Dr. Eng. Andrei Vatavu

I am a computer science engineer. I received the Diploma Engineer degree in Computer Science in 2006 from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (TUCN), Romania, followed by the M.S. degree in 2008 and PhD degree in Computer Science in 2014 at the same university. I am currently working with Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc., Autonomous Driving Department. My main research interests include sensor fusion, grid map based estimation and object tracking, with the applications in Autonomous Driving.

Main Research Areas

Image Processing, Stereo-Vision Based Perception, Environment Representation,
Obstacle Detection and Tracking, Recursive Bayesian Estimation Techniques, Intelligent Vehicles, Driving Assistance Systems.

Teaching

Image Processing, Object Oriented Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms.

Research Projects

The most relevant research projects:

• Obstacle detection and tracking, Digital Elevation Map based environment representation, part of "PAN-Robots - Plug And Navigate Robots for smart factories", European FP7 project, http://www.pan-robots.eu/,  2012 – 2015.
• "Image Processing Based on Stereo and Mono Cameras for Driver Assistance Systems", research grant funded by Robert Bosch GmbH (beneficiary), 2014.
• Various stereo-vision based environment representation and tracking solutions for driving assistance, part of MultiSens Project, PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-1086
• PERSENS Project, 1522/2009, founded by Romanian Department of Education and Research.
• Monitoring large parallel applications, part of LarKC, FP7 project founded by the EU, 2010-2011.
• Modeling Unstructured Environments by using free-form obstacle delimiters, part of Intersafe2, FP7 project founded by the EU, 2008-2011.
• Forward Collision Detection in Traffic Scenarios, STEREOCLASS – Dense STEREO-Based Object Tracking and Classification for Pre-Crash-Applications, research project funded by Volkswagen AG, Germany, (2008).
• STEREOPED – Dense Stereo-Based Object Tracking and Pedestrian Recognition for Pre-Crash Applications, research project funded by Volkswagen AG, Germany, (2007).
• DESPED – Stereo-Based Object Tracking and Pedestrian Recognition in Traffic environments research project funded by Volkswagen AG, Germany, 2006-2007.