Kris Hauser
Duke University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University, Laboratoire d'Informatique de Paris-Nord, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, University of Freiburg, Duke Medical Center, Electronic Concepts and Engineering (United States)
Papers
105
Total Citations
3,701
H-Index
32
About
Kris Hauser is a prominent robotics researcher whose work spans motion planning, humanoid locomotion, robotic manipulation, and surgical simulation. His contributions have fundamentally advanced how robots navigate complex environments and interact with the physical world. Hauser's early work on legged and humanoid robots broke new ground by developing non-gaited planners capable of handling unpredictable, uneven terrain — allowing robots to use hands, knees, and feet in flexible combinations rather than relying on rigid walking gaits (206 and 114 citations). His multi-modal motion planning framework further enabled robots to reason simultaneously over discrete contact states and continuous motion, a critical advance for dexterous manipulation (145 citations). On the algorithmic side, Hauser's lazy collision-checking planners dramatically improved the efficiency of asymptotically-optimal sampling-based methods, addressing a longstanding bottleneck in practical deployment (162 citations). His trajectory smoothing work similarly made manipulator motion faster and more physically executable (108 citations). Beyond robotics, Hauser made notable contributions to surgical simulation, developing real-time needle insertion algorithms relevant to biopsies and neurosurgery (156 citations). His leadership in analyzing the landmark Amazon Picking Challenge (425 citations) helped define open problems in warehouse automation. Collectively, his research has accumulated over 1,600 citations, reflecting broad and lasting influence across robotics and human-robot interaction.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Analysis and Observations From the First Amazon Picking Challenge425 citations · 2016
- 2Motion Planning for Legged Robots on Varied Terrain206 citations · 2008
- 3Lazy collision checking in asymptotically-optimal motion planning162 citations · 2015
- 4Interactive simulation of surgical needle insertion and steering156 citations · 2009
- 5Randomized multi-modal motion planning for a humanoid robot manipulation task145 citations · 2010
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- 7Non-gaited humanoid locomotion planning114 citations · 2006
- 8The minimum constraint removal problem with three robotics applications110 citations · 2013
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