Enhancing Embodied Intelligence through Adaptive Morphology
Speaker
Van Anh Ho
Ph.D. degree in robotics from Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan
Title
"Enhancing Embodied Intelligence through Adaptive Morphology"
Abstract
My research philosophy revolves around elucidating the fundamental physics behind intriguing natural phenomena, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to engineer these principles, and applying them to develop innovative mechanisms that foster the safe, intelligent, and resilient coexistence of robotic systems with humans. This approach encompasses both the scientific and technological dimensions of robotics, emphasizing translational research.
In this presentation, I will concentrate on our endeavors to design systems with adaptive morphology and embodied intelligence. These systems are adept at swiftly adapting to the ever-changing environmental conditions without imposing excessive computational demands on a central control unit. This also implies that such systems are capable of decentralizing certain calculations, entrusting them to the body itself. Additionally, I will introduce various topics within soft robotics, including soft underwater robots, soft-flying and locomotive robots, morphological designs for soft haptic interfaces, encompassing haptic sensing and haptic display, as well as safety measures and controls for drones and robot arms that rely on adaptive morphology and multimodal sensing.
About Speaker
Van Anh Ho Senior Member, IEEE received the Ph.D. degree in robotics from Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, in 2012. Before that, he obtained the Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam, in 2007; and Master degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2009 at Ritsumeikan University. He completed the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2013 before joining Advanced Research Center Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Japan as a research scientist. From 2015 to 2017, he worked as Assistant Professor with Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan where he led a laboratory on soft haptics, soft modeling. From 2017, he joined the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) for setting up a laboratory on soft robotics. His current research interests are soft robotics, soft haptic interaction, tactile sensing, grasping and manipulation, bio-inspired robots.
He was a recipient of the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowship for Young Scientists for his PhD course (DC) and postdoctoral fellowship. Ho was the recipient of 2019 IEEE Nagoya Chapter Young Researcher Award, and finalists of: Best System Paper at RSS 2023, Best Paper at IEEE SII (2016) and IEEE RoboSoft (2020). He is member of The Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ), and Senior Member of the IEEE. He is serving as Associate Editor for many top international conferences, such as RSS, ICRA, IROS, RoboSoft; as well as for top robotics journals such as IEEE Transactions for Robotics (T-RO), IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), and Advanced Robotics. He is General Co-Chair of 2023 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII), and General Chair of SII 2024, Program Chair of IEEE/RAS RoboSoft 2026.