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About

Yanbo Chen is a robotics researcher whose work spans assistive technology, autonomous navigation, and advanced sensing systems. His most recognized contribution is his comfort-based approach to quadruped guidance robots for the visually impaired, a line of work that has garnered over 45 citations and represents a meaningful shift in how assistive robotics is designed. Unlike prior systems that treated human users as passive loads, Chen's framework explicitly incorporates human response behavior and comfort, making guidance robots more practical and accessible at lower cost. This human-centered philosophy reflects a broader commitment to translating robotic capability into real-world, socially beneficial applications. Beyond assistive robotics, Chen has made notable contributions to autonomous terrain traversal, developing a hybrid trajectory optimization method for articulated tracked robots that generates stable, efficient motion while reducing operator cognitive load — work that has attracted growing interest with 13 citations since its 2023 publication. His more recent research introduces VTire, a bimodal visuotactile smart tire with high-resolution sensing, pushing the frontier of environmental perception for wheeled robots and vehicles. Across these diverse projects, Chen demonstrates a consistent focus on bridging intelligent autonomy with practical engineering challenges.