Xavier Depreytere – Robotics & Autonomous Systems

Researcher

Robotics & Autonomous Systems,
Royal Military Academy

Address

Avenue De La Renaissance 30, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Contact Information

Call: –

Xavier Depreytere is a counter-UAS researcher at the Robotics and Autonomous Systems unit of the Department of Mechanics of the Belgian Royal Military Academy. His role focuses on supporting the implementation of field trials within the framework of the EU-funded COURAGEOUS² project, contributing to the planning, coordination and execution of large-scale counter-UAS test campaigns.

Prior to joining the Belgian Royal Military Academy, Xavier gained initial industrial experience in the food industry as an automation project engineer at the Kellogg Company. He then joined the NGO Handicap International – Humanity and Inclusion in 2018 as an Innovation Project Manager. He led the design and strategic development of the Odyssey2025 project, which aims to deploy small drones, multi-sensor payloads including thermal, multispectral and RGB sensors, and GIS tools to facilitate and accelerate land release operations. Within this initiative, he supervised the implementation of trials in real-world conditions across more than 300 hazardous areas in countries such as Chad, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. These activities contributed to major breakthroughs in the Humanitarian Mine Action sector and supported the identification of more than 10,000 landmines and other explosive remnants of war.

Xavier holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering within the field of Biosystems Engineering, obtained in 2014 from the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons, University of Mons, Belgium.

Publications

2025

J. Fardoulis and X. Depreytere, Beyond the Visible: Multispectral & TIR sUAS Minefield Mapping: Lessons Learned from the Successful Deployment of MS & TIR Imaging Over Live Minefields, 2025.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF]

@misc{fardoulis2025beyond,
title = {{Beyond the Visible: Multispectral \& TIR sUAS Minefield Mapping: Lessons Learned from the Successful Deployment of MS \& TIR Imaging Over Live Minefields}},
author = {Fardoulis, John and Depreytere, Xavier},
year = {2025},
pages = {18--22},
url = {https://www.ctro.hr/userfiles/files/BROSURA%20CTRO%20MINE%20ACTION_2025_za%20web.pdf},
note = {PDF document, available online}
}

2022

J. Fardoulis, X. Depreytere, and J. Guthrie, “Proof: How TIR Imaging Can Locate Buried Cluster Munitions in the Iraqi Desert," The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, vol. 25, iss. 3, p. 13, 2022.
[BibTeX]

@article{fardoulis2022proof,
title = {{Proof: How TIR Imaging Can Locate Buried Cluster Munitions in the Iraqi Desert}},
author = {Fardoulis, John and Depreytere, Xavier and Guthrie, Jonathon},
journal = {The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction},
volume = {25},
number = {3},
pages = {13},
year = {2022}
}

2020

J. Fardoulis, X. Depreytere, P. Gallien, K. Djouhri, B. Abdourhmane, and E. Sauvage, “Proof: How Small Drones Can Find Buried Landmines in the Desert Using Airborne IR Thermography," The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, vol. 24, iss. 2, p. 15, 2020.
[BibTeX]

@article{fardoulis2020proof,
title = {{Proof: How Small Drones Can Find Buried Landmines in the Desert Using Airborne IR Thermography}},
author = {Fardoulis, John and Depreytere, Xavier and Gallien, Pierre and Djouhri, Kheria and Abdourhmane, Ba and Sauvage, Emmanuel},
journal = {The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction},
volume = {24},
number = {2},
pages = {15},
year = {2020}
}

J. Fardoulis and X. Depreytere, “Time to Stem Lightweight Approaches and Focus on Real Minefield Data?," The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, vol. 24, iss. 2, p. 3, 2020.
[BibTeX]

@article{fardoulis2020time,
title = {{Time to Stem Lightweight Approaches and Focus on Real Minefield Data?}},
author = {Fardoulis, John and Depreytere, Xavier},
journal = {The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction},
volume = {24},
number = {2},
pages = {3},
year = {2020}
}

2019

J. Fardoulis, X. Depreytere, E. Sauvage, and P. Gallien, “Drones in the Desert: Augmenting HMA and Socio-Economic Activities in Chad," The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, vol. 23, iss. 1, p. 16, 2019.
[BibTeX]

@article{fardoulis2019drones,
title = {{Drones in the Desert: Augmenting HMA and Socio-Economic Activities in Chad}},
author = {Fardoulis, John and Depreytere, Xavier and Sauvage, Emmanuel and Gallien, Pierre},
journal = {The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction},
volume = {23},
number = {1},
pages = {16},
year = {2019}
}