Objectives of Work:

• Image processing systems for unmanned aircraft
• Danger recognition and obstacle avoidance
• Visual navigation
• Student guidance

Academic Background:

Doctorate, Technical University Braunschweig, Mechanical Engineering
Topic: Image-based environmental recognition for autonomous flights

Diploma (Master), Humboldt University Berlin, Computer Science
Topic: Stereo-based collision avoidance for a small unmanned helicopter

Professional career at DLR:

since 2010: Research scientist, Institute of Flight Systems
2006-2010: Doctoral student, Institute of Flight Systems
2005-2006: Graduate student, Institute of Flight Systems

Selected Publications:

Franz Andert, Florian Adolf, Lukas Goormann, Joerg Dittrich: Mapping and path planning in complex environments: An obstacle approach for an unmanned helicopter.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Shanghai, China, 2011

Franz Andert, Florian Adolf, Lukas Goormann, Joerg Dittrich: Autonomous vision-based helicopter flights through obstacle gates. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 2011, Vol. 57(1-4), pp. 259–280

Franz Andert, Florian Adolf: Online world modeling and path planning for an unmanned helicopter. Autonomous Robots, 2011, Vol. 27(3), pp. 147–164

Florian Adolf, Franz Andert, Sven Lorenz, Lukas Goormann, Joerg Dittrich: An unmanned helicopter for autonomous flights in urban terrain. In Kroeger, T. and Wahl, F. M. (eds.), Advances in Robotics Research, 2009, pp. 275–285

Franz Andert, Lukas Goormann: A fast and small 3-D obstacle model for autonomous applications. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Nice, France, 2008

Franz Andert, Lukas Goormann: Combined grid and feature-based occupancy map building in large outdoor environments. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Diego, USA, 2007