Maxence Boels

I am a postdoctoral research associate in the Prorok Lab at the University of Cambridge's Department of Computer Science and Technology, working with Prof Amanda Prorok. My research focuses on enabling swarms of drones to navigate rapidly through complex, constrained environments such as narrow doorways and tight passages. Drawing on my background in surgical video understanding and robotics, I develop vision-based perception and control algorithms that allow multi-agent systems to coordinate in real time while avoiding collisions. Previously, I completed my PhD in Surgical AI at King's College London (2021–2025) on surgical workflow prediction in robotic surgery, supervised by Prof. Sebastien Ourselin.

Curriculum Vitae | |

mboels/neural-interface-106

visitor@neural-interface-106:~$

Research Interests

Multi-Agent Aerial Robotics

Vision-based perception and control algorithms for drone swarms navigating constrained environments — narrow doorways and tight passages — with real-time multi-agent coordination and collision avoidance.

PhD Research (KCL, 2021–2025)

Surgical Video Understanding: Recognising surgical anatomical structures and procedural steps—instruments, organs, gestures, and phases— from long and complex surgical videos using deep learning models [ LoViT ],
Expert Imitation Learning: Generating and mimicking expert-level surgical workflows by learning from expert demonstrations using video recordings for planning and decision-making in surgical procedures [ SuPRA | SWAG ],
Workflow Discovery and Planning: Selecting optimal next surgical actions through reasoning and planning about expected future rewards using reinforcement learning, and discovering optimal surgical workflows that maximise desired procedural outcomes for patients, searching for new pathways beyond expert demonstrations [ DARIL ].