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Thomas Howard

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 198-219
Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

(818) 354-0930

Fax:

(818) 393-5007
FORMER MEMBER

Thomas M. Howard, Ph.D.

Research Technologist

Biography

Thomas Howard is a Research Technologist with the Robotics Software Systems Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Howard earned a Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009 and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Rochester in 2004. His doctoral thesis research focused on developing model-predictive techniques for mobile robot motion planning in complex, cluttered environments. While at Carnegie Mellon University he contributed the local navigation trajectory planner for Boss, winner of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.

Since joining the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2009 he has worked on developing technologies for motion planning, navigation, control, and simulation of mobile robots and redundant manipulators. A common theme of Dr. Howard’s research centers on the idea of developing a general class of computationally efficient kinodynamic motion planning algorithms that are agnostic to the underlying mechanics of robot-environment interaction. While at Carnegie Mellon University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory he applied his motion planning work on numerous diverse autonomous systems spanning planetary rovers, field robots, intelligent automobiles, and robotic torsos. Dr. Howard has recently led research tasks on perception and pose estimation in poorly illuminated environments and mobile robot search space design. He is a member of the Mars Science Laboratory flight software team working on autonomous navigation and the motion planning lead for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology team on the DARPA Autonomous Robotic Manipulation program. Dr. Howard has authored or co-authored four journal articles, nineteen conference papers, and a book chapter in robot motion planning, navigation, control, and simulation. He has also twice been appointed as a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology where he co-teaches the class Advanced Robotics: Navigation and Vision.

Education

Ph.D. in Robotics (2009)

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA



M.S. in Robotics (2006)

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA



B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2004)

University of Rochester, Rochester, NY



B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2004)

University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Professional Experience

Research Technologist II (2009-): Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, Key Personnel, or contributor for research projects sponsored by NASA, SPAWAR and DARPA.

Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering (2011,2012): Co-taught the two-quarter class Advanced Robotics: Navigation and Vision at the California Institute of Technology.

Research Interests

Mobile Robots, Motion Planning, Navigation, Control, Mobile Manipulation, Redundant Manipulators, System Identification, Autonomous Systems

