Dr. Van’s research focuses on two key research areas: robotics and control engineering.

• In robotics, the research work focuses on building fundamental capabilities to address practical problems that limit the use and potential impact of robotics in industry, i.e., welding robot, finishing robot, human-robot interaction.
• In control engineering, the research work focuses on robust control, model predictive control, shared control and adaptive control. The control theories are applicable for robotics, manufacturing systems and marine engineering: launch and recovery systems.