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Terrence W Fong
Postdoctoral Fellow

No longer a member of RI.

For more information, see my personal homepage.

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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.

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

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).

• NavLab - Autonomous Vehicles and Driver Assistance

• 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.

• Preliminary Results of Hydrogen Prospecting with a Planetary Rover
  R. Elphic, H. Utz, M.G. Bualat, M. Deans, T.W. Fong, L. Kobayashi, S. Lee, and V. To
  39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, No. 2400, March, 2008. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [189 KB] copyrighted

• Human Supervision of Robotic Site Survey
  D. Schreckenghost, T.W. Fong, and T. Milam
  6th Conference on Human/Robotic Technology and the Vision for Space Exploration, February, 2008. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [502 KB] copyrighted

• Robotic Site Survey at Haughton Crater
  T.W. Fong, M. Allan, X. Bouyssounouse, M.G. Bualat, M. Deans, L. Edwards, L. Flückiger, L. Keely, S.Y. Lee, D. Lees, V. To, and H. Utz
  9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space, February, 2008. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [1570 KB] copyrighted

• Analog Lunar Robotic Site Survey at Haughton Crater
  T.W. Fong, M. Deans, M. Bualat, L. Flueckiger, M. Allan, H. Utz, S. Lee, V. To, and P. Lee
  Workshop on Enabling Exploration: The Lunar Outpost and Beyond, LEAG, No. 3058, October, 2007. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [1023 KB] copyrighted

• Enabling Exploration: Robotic Site Surveys and Prospecting for Hydrogen
  R. Elphic, L. Kobayashi, M. Allan, M. Bualat, M. Deans, T.W. Fong, S. Lee, V. To, and H. Utz
  Workshop on Enabling Exploration: The Lunar Outpost and Beyond, LEAG, No. 3046, October, 2007. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [218 KB] copyrighted

• Autonomous Robotic Inspection for Lunar Surface Operations
  M. Bualat, L. Edwards, T.W. Fong, M. Broxton, L. Flueckiger, S.Y. Lee, E. Park, V. To, H. Utz, V. Verma, C. Kunz, and M. MacMahon
  6th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, July, 2007. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [861 KB] copyrighted

• Crew/Robot Coordinated Planetary EVA Operations at a Lunar Base Analog Site
  M. Diftler, R. Ambrose, W. Bluethmann, F. Delgado, E. Herrera, J. Kosmo, B. Janoiko, B. Wilcox, J. Townsend, J. Matthews, T.W. Fong, M. Bualat, S.Y. Lee, J. Dorsey, and W. Doggett
  38th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, No. 1937, March, 2007. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [626 KB] copyrighted

• Simulated Lunar Robotic Survey at Terrestrial Analog Sites
  T.W. Fong, M. Deans, P. Lee, and M. Bualat
  38th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, No. 1487, March, 2007. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [265 KB] copyrighted

• A Preliminary Study of Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction
  T.W. Fong, J. Scholtz, J. Shah, L. Flueckiger, C. Kunz, D. Lees, J. Schreiner, M. Siegel, L. Hiatt, I. Nourbakhsh, R. Simmons, R. Ambrose, R. Burridge, B. Antonishek, M. Bugajska, A. Schultz, and J.G. Trafton
  International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, IEEE, October, 2006. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [737 KB] copyrighted

• Human-Robot Site Survey and Sampling for Space Exploration
  T.W. Fong, M. Bualat, L. Edwards, L. Flueckiger, C. Kunz, S.Y. Lee, E. Park, V. To, H. Utz, N. Ackner, N. Armstrong-Crews, and J. Gannon
  AIAA Space 2006, September, 2006. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [2064 KB] copyrighted