Minho Hwang, Ph.D.

I'm a postdoc at UC Berkeley in the AUTOLAB (link), where I am currently working on surgical automation with Prof. Ken Goldberg (link).

Previously, I was a postdoc at KAIST in the TCL (link), where I received my B.Sc, M.Sc, and Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering, advised by Prof. Dong-Soo Kwon (link).

[Email] / [Google Scholar] / [GitHub] / [C. V.]

Last updated at January 7, 2020

Research Interests

      • Flexible Surgical Robots / Continuum Robots

      • Surgical Task Automation and Learning

      • Reinforcement Learning for Robots

      • Tele-robotics and Control / Efficient Trajectory Planning

Education

      • Ph.D. in Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, 2017

      • M.Sc. in Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, 2012

      • B.Sc. in Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, 2010

Affiliation

      • 2019.06~current: University of California Berkeley, Postdoctoral Researcher

      • 2018.07~2019.05: Ujin Tech. Incorporated, General Director of Technology

      • 2017.08~2018.07: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Postdoctoral Researcher

Honors and Awards

      • Top 10 Mechanical Engineering Technology (2019. 11)
        "Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot, K-FLEX"
        The Korean Federation of Mechanical Engineering Societies,

      • Best Paper Award (2018. 11)
        "A flexible endoscopic surgery robot K-FLEX and its feasibility validation in in-vivo animal trial"
        The 14th Asian Conf. on Computer Aided Surgery (ACCAS)

      • Best Application Award and Overall Winner (2018. 6)
        "Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot, K-FLEX"
        The Int. Surgical Robotics Challenge, Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics

      • Best paper Award (2015. 6)
        "A steerable endoscopic robot for endonasal skull base surgery: development and a cadaver experiment"
        The Int. Society of Computer Aided Surgery (ISCAS)

      • Finalist for the Best Paper Award (2013. 9)
        "A Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot for NOTES and its In-vivo Animal Experiment"
        The 9th Asian Conference on Computer Aided Surgery (ACCAS)

Journal Publications

  • Superhuman Surgical Peg Transfer Using Depth-Sensing and Deep Recurrent Neural Networks
    M. Hwang    , B. Thananjeyan, D. Seita, J. Ichnowski, S. Paradis, D. Fer, T. Low, and K. Goldberg
    Journal of Medical Robotics Research (JMRR), 2020 (submitted on Dec. 15) [arXiv] [website]

unilateral_CAL+OPT_7.mp4

Unilateral

bilateral_CAL+OPT_1.mp4

Parallel Bilateral

handover_CAL+OPT_7.mp4

Handover

  • A Highly Intuitive and Ergonomic Redundant Joint Master Device for 4-Degrees of Freedom Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot
    J. Ahn, J. Kim, H. Lee, M. Hwang, and D. S. Kwon
    The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (IJMRCAS), 2020 [paper]

  • Efficiently Calibrating Cable-Driven Surgical Robots With RGBD Sensing, Temporal Windowing, and Linear and Recurrent Neural Network Compensation
    M. Hwang, B. Thananjeyan, S. Paradis, D. Seita, J. Ichnowski, D. Fer, T. Low, and K. Goldberg
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2020 [paper] [website]

  • K-FLEX: A Flexible Robotic Platform for Scar-Free Endoscopic Surgery
    M. Hwang and D. S. Kwon
    The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (IJMRCAS), 2020 [paper]

Conventional Endoscope

Proposed Strong Continuum Manipulator

  • Evaluation of a robotic arm assisted endoscope to facilitate endoscopic submucosal dissection
    M. Hwang, S. W. Lee, K. C. Park, H. J. Sul, and D. S. Kwon
    Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (GIE), 2020 [paper]

  • Effect of backlash hysteresis of surgical tool bending joints on task performance in teleoperated flexible endoscopic robot
    H. Kim, M. Hwang, J. Kim, J. M. You, C. S. Lim, and D. S. Kwon
    The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (IJMRCAS), 2020 [paper]

  • Strong Continuum Manipulator for Flexible Endoscopic Surgery
    M. Hwang and D. S. Kwon
    IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (TMECH), 2019 [paper]

  • A 3-Degrees-of-Freedom Gravity-Compensated Robotic Arm with Roll-Pitch-Translational Motion for Remote Center of Motion
    C. K. Kim, D. G. Chung, M. Hwang, B. Cheon, H. Kim, J. Kim, and D. S. Kwon
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2019 [paper]

  • A master manipulator with a remote-center-of-motion kinematic structure for a minimally invasive robotic surgical system
    H. Lee, B. Cheon, M. Hwang, D. Kang, and D. S. Kwon
    The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (IJMRCAS), 2018 [paper]

  • A single port surgical robot system with novel elbow joint mechanism for high force transmission
    M. Hwang    , U. J. Yang, D. Kong, D. G. Chung, J. Lim, D. H. Lee, D. H. Kim, D. Shin, T. Jang, J. W. Kim, and D. S. Kwon
    The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (IJMRCAS), 2017 [paper]