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About

F. van der Hulst is a leading figure in space robotics, specializing in teleoperation and human-robot interaction for planetary exploration. Their research focuses on enabling astronauts to remotely control robotic assets from orbit to perform complex geology and resource utilization tasks on the Moon and other celestial bodies. Van der Hulst’s most influential work, "Exploring planet geology through force-feedback telemanipulation from orbit" (45 citations), demonstrates how haptic feedback can overcome the challenges of unstructured, remote environments where full automation is infeasible. They were instrumental in the European Space Agency’s ANALOG-1 experiment, a culmination of 12 METERON experiments that validated the technical and operational framework for orbital-to-ground teleoperation. Notably, van der Hulst contributed to the historic 2019 mission where astronaut Luca Parmitano controlled a rover from the ISS to perform geology tasks on a Moon-analog site, a feat later refined in a 2021 volcanic field test. Their work on designing robotic avatars for space-to-ground teleoperation has set benchmarks for future lunar missions, with over 66 total citations underscoring its impact on advancing autonomous and teleoperated exploration systems.