essential
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Research & Innovation

Driving innovation at the intersection of Digital Twin, Autonomous Systems, and Engineering AI

50+ Publications
16 H-Index
21 i10-Index

Overview

My research is driven by a vision to bridge the gap between simulation and reality, AI and model-based approaches, enabling engineering systems to be more efficient, autonomous, and trustworthy. With over 50 publications and patents in leading venues (IEEE Trans., Automatica, IROS, CDC, IFAC,…) and industrial events, my work integrates systems engineering, control theory, simulation, testing, and AI to develop the next generation of Digital Twin, Autonomous Systems, and Engineering AI. Since 2019, I serve on the IEEE CSS Conference Editorial Board.

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Publications

Digital Twin 12

2026

Target Cascading Kinematics and Compliance Tables to Suspension Design

P Brigida, P Di Carlo, N Di Gioia, T Geluk, S Tong, M Alirand, D Gorgoretti, ...
WCX SAE World Congress Experience, 2026
2025

Material-informed Gaussian Splatting for 3D World Reconstruction in a Digital Twin

A Huynh, JM Silva, H Caesar, TD Son
arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.20348, 2025
2024

Learning-based NMPC Adaptation for Autonomous Driving using Parallelized Digital Twin

JP Allamaa, P Patrinos, H Van der Auweraer, TD Son
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology 33 (4), 1317-1332, 2024
2024

NMPC at its Limit: Autonomous Racing and Lap-Time Optimization using Digital Twins

JP Allamaa, V Grange, P Patrinos, TD Son
Preprint
2023

Continuous Engineering for Trustworthy Learning-enabled Autonomous Systems

S Bensalem, P Katsaros, D Nickovic, BHC Liao, RR Nolasco, ...
International Conference on Bridging the Gap between AI and Reality, 256-278, 2023
2023

Reinforcement Learning from Simulation to Real World Autonomous Driving using Digital Twin

KL Voogd, JP Allamaa, J Alonso-Mora, TD Son
IFAC-PapersOnLine 56 (2), 1510-1515, 2023
2022

Virtual Reality Assisted Human Perception in ADAS Development: a Munich 3D Model Study

F Bognar, M Oster, H Van der Auweraer, TD Son
arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.07208, 2022
2022

Sim2Real for Autonomous Vehicle Control using Executable Digital Twin

JP Allamaa, P Patrinos, H Van der Auweraer, TD Son
IFAC-PapersOnLine 55 (24), 385-391, 2022
2021

Model in the Loop Testing and Validation of Embedded Autonomous Driving Algorithms

D Bruggner, A Hegde, FS Acerbo, D Gulati, TD Son
IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 136-141, 2021
2020

Mixed-reality Testing of Multi-vehicle Coordination in an Automated Valet Parking Environment

M Kneissl, S vom Dorff, A Molin, M Denniel, TD Son, NO Lleras, H Esen, ...
IFAC-PapersOnLine 53 (2), 17564-17571, 2020
2019

Simulation-based Testing Framework for Autonomous Driving Development

TD Son, A Bhave, H Van der Auweraer
2019 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics (ICM), 576-583, 2019
2018

A Simulation-based Testing and Validation Framework for ADAS Development

TD Son, J Hubrechts, L Awatsu, A Bhave, H Van der Auweraer
7th Transport Research Arena (TRA), 2018

Autonomous Systems 23

2026

Is this the real driver, or is it just a robot? A study of human-like autonomous driving controllers in a driving simulator

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, TD Son
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 120, 2026
2026

Robustified Time-optimal Motion Planning and Control: Practical Formulation, Implementation and Validation

S Zhang, J Swevers, S Tong
2026
2026

Method to operate a vehicle, method to test an autonomous driving system, system with a vehicle

T Geluk, S Tong
US Patent 12,534,107, 2026
2025

Bayesian Optimization for Automatic Tuning of Torque-Level Nonlinear Model Predictive Control