Publications

2012
  1. Nicolas Hudson, Thomas Howard, Jeremy Ma, Abhinandan Jain, Max Bajracharya, Steven Myint, Calvin Kuo, Larry Matthies, Paul Backes, Paul Hebert, Thomas Fuchs, Joel Burdick, "End-to-End Dexterous Manipulation with Deliberate Interactive Estimation," ICRA 2012 (to appear, nominated for Best Paper in Robotic Manipulation), 09 May 2012.
  2. P. Hebert, N. Hudson, J. Ma, T. Howard, T. Fuchs, M. Bajracharya, J. Burdick, "Combined Shape, Appearance and Silhouette for Simultaneous Manipulator and Object Tracking," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 01 January 2012.
  3. T.M. Howard, A. Morfopoulos, J. Morrison, Y. Kuwata, C. Villalpando, L. Matthies, and M. McHenry, "Enabling Continuous Planetary Rover Navigation through FPGA Stereo and Visual Odometry," in Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 01 January 2012.
  4. Th. Fraichard and T.M. Howard, "Iterative Motion Planning and Safety Issues," In A. Eskandarian, editor, Handbook of Intelligent Vehicles. Springer,, 01 January 2012.
2011
  1. T. Howard, J. Cameron, S. Myint, H. Nayar, and A. Jain, "A KML Interface for Dynamic Simulation of Robotic Planetary Exploration," 2011 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 01 March 2011.
2010
  1. P. Krusi, M. Pivtoraiko, A. Kelly, T.M. Howard, and R. Siegwart, "Path Set Relaxation for Mobile Robot Navigation," in Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space, 01 January 2010.
  2. H. Nayar, A. Jain, J. Balaram, J. Cameron, M. DiCicco, T.M. Howard, Y. Kuwata, C. Lim, R. Mukherjee, S. Myint, A. Palkovic, M. Pomerantz, and S. Wall, "Surface Operations Analyses for Lunar Missions," in Proceedings of the AIAA Space 2010 Conference and Exposition, 01 January 2010.
2009
  1. T.M. Howard, "Adaptive Model-Predictive Motion Planning for Navigation in Complex Environments," doctoral dissertation, tech. report CMU-RI-TR-09-32, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 01 January 2009.
  2. T.M. Howard, C. Green, and A. Kelly, "Receding Horizon Model-Predictive Control for Mobile Robot Navigation of Intricate Paths," in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, 01 January 2009.
  3. P.M. Furlong, T.M. Howard, and D. Wettergreen, "Model Predictive Control for Mobile Robots with Actively Articulating Chassis," in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, 01 January 2009.
2008
  1. D. Anderson, T.M. Howard, D. Apfelbaum, H. Herman, and A. Kelly, "Coordinated Control and Range Imaging for Mobile Manipulation," in Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics, pp. 547-556, 01 January 2008.
  2. Y. Kuwata, A. Elfes, M. Maimone, A. Howard, M. Pivtoraiko, T.M. Howard, and A. Stoica, "Path Planning Challenges for Planetary Robots," IROS Planning, Perception and Navigation for Intelligent Vehicles Workshop, 01 January 2008.
  3. D. Ferguson, T.M. Howard, and M. Likhachev, "Motion Planning in Urban Environments," Journal of Field Robotics, Vol. 25, No. 11-12, pp. 939-960, 01 January 2008.
  4. C. Urmson, J. Anhalt, H. Bae, J. Bagnell, C. Baker, R.E. Bittner, T. Brown, M.N. Clark, M. Darms, D. Demitrish, J. Dolan, D. Duggins, D. Ferguson, T. Galatali, C.M. Geyer, M. Gittleman, S. Harbaugh, M. Hebert, T.M. Howard, S. Kolski, M. Likhachev, B. Litkouhi, A. Kelly, M. McNaughton, N. Miller, J. Nickolaou, K. Peterson, B. Pilnick, R. Rajkumar, P. Rybski, V. Sadekar, B. Salesky, Y. Seo, S. Singh, J.M. Snider, J.C. Struble, A. Stentz, M. Taylor, W.L. Whittaker, Z. Wolkowicki, W. Zhang, and J. Ziglar, "Autonomous Driving in Urban Environments: Boss and the Urban Challenge," Journal of Field Robotics, Vol. 25, No. 8, pp. 425-466, 01 January 2008.
  5. T.M. Howard, C. Green, D. Ferguson, and A. Kelly, "State Space Sampling of Feasible Motions for High Performance Mobile Robot Navigation in Complex Environments," Journal of Field Robotics, Vol. 25, No. 6-7, pp. 325-345, 01 January 2008.
  6. M. Pivtoraiko, T.M. Howard, I. Nesnas, and A. Kelly, "Field Experiments in Rover Navigation via Model-Based Trajectory Generation and Nonholonomic Motion Planning in State Lattices," presented at the 9th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space, 01 January 2008.
  7. D. Ferguson, T.M. Howard, and M. Likhachev, "Motion Planning in Urban Environments: Part II," in Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 1070-1076, 01 January 2008.
  8. D. Ferguson, T.M. Howard, and M. Likhachev, "Motion Planning in Urban Environments: Part I," in Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 1063-1069, 01 January 2008.
2007
  1. T.M. Howard and A. Kelly, "Optimal Rough Terrain Trajectory Generation for Wheeled Mobile Robots," International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 141-166, 01 January 2007.
  2. T.M. Howard, C. Green, and A. Kelly, "State Space Sampling of Feasible Motions for High Performance Mobile Robot Navigation in Highly Constrained Environments," in Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, 01 January 2007.
  3. A. Kelly and T.M. Howard, "Terrain Aware Inversion of Predictive Models for Planetary Rovers," presented at the NASA Science and Technology Conference, 01 January 2007.
  4. A. Kelly, T.M. Howard, and C. Green, "Terrain Aware Inversion of Predictive Models for High Performance UGVs," presented at the SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, 01 January 2007.
2006
  1. T.M. Howard and A. Kelly, "Trajectory and Spline Generation for All-Wheel Steering Mobile Robots," in Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 4827-4832, 01 January 2006.
  2. T.M. Howard, R.A. Knepper, and A. Kelly, "Constrained Optimization Path Following of Wheeled Robots in Natural Terrain," in Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics, pp. 343-352, 01 January 2006.
2005
  1. T.M. Howard and A. Kelly, "Terrain-Adaptive Generation of Optimal Continuous Trajectories for Mobile Robots," presented at the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space, 01 January 2005.
  2. T.M. Howard and A. Kelly, "Trajectory Generation on Rough Terrain Considering Actuator Dynamics," in Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, pp. 479-490, 01 January 2005.