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Terrence W Fong
Postdoctoral Fellow

No longer a member of RI.

For more information, see my personal homepage.

Jump to: Research interests | Keywords | Additional Interests and Responsibilities | Labs & Groups | Projects | Publications

Research interests

Vehicle teleoperation has traditionally been a domain for experts. Figuring out where the vehicle is, determining where it should go, and remotely driving it are complex problems. These problems can be difficult to solve, especially if the vehicle must operate in a hazardous environment, over a poor communications link, or with limited operator resources. As a result, expert operators are needed far more often than not.

My goal is to make vehicle teleoperation accessible to all users, novices and experts alike. Thus, I am creating easy-to-use user interfaces that enable efficient, robust teleoperation in unknown, unstructured environments (both indoor & outdoor). In particular, my thesis research focuses on "Collaborative Control", a new robot-centric model for teleoperation.

With "Collaborative Control", instead of the human always being "in charge", the robot works as a peer and makes requests of the human. In other words, the human is treated as an imprecise, limited source of planning and information, just like sensors and maps and other noisy modules.

Research interest keywords

field robotics, human-computer interaction, mobile robots, and teleoperation

Additional Interests and Responsibilities

I am currently conducting my thesis research at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Switzerland. At EPFL, I work in the Virtual Reality and Active Interfaces (VRAI) Group in collaboration with Dr. Charles Baur. I regularly direct EPFL undergraduate projects and each fall, I co-supervise an EPFL Master's student (thesis work performed while visiting CMU). I am also a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) "Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee" (SARTC).

Past Labs & Groups

NavLab - Autonomous Vehicles and Driver Assistance
 

Past Projects

Global Connection Project - The Global Connection Project develops software tools and technologies to increase the power of images to connect, inform, and inspire people to become engaged and responsible global citizens.
Lunar Rover Initiative - first interactive space exploration event
Tactical Mobile Robotics - As part of the DARPA Tactial Mobile Robotics program, we are developing techniques for semi-autonomous navigation of a small robot in urban environments.
Unmanned Ground Vehicles - Developing autonomous navigation capabilities for mobile robots driving in complex, unstructured outdoor terrain.

Recent publications [View all 53 publications]

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