David's portrait

David Cordova Bulens

Postdoctoral research fellow at University College Dublin, Ireland

About

I am a postdoctoral research fellow at University College Dublin. I am currently studying the sense of touch and its role in dexterous manipulation. More precisely, I try to understand how tactile sensory informations is used by the nervous system to adapt grip forces and maintain a stable grip during active object manipulation. I also design and develop tactile robotic sensors capable of detecting slippage and able to measure the coefficient of friction of a surface.

My goal is to implement these sensors onto robotic grippers to enable robots to perceive, explore and manipulate their environment. I am also interested in control theory and human motor control. Indeed, during my PhD I studied handedness and the differences in control strategy between the two arms.


Download My Resume

Publications

2023

Incipient Slip Detection with a Biomimetic Skin Morphology
David Cordova Bulens, Nathan F. Lepora, Stephen J. Redmond, Benjamin Ward-Cherrier
IROS 2023

2023

Open-source instrumented object to study dexterous object manipulation
David Cordova Bulens, Sophie du Bois de Dunilac, Benoit P. Delhaye, Philippe Lefèvre, Stephen J. Redmond
eNeuro

2023

Identifying Expert Behavior in Offline Training Datasets Improves Behavioral Cloning of Robotic Manipulation Policies
Qiang Wang, Robert McCarthy, David Cordova Bulens, Francisco Roldan Sanchez, Kevin McGuinness, Noel E. O'Connor, Stephen J. Redmond
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

2023

Robust Learning-Based Incipient Slip Detection Using the PapillArray Optical Tactile Sensor for Improved Robotic Gripping
Qiang Wang, Pablo Martinez Ulloa, Robert Burke, David Cordova Bulens, Stephen J. Redmond
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

2023

Improving Behavioural Cloning with Positive Unlabeled Learning
Qiang Wang, Robert McCarthy, David Cordova Bulens, Kevin McGuinness, Noel E. O'Connor, Francisco Roldan Sanchez, Nico Gurtler, Felix Widmaier, Stephen J. Redmond
CoRL 2023 Conference

2023

A Tactile Sensing Concept for 3-D Displacement and 3-D Force Measurement Using Light Angle and Intensity Sensing
Olivia Leslie, David Cordova Bulens, Stephen J. Redmond
IEEE Sensors Journal

2023

Different control strategies drive interlimb differences in performance and adaptation during reaching movements in novel dynamics
David Cordova Bulens, Tyler Cluff, Laurent Blondeau, Robert T. Moore, Philippe Lefèvre, Frédéric Crevecoeur
eNeuro

2023

Biomechanics of Finger Pad Response under Torsion
Sophie du Bois de Dunilac, David Cordova Bulens, Philippe Lefèvre, Stephen J. Redmond, Benoit P. Delhaye
Journal of the Royal Society Interface

2022

Incipient Slip Detection for Rectilinear Movements using the PapillArray Tactile Sensor
Pablo Martinez Ulloa, David Cordova Bulens, Stephen J. Redmond
2022 IEEE Sensors (Conference location: Dallas, TX, USA)

2022

Behaviour Discriminator: A Simple Data Filtering Method to Improve Offline Policy Learning
Qiang Wang, Robert McCarthy, David Cordova Bulens, Kevin McGuinness, Noel E. O'Connor, Francisco Roldan Sanchez, Stephen J. Redmond
arxiv

2022

Dexterous Robotic Manipulation using Deep Reinforcement Learning and Knowledge Transfer for Complex Sparse Reward-based Tasks
Qiang Wang, Francisco Roldan Sanchez, Robert McCarthy, David Cordova Bulens, Kevin McGuinness, Noel O'Connor, Manuel Wüthrich, Felix Widmaier, Stefan Bauer, Stephen J Redmond
Expert Systems

2021

Modeling the Optical Sensing Principle of the PapillArray Tactile Sensor
Pablo Martinez Ulloa, David Cordova Bulens, Benjamin Xia, Heba Khamis, Stephen J. Redmond
2021 IEEE Sensors (Conference location: Sidney, Australia)

2021

Solving the Real Robot Challenge using Deep Reinforcement Learning
Robert McCarthy, Francisco Roldan Sanchez, Qiang Wang, David Cordova Bulens, Kevin McGuinness, Noel O'Connor, Stephen J. Redmond
arxiv

2019

Robot-assisted line bisection in patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Charlotte Verfaille , Lieve Filbrich, David Cordova Bulens, Philippe Lefèvre, Anne Berquin, Olivier Barbier, Xavier Libouton, Virginie Fraselle, Dominique Mouraux, Valéry Legrain
PLOS ONE (May 2, 2019)

2018

Optimal use of limb mechanics distributes control during bimanual tasks
David Córdova Bulens, Frédéric Crevecoeur, Jean-Louis Thonnard, Philippe Lefèvre
Journal of Neurophysiology (Volume: 119, Issue: 3, March 2018, Pages: 921-932)

2016

Simple and reliable method to estimate the fingertip static coefficient of friction in precision grip
Allan Barrea, David Córdova Bulens, Philippe Lefèvre, Jean-Louis Thonnard
IEEE Transactions on Haptics ( Volume: 9, Issue: 4, Oct.-Dec. 1 2016)

Education

PhD in Neuroscience
UCLouvain
September 2013 - December 2017

Master in Electromechanical Engineering,
with focus in Mechatronics

UCLouvain
2011 - 2013

Bachelor in Electromechanical engineering
UCLouvain
2008 - 2011

Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher
University College Dublin
September 2020 - present

• I am currently studying the sense of touch and its role in dexterous manipulation. More precisely, I try to understand how tactile sensory informations is used by the nervous system to adapt grip forces and maintain a stable grip during active object manipulation.
• I also design and develop tactile robotic sensors capable of detecting slippage and able to measure the coefficient of friction of a surface. My goal is to implement these sensors onto robotic grippers to enable robots to perceive, explore and manipulate their environment.


IC analog designer
nSilition sprl,
January 2018 - August 2020

• I designed and layouted the complete power management unit for various devices for automotive, spatial, high speed communication purposes and low power devices. This includes the design of Bandgaps, LDOs, Current references.
• I designed specific blocs such as temperature sensors and oscillators.
• I updated the design of LVDS transmitter and receiver devices with transmission frequencies up to 2.5GHz.
• I designed analog blocs in high voltage (40V) technology.
• I have experience in radiation tolerant analog design.
• I performed mixed-mode simulations of complex mixed-signal devices to verify these test specifications through simulation.
• I layouted several devices in 180nm and 65nm technology. Including several high frequency and high power devices.

Contact


david.cordovabulens@ucd.ie
linkedin.com/in/DavidCordovaBulens/
@David_Cordova_B
Dublin, Ireland