[BibTeX]@article{hasselmann2023stimulating, title={Stimulating student engagement with an AI board game tournament}, author={Hasselmann, Ken and Lurkin, Quentin}, journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.11376}, year={2023} } - K. Hasselmann, “Advances in the automatic modular design of control software for robot swarms: Using neuroevolution to generate modules," PhD Thesis, 2023.
[BibTeX]@phdthesis{hasselmann2023advances, title={Advances in the automatic modular design of control software for robot swarms: Using neuroevolution to generate modules}, author={Hasselmann, Ken}, year={2023}, school={PhD thesis. Brussels, Belgium: Universit{\'e} libre de Bruxelles} } - K. Hasselmann, A. Ligot, and M. Birattari, “Automatic modular design of robot swarms based on repertoires of behaviors generated via novelty search," Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, vol. 83, p. 101395, 2023.
[BibTeX]@article{hasselmann2023automatic, title={Automatic modular design of robot swarms based on repertoires of behaviors generated via novelty search}, author={Hasselmann, Ken and Ligot, Antoine and Birattari, Mauro}, journal={Swarm and Evolutionary Computation}, volume={83}, pages={101395}, year={2023}, publisher={Elsevier} }
2022
- D. Garzón Ramos, M. Salman, K. Ubeda Arriaza, K. Hasselmann, and M. Birattari, “MoCA: a modular RGB color arena for swarm robotics experiments," IRIDIA Technical Report Series, 2022.
[BibTeX]@article{garzon2022moca, title={MoCA: a modular RGB color arena for swarm robotics experiments}, author={Garz{\'o}n Ramos, David and Salman, Muhammad and Ubeda Arriaza, Keneth and Hasselmann, Ken and Birattari, Mauro}, journal={IRIDIA Technical Report Series}, year={2022} }
2021
- D. G. Ramos, D. Bozhinoski, G. Francesca, L. Garattoni, K. Hasselmann, M. Kegeleirs, J. Kuckling, A. Ligot, F. J. Mendiburu, F. Pagnozzi, and others, “The automatic off-line design of robot swarms: recent advances and perspectives," in R2T2: Robotics Research for Tomorrow’s Technology, 2021.
[BibTeX]@inproceedings{ramos2021automatic, title={The automatic off-line design of robot swarms: recent advances and perspectives}, author={Ramos, David Garz{\'o}n and Bozhinoski, Darko and Francesca, Gianpiero and Garattoni, Lorenzo and Hasselmann, Ken and Kegeleirs, Miquel and Kuckling, Jonas and Ligot, Antoine and Mendiburu, Fernando J and Pagnozzi, Federico and others}, booktitle={R2T2: Robotics Research for Tomorrow’s Technology}, year={2021} } - K. Hasselmann, A. Ligot, J. Ruddick, and M. Birattari, “Empirical assessment and comparison of neuro-evolutionary methods for the automatic off-line design of robot swarms," Nature communications, vol. 12, iss. 1, p. 4345, 2021.
[BibTeX]@article{hasselmann2021empirical, title={Empirical assessment and comparison of neuro-evolutionary methods for the automatic off-line design of robot swarms}, author={Hasselmann, Ken and Ligot, Antoine and Ruddick, Julian and Birattari, Mauro}, journal={Nature communications}, volume={12}, number={1}, pages={4345}, year={2021}, publisher={Nature Publishing Group UK London} } - J. Kuckling, K. Hasselmann, V. Van Pelt, C. Kiere, and M. Birattari, “AutoMoDe Editor: a visualization tool for AutoMoDe," Tech. Rep. TR/IRIDIA/2021-009, IRIDIA, Brussels 2021.
[BibTeX]@techreport{kuckling2021automode, title={AutoMoDe Editor: a visualization tool for AutoMoDe}, author={Kuckling, Jonas and Hasselmann, Ken and Van Pelt, Vincent and Kiere, C{\'e}dric and Birattari, Mauro}, year={2021}, institution={Tech. Rep. TR/IRIDIA/2021-009, IRIDIA, Brussels} } - H. Bersini and K. Hasselmann, L’intelligence artificielle en pratique avec Python, 2021.
[BibTeX]@misc{bersini2021intelligence, title={L'intelligence artificielle en pratique avec Python}, author={Bersini, H. and Hasselmann, K.}, year={2021} }
2020
- K. Hasselmann and M. Birattari, “Modular automatic design of collective behaviors for robots endowed with local communication capabilities," PeerJ Computer Science, vol. 6, p. e291, 2020.
[BibTeX]@article{hasselmann2020modular, title={Modular automatic design of collective behaviors for robots endowed with local communication capabilities}, author={Hasselmann, Ken and Birattari, Mauro}, journal={PeerJ Computer Science}, volume={6}, pages={e291}, year={2020}, publisher={PeerJ Inc.} } - M. Birattari, A. Ligot, and K. Hasselmann, “Disentangling automatic and semi-automatic approaches to the optimization-based design of control software for robot swarms," Nature Machine Intelligence, vol. 2, iss. 9, p. 494–499, 2020.
