Guiding Vector Fields for Robot Motion Control
Weijia Yao · 2021
As I am writing the acknowledgments, I cannot help reflecting on the four years of my PhD journey.Perhaps one of the most unexpected events is the COVID-19 pandemic, and no one would predict that we have been socially distancing with each other for more than a year since the lock-down of the Netherlands in March, 2020.We also experienced the first nationwide curfew since World War II for more than three months.Nevertheless, I managed to keep advancing on the PhD journey, and I am finally reaching the destination!This would not have been possible without the help from many people, to whom I would like to pay my special regards.First of all, I would like to express my eternal gratitude to my primary supervisor Prof. Ming Cao.Thank you for offering me the opportunity to pursue my PhD degree at the prestigious University of Groningen, and for helping me grow to be an independent researcher.In particular, I always enjoy being an audience of your group meetings, where everyone is encouraged to ask the speaker any kind of questions.On the other hand, it is never easy to be a speaker at the group meetings!When I gave a presentation at one of the meetings for the first time, I received perhaps more than sixty questions, and my presentation lasted for literally two hours!Thank you also for your valuable academic and life advice, as well as honest and helpful criticism.I have learned to clearly see both my strengths and weaknesses.In addition, I am particularly grateful for your detailed guidance when we were preparing the presentation to compete for the ICRA best conference paper award in 2021, and I could not appreciate it more when I saw you present during my (online) talk at 2:30 AM! (By the way, that is my first and last time sleeping in my office in Groningen.)I would also like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my secondary supervisor Prof. Jacquelien M.A. Scherpen for her generous support and encouragement.Thank you for suggesting courses for my personal development, and for helping me out when I was in need.I appreciate the Dutch specialty "nieuwjaarsrolletjes" with cream you bring to the group at the beginning of every year (except 2021 due to COVID-19), and the annual (physical and virtual) group outings that you and many others organized.My profound gratitude also goes to my collaborators, including Bohuan Lin,