Erik Vanhoutte

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Erik Vanhoutte is a leading researcher in bio-inspired robotics and autonomous micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), with a focus on visual navigation and optical flow sensing. His work draws direct inspiration from insect vision—particularly honeybees—to develop lightweight, low-power visual sensors that enable micro flying robots to navigate complex environments without GPS or metric sensors. Vanhoutte’s most cited paper (17 citations) introduces time-of-travel methods for measuring optical flow on board micro flying robots, using an auto-adaptive, bio-inspired Michaelis-Menten algorithm to achieve fast, accurate motion estimates across a wide speed range. In a second influential study (6 citations), he designed a quasi-panoramic bio-inspired eye that allows MAVs to fly parallel to walls by mimicking honeybee navigational strategies. These contributions are critical for advancing autonomous flight in cluttered, indoor, or GPS-denied settings. Vanhoutte’s work bridges neuroscience and engineering, offering practical solutions for robust, insect-like visual guidance in miniature robots—a key step toward truly autonomous micro air vehicles.