[BibTeX]@article{birattari2020disentangling, title={Disentangling automatic and semi-automatic approaches to the optimization-based design of control software for robot swarms}, author={Birattari, Mauro and Ligot, Antoine and Hasselmann, Ken}, journal={Nature Machine Intelligence}, volume={2}, number={9}, pages={494--499}, year={2020}, publisher={Nature Publishing Group UK London} } - A. Ligot, K. Hasselmann, and M. Birattari, “AutoMoDe-Arlequin: Neural Networks as Behavioral Modules for the Automatic Design of Probabilistic Finite-State Machines," in Swarm Intelligence: 12th International Conference, ANTS 2020, Barcelona, Spain, October 26–28, 2020, Proceedings 12, 2020, p. 271–281.
[BibTeX]@inproceedings{ligot2020automode, title={AutoMoDe-Arlequin: Neural Networks as Behavioral Modules for the Automatic Design of Probabilistic Finite-State Machines}, author={Ligot, Antoine and Hasselmann, Ken and Birattari, Mauro}, booktitle={Swarm Intelligence: 12th International Conference, ANTS 2020, Barcelona, Spain, October 26--28, 2020, Proceedings 12}, pages={271--281}, year={2020}, organization={Springer International Publishing} } - M. Salman, D. Garzón Ramos, K. Hasselmann, and M. Birattari, “Phormica: Photochromic pheromone release and detection system for stigmergic coordination in robot swarms," Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol. 7, p. 591402, 2020.
[BibTeX]@article{salman2020phormica, title={Phormica: Photochromic pheromone release and detection system for stigmergic coordination in robot swarms}, author={Salman, Muhammad and Garz{\'o}n Ramos, David and Hasselmann, Ken and Birattari, Mauro}, journal={Frontiers in Robotics and AI}, volume={7}, pages={591402}, year={2020}, publisher={Frontiers Media SA} }
2019
- M. Birattari, A. Ligot, D. Bozhinoski, M. Brambilla, G. Francesca, L. Garattoni, D. Garzón Ramos, K. Hasselmann, M. Kegeleirs, J. Kuckling, and others, “Automatic off-line design of robot swarms: a manifesto," Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol. 6, p. 59, 2019.
[BibTeX]@article{birattari2019automatic, title={Automatic off-line design of robot swarms: a manifesto}, author={Birattari, Mauro and Ligot, Antoine and Bozhinoski, Darko and Brambilla, Manuele and Francesca, Gianpiero and Garattoni, Lorenzo and Garz{\'o}n Ramos, David and Hasselmann, Ken and Kegeleirs, Miquel and Kuckling, Jonas and others}, journal={Frontiers in Robotics and AI}, volume={6}, pages={59}, year={2019}, publisher={Frontiers Media SA} }
2018
- K. Hasselmann, F. Robert, and M. Birattari, “Automatic design of communication-based behaviors for robot swarms," in Swarm Intelligence: 11th International Conference, ANTS 2018, Rome, Italy, October 29–31, 2018, Proceedings 11, 2018, p. 16–29.
[BibTeX]@inproceedings{hasselmann2018automatic, title={Automatic design of communication-based behaviors for robot swarms}, author={Hasselmann, Ken and Robert, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Birattari, Mauro}, booktitle={Swarm Intelligence: 11th International Conference, ANTS 2018, Rome, Italy, October 29--31, 2018, Proceedings 11}, pages={16--29}, year={2018}, organization={Springer International Publishing} } - A. Ligot, K. Hasselmann, B. Delhaisse, L. Garattoni, G. Francesca, and M. Birattari, AutoMoDe, NEAT, and EvoStick: implementations for the e-puck robot in ARGoS3IRIDIA, Institut de Recherches Interdisciplinaires et de Développements en~…, 2018.
[BibTeX]@misc{ligot2018automode, title={AutoMoDe, NEAT, and EvoStick: implementations for the e-puck robot in ARGoS3}, author={Ligot, Antoine and Hasselmann, Ken and Delhaisse, Brian and Garattoni, Lorenzo and Francesca, Gianpiero and Birattari, Mauro}, year={2018}, publisher={IRIDIA, Institut de Recherches Interdisciplinaires et de D{\'e}veloppements en~…} } - K. Hasselmann, A. Ligot, G. Francesca, and M. Birattari, “Reference models for AutoMoDe," IRIDIA, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, Tech. Rep. TR/IRIDIA/2018-002, 2018.
[BibTeX]@article{hasselmann2018reference, title={Reference models for AutoMoDe}, author={Hasselmann, Ken and Ligot, Antoine and Francesca, Gianpiero and Birattari, M}, journal={IRIDIA, Universit{\'e} libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, Tech. Rep. TR/IRIDIA/2018-002}, year={2018} }