Developing hardware and software for a new robot is traditionally a complex process that requires the time-consuming efforts of experienced engineers. Furthermore, historically, the decisions that are made in the process of engineering robots are based on the prior knowledge of the developers and do not always include a mathematical computation of their performance. The development of an automated and computational design pipeline that is supported by solid mathematical predictions would help researchers to more readily create new highly capable and cost effective robots. My research aims to develop the computational methods that underpin a rich ecosystem of robotic devices that have the potential to improve various aspects of our lives, including industrial manufacturing, search and rescue, health services, and education. However, this paradigm of computer-aided robot design introduces unique challenges including those relating to interrelating different layers of the robot development process, from mechanical design to optimal control.

Sehoon Ha is an associate research scientist in Disney Research Pittsburgh. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Sehoon’s research interests are in computer graphics and robotics, including physics-based control, fabrication, design optimization, optimal control, and deep reinforcement learning. He developed computational approaches for automating the complex robot development process by jointly optimizing hardware and software. He also proposed a set of general computational methods for designing a variety of agile motion controllers for virtual and real robots.