Papers
129
Total Citations
1,909
H-Index
22
About
Dennis Hong is a pioneering roboticist whose work spans autonomous vehicles, humanoid robots, legged locomotion, and novel actuation systems. Best known for leading Team VictorTango's entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge, his autonomous vehicle "Odin" navigated complex urban environments without human intervention, earning 253 citations and establishing Hong as a leading figure in autonomous robotics. His contributions extend across a remarkable breadth of platforms: from IMPASS, a creative spoke-wheeled robot capable of traversing uneven terrain, to ALPHRED, a multi-modal quadruped designed for real-world package delivery applications. Hong's work on humanoid robots is equally notable, encompassing push recovery controllers for bipedal walking, the miniature compliant biped BRUCE, and a twelve-degree-of-freedom baby humanoid head driven by shape memory alloy actuators — demonstrating his flair for biologically inspired design. His team's participation in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials further underscores his commitment to practical, competition-proven robotics research. Even early in his career, Hong explored unconventional locomotion concepts such as amoeba-inspired whole-skin movement. Collectively, his body of work reflects a relentless curiosity and systems-level ingenuity that continues to shape the future of intelligent, autonomous machines.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Odin: Team VictorTango's entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge253 citations · 2008
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- 3Analysis and Noise Modeling of the Intel RealSense D435 for Mobile Robots61 citations · 2019
- 4IMPASS: Intelligent Mobility Platform with Active Spoke System59 citations · 2009
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- 7Team THOR's Entry in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials 201346 citations · 2015
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- 9Learning full body push recovery control for small humanoid robots35 citations · 2011
- 10Whole Skin Locomotion Inspired by Amoeboid Motility Mechanisms34 citations · 2005