Dan Kruse

Toyota Motor Corporation (United States), Toyota Research Institute

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Dan Kruse is a roboticist pushing the boundaries of mobile manipulation in unstructured, real-world environments. His research centers on enabling robots to perform complex tasks outside the lab, with a particular focus on perception, motion planning, and nonprehensile manipulation. In his highly-cited 2023 work, *Demonstrating Mobile Manipulation in the Wild: A Metrics-Driven Approach*, Kruse presented a general-purpose mobile manipulation system that successfully performed grocery shopping in an unmodified store—a landmark demonstration of robustness and real-world applicability. He further expanded the scope of robotic capability in his 2025 paper on bimanual nonprehensile manipulation, tackling the challenge of picking bulky or irregularly shaped objects that defeat conventional grippers. Kruse also contributed to the speed and reliability of robot motion planning, achieving sub-second Cartesian target planning for high-degree-of-freedom systems using large-scale dynamic roadmaps. With over 15 citations to his most prominent works, Kruse is recognized for his metrics-driven approach and commitment to field-testing, making him a leading voice in the transition of mobile manipulation from controlled labs to the messy, dynamic world.