G Fadini, D Ingole, TD Son, A Rupenyan
arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.03772, 2025
2025

Embedded Learning and Optimization for Interaction-aware Model Predictive Control

R Wang, P Patrinos, TD Son
2025
2025

Is This the Real Driver, or Is It Just a Robot? A Human-in-the-Loop Validation of Autonomous Driving Controllers

FS Acerbo, T Tuytelaars, S Tong
Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 2025
2025

Learning from Demonstrations for Human-Like Autonomous Driving: A Differentiable Optimal Control Approach

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, S Tong
2025
2024

Driving from Vision through Differentiable Optimal Control

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, TD Son
2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2024
2024

AV-Occupant Perceived Risk Model for Cut-In Scenarios with Empirical Evaluation

S Barendswaard, TD Son
2024 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2956-2961, 2024
2024

Personalized End-to-End Autonomous Driving Control on a Hexapod Simulator with Differentiable NMPC

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, S Tong
Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 2024
2024

Real-time MPC with Control Barrier Functions for Autonomous Driving using Safety Enhanced Collocation

JP Allamaa, P Patrinos, T Ohtsuka, TD Son
IFAC-PapersOnLine 58 (18), 392-399, 2024
2023

Safety Envelope for Orthogonal Collocation Methods in Embedded Optimal Control

JP Allamaa, P Patrinos, H Van der Auweraer, TD Son
2023 European Control Conference (ECC), 1-7, 2023
2023

Evaluation of Autonomous Driving Controllers for Human-like Performance

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, S Tong
Benelux Meeting on Systems and Control, 2023
2023

Evaluation of MPC-based Imitation Learning for Human-like Autonomous Driving

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, TD Son
IFAC-PapersOnLine 56 (2), 4871-4876, 2023
2022

MPC-based Imitation Learning for Safe and Human-like Autonomous Driving

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, TD Son
arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.12348, 2022
2022

Real-time Nonlinear MPC Strategy with Full Vehicle Validation for Autonomous Driving

JP Allamaa, P Listov, H Van der Auweraer, C Jones, TD Son
2022 American Control Conference (ACC), 1982-1987, 2022
2022

Method and System for Controlling an Autonomous Vehicle Device to Repeatedly Follow a Same Predetermined Trajectory

S Tong
US Patent 11,249,485, 2022
2021

Learning Control Applications for Autonomous Driving in Extreme Maneuver Scenarios

TD Son, L Nguyen, H Van Der Auweraer
2021 21st International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS), 2021
2021

Safe Imitation Learning on Real-life Highway Data for Human-like Autonomous Driving

FS Acerbo, M Alirczaei, H Van der Auweraer, TD Son
2021 IEEE International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), 2021
2021

Enhancing Comfort in Autonomous Driving Development

S Tong, FS Acerbo, L Ruga, A Hegde, T Geluk, H Auweraer
2021
2020

Learning Control for Autonomous Driving on Slippery Snowy Road Conditions

RR Arany, H Van der Auweraer, TD Son
2020 IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), 312-317, 2020
2019

Safety-critical Control for Non-affine Nonlinear Systems with Application on Autonomous Vehicle

TD Son, Q Nguyen
2019 IEEE 58th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 7623-7628, 2019
2019

Manifold Learning and Optimal Control for Obstacle Avoidance in Autonomous Driving

SS Diwale, TD Son, C Jones
2019

Engineering AI 22

2026

Toward Generalizable Graph Learning for 3D Engineering AI: Explainable Workflows for CAE Mode Shape Classification and CFD Field Prediction

TD Son, K Sugiura, M Brughmans, A Hense, Z Liu, A Veeraraghavan, ...
arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.07781, 2026
2026

Automotive Engineering-Centric Agentic AI Workflow Framework

TD Son, Z Liu, P Brigida, Y Akhmetov, G Devarajan, K Liu, A Bhave
arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.07784, 2026
2025

