Research Interests

One of the greatest accomplishments mankind will ever know is the creation of technologies that achieve immense societal benefits through improvements in human productivity, basic capabilities, and quality of life. I am proud to dedicate my life's work to the furtherance of such developments.

My general focus is the design of systems that are able to operate effectively in typical complex human environments. Towards this end, I have a very strong interest in two facets thereof. The first is the improvement of robot perception and locomotion in everyday environments that are far from ideal. This lies somewhere at the junction of planning, vision, manipulation, and controls. The second is the design and implementation of the ubiquitous computing concept of assistive devices. I am specifically interested in the AI or machine learning algorithms that underly the power such devices possess rather than the more common focus on interfaces and usability, which I see as critical practicalities for product design but not appropriate targets for fundamental research.