Robotics expert joins CS staff
Introduction
The Computer Science Department welcomed robotics researcher Wenhao Luo as an assistant professor this year. Luo is an expert in robotics, control theory, and artificial intelligence and is focused on improving interactions between robots and humans, and coordination among multiple robots.
Prior to joining UIC, Luo was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he co-directed the CS Robotics Lab. Luo earned his PhD and MS in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, was a graduate student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, where he studied automation and control, and earned his bachelor’s degree in measurement and control technology from Central South University in Hunan, China.
“I create decision-making algorithms that act as the mind of the robots, so they can be enabled to collaborate safely, efficiently, and reliably with each other and with humans,” Luo said. “We look at enhancing the networking capabilities between the robots through a mobility-communication co-design so that the robots will maintain the capability of information exchange that is adaptive to their motion, allowing them to effectively collaborate.”
Luo is currently working to make roads safer by improving the interactions between human-driven vehicles and automated vehicles. The application of this work could ultimately be extended to coordination between humans and robot systems in manufacturing, warehousing, and healthcare. He is also exploring how to improve coordination for a team of autonomous robots. These include swarms of drones flying and other mobile robots such as ground vehicles.
Prior to joining UIC, Luo was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he co-directed the CS Robotics Lab.