The School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Seminar Series, “Safe and Robust Robot Interaction through Compliance and Tactile Perception” Presented by Dr. Hojung Choi

About the event

Safe and Robust Robot Interaction through Compliance and Tactile Perception

Presented by

Dr. Hojung Choi, Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University

Abstract:

As robots increasingly interact with the physical world, the ability to sense and respond to contact becomes crucial for safe and robust behavior—especially in unstructured environments filled with variability and uncertainty. In this talk, I will present my work on enabling physical intelligence in robots by integrating compliance and tactile sensing across a range of robot platforms. I will share strategies for embedding tactile sensors in soft wearable systems, rigid robot surfaces, and dexterous end-effectors, with applications spanning human-robot interaction, in-the-wild object manipulation, and drone-based contact tasks. Through these case studies, I will highlight how combining compliance and tactile perception allows robots to adaptively modulate contact, perceive complex physical interactions, and ultimately move toward safer, more capable behavior in the real world.

Biography:

Hojung Choi is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford Univeristy, in the Robotics and Embodied AI Lab (REAL) led by Professor Shuran Song. His research is in multimodal robot learning, tactile sensing, and robot manipulation. He received his PhD (advisor: Mark Cutkosky) and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University in 2024 and 2020, respectively. During his studies, he also worked at Meta Reality Labs. Prior to Stanford, he completed his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in 2018. He is a recipient of the Kwanjeong Fellowship.