Project Mentors: Prof. Mooi Choo Chuah, Computer Science & Engineering; Prof. Nader Motee, Mechanical Engineering; and Prof. Cristian Vasile, Mechanical Engineering.
2026 Impact Fellows:
Project Description:
The emergence of affordable humanoid robots and AI advancements have made it more feasible to deploy such robots in our daily lives. Humanoid robots can be used in environments that are either unsafe for humans e.g. disaster recovery or too monotonous to keep a human engaged. In this Impact Fellowship project (new in 2026), students will receive hands-on knowledge and training regarding how to conduct research related to such robots, ranging from developing advanced visual perception modules, incorporating multimodal data to control robots movements and using vision language model (VLM) to control the robots to perform useful tasks.
Once we have a grasp on designing both visual and control algorithms for the perception and movement of the humanoid robots, the team will work to develop VLM-based modules that let such humanoid robots perform tasks that can help people with disabilities and senior citizens, e.g. guiding people with low vision impairments around a large building, cleaning tables inside an apartment, encouraging seniors in senior community centers to exercise together with them. These are just some of the potential societal implications of this exciting work, which may be most relevant to CSE and MechE majors, but any student/major with an interest in robotics is welcome to apply.