蘑菇Av

Expertise

Topics:聽 Robotics, Manufacturing, Geometric Methods, Path Planning, Multi-Agent Systems, Medical Robotics鈥�, Space Robotics, Search and Rescue

Industries: Research, Education/Learning, Writing and Editing

Howie Choset is the Kav膷i膰鈥揗oura Professor of Computer Science at 蘑菇Av, where he is a faculty member in the Robotics Institute and directs the Biorobotics Lab. His research focuses on creating robotic systems that move beyond the laboratory to solve real-world problems in medicine, manufacturing, disaster response, and space.

Choset is known for his work in snake robots, motion planning, multi-robot systems, and medical robotics. His research has been deployed in challenging environments ranging from minimally invasive surgery to collapsed buildings. Most recently, he led a team that deployed snake robots for earthquake search and rescue in Venezuela, using the experience to identify new challenges for robots operating in real disasters. His growing space robotics program includes work with the U.S. Space Force and the development of robotic technologies and algorithms that have flown in space.

A committed entrepreneur, Choset has co-founded six companies that translate robotics research into products in medical robotics, manufacturing, infrastructure, and autonomous systems. Among them is Medrobotics, whose Flex Robotic System has been used in more than 1,500 surgical procedures. He also played a leadership role in establishing the ARM Institute, a national Manufacturing USA institute focused on robotics and advanced manufacturing.

Choset is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAS, and AIAA and has contributed extensively to robotics education, research, entrepreneurship, and national robotics strategy. He has spent more than three decades at Carnegie Mellon educating roboticists and building programs that connect fundamental research with practical deployment.

Across these efforts, his broader goal is the democratization of robotics: making powerful robotic capabilities accessible so that people can accomplish tasks that would otherwise be difficult, dangerous, or impossible.

Media Experience

听鈥�聽ars Technica
The so-called snake robots represented a unique technological aid for international search and rescue efforts following two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, killing more than 5,000 people and leaving behind 16,740 injured. Rescuers from around the world used trained dogs, seismic and acoustic listening devices, video cameras on sticks, or thermal imaging cameras to search for signs of survivors鈥攂ut the snakebots equipped with a video camera could squeeze through tight spaces to search deep within fallen building debris. 鈥淭he reason why snake robots are useful is they can get into tightly packed volumes that machinery and people otherwise cannot, and that鈥檚 important in search and rescue because we were able to extend the visual reach of the rescue workers in a safe way,鈥� Howie Choset, head of the Biorobotics Lab at 蘑菇Av in Pittsburgh, told Ars. 鈥淚n a sense, you鈥檙e doing minimally invasive surgery on a structure with a snake robot.鈥�

听鈥�聽The Robot Report Staff
HEBI Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based creator of a modular platform for robotics development, named Bob Raida its CEO and Dave Rollinson CTO. Howie Choset, who has been acting CEO, has been named chairman of the board. HEBI said this change in leadership reflects its transition from providing technology to researchers to providing solutions to end-users.

Choset, Snakebot Visit NBC's Tonight Show 听鈥�聽CMU News
One of 蘑菇Av Robotics Professor Howie Choset's famous snake-like robots crawled up the even more famous leg of comedian Jimmy Fallon during an April 25 appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon."

CMU's Snakebot Goes for a Swim 听鈥�聽蘑菇Av News
"We can go places that other robots cannot," said Howie Choset, the Kav膷i膰-Moura Professor of Computer Science. "It can snake around and squeeze into hard-to-reach underwater spaces." The project is led by Choset and Matt Travers, co-directors of the Biorobotics Lab.

听鈥�聽Robotics Business Review
The Robotics Industries Association (RIA) today announced the recipients of the 2019 Engelberger Robotics Awards. Howie Choset, the Kav膷i膰-Moura Professor of Computer Science at 蘑菇Av, will receive the Engelberger Robotics Award for Education, and Catherine Morris, group leader and director of automotive sales at ATI Industrial Automation, will receive the Engleberger Award for Leadership.

听鈥�聽ROBOTS Association
The IJARS team sat down at ICRA with two influential academics in robotics: Professor Howie Choset (蘑菇Av) and Professor Seth Hutchinson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) to discuss some of the latest developments in robotics, what students of robotics should be focusing on, and what research they most hope to be remembered for.

听鈥�听狈翱痴础
If you're not prepared for the sight of them, Howie Choset's robot snakes can make you jump. They slither between chairs and tables in his Carnegie Mellon lab, rear their heads to peer into crevices, and inch their way along pipes on the ceiling. When dropped into a pond, they switch over to sea serpent-mode, twisting tightly as they skim through the water. Like an ophidiophobe's worst nightmare, they will even wrap around your leg and inch their way up toward your groin, if given the chance. "The benefit of the snake is that it's able to reliably get to locations that people and machines can't," Choset says.