ExAMPC: the Data-driven Explainable and Approximate NMPC with Physical Insights

JP Allamaa, P Patrinos, TD Son
2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2025
2025

Imitation Learning from Observations: An Autoregressive Mixture of Experts Approach

R Wang, FS Acerbo, TD Son, P Patrinos
2025 European Control Conference (ECC), 2031-2037, 2025
2024

Learning from Visual Demonstrations through Differentiable Nonlinear MPC for Personalized Autonomous Driving

FS Acerbo, J Swevers, T Tuytelaars, TD Son
CoRR, 2024
2023

Learning from Demonstrations of Critical Driving Behaviours using Driver's Risk Field

Y Du, FS Acerbo, J Kober, TD Son
IFAC-PapersOnLine 56 (2), 2774-2779, 2023
2020

Safe and Computational Efficient Imitation Learning for Autonomous Vehicle Driving

FS Acerbo, H Van der Auweraer, TD Son
2020 American Control Conference (ACC), 647-652, 2020
2018

RoFaLT: An Optimization-based Learning Control Tool for Nonlinear Systems

A Steinhauser, TD Son, E Hostens, J Swevers
2018 IEEE 15th International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control (AMC), 198-203, 2018
2017

A Generalized Frequency Domain Learning Control Design with Experimental Validation

TD Son, G Pipeleers, J Swevers, H Van der Auweraer
IECON 2017-43rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, 2017
2017

Multi-objective Iterative Learning Control using Convex Optimization

TD Son, G Pipeleers, J Swevers
European Journal of Control 33, 35-42, 2017
2016

Robust Performance Iterative Learning Control: Analysis, Synthesis and Experimental Validation

TD Son, A Steinhauser, G Pipeleers, J Swevers
2016 European Control Conference (ECC), 2316-2321, 2016
2016

Iterative Learning Control for Multi-Variable Systems

TD Son
PhD Thesis, KU Leuven, Belgium, 2016
2015

Robust Monotonic Convergent Iterative Learning Control

TD Son, G Pipeleers, J Swevers
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 61 (4), 1063-1068, 2015
2015

Robust Analysis and Synthesis with Unstructured Model Uncertainty in Lifted System Iterative Learning Control

TD Son, G Pipeleers, J Swevers
2015 American Control Conference (ACC), 4892-4897, 2015
2014

Experimental Validation of Robust Iterative Learning Control on an Overhead Crane Test Setup

S Tong Duy, J Swevers, G Pipeleers
The 19th IFAC World Congress, Cape Town, South Africa, 2014
2013

Robust Optimal Iterative Learning Control with Model Uncertainty

TD Son, G Pipeleers, J Swevers
The 52nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Florence, Italy, 2013
2013

Optimal Iterative Learning Control Design with Trial-varying Initial Conditions

TD Son, G Pipeleers, J Swevers
2013 European Control Conference (ECC), 1181-1186, 2013
2013

Iterative Learning Control in Optimal Tracking Problems with Specified Data Points

TD Son, HS Ahn, KL Moore
Automatica 49 (5), 1465-1472, 2013
2012

Optimal Iterative Learning Control with Uncertain Reference Points

TD Son, HS Ahn
2012 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, 1244-1248, 2012
2011

Iterative Learning Control for Optimal Multiple-point Tracking

TD Son, DH Nguyen, HS Ahn
50th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference (CDC-ECC), 2011
2011

An Interpolation Method of Multiple Terminal Iterative Learning Control

TD Son, DH Nguyen, HS Ahn
2011 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC), 1528-1533, 2011
2011

Terminal Iterative Learning Control with Multiple Intermediate Pass Points

TD Son, HS Ahn
American Control Conference (ACC), 3651-3656, 2011

Last updated: 2026-06-11

Dr. Son Tong

R&D Engineering Manager in ADAS, Digital Twin & AI

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