Curriculum Vitae – Neil T. Dantam

Table of Contents

Personal Data

Name
Neil Thomas Dantam
Location
Atlanta, GA 30332
Affiliation
Georgia Institute of Technology, Humanoid Robotics Lab
Citizenship
United States Citizen

Education

  • Ph.D. in Robotics, estimated completion in 2013
    University
    Georgia Institute of Technology
    Adviser
    Prof. Mike Stilman
    Research Area
    Formal Methods for Hybrid Control and Robotic Manipulation
  • B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Economics, Purdue University, May 2008
  • B.S. in Computer Science, Purdue University, May 2008
  • Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, May 2004

Publications

Journal

  • N. Dantam and M. Stilman. The Motion Grammar: Analysis of a Linguistic Method for Robot Control. Transactions on Robotics (T-RO). 2013.

Conference

  • N. Dantam and M. Stilman. Robust and Efficient Communication for Real-Time Multi-Process Robot Software. International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids). 2012.
  • N. Dantam, I. Essa, and M. Stilman. Linguistic Transfer of Human Assembly Tasks to Robots. Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 2012.
  • N. Dantam, C. Nieto-Granda, H. Christensen, and M. Stilman. Linguistic Composition of Semantic Maps and Hybrid Controllers. International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER). 2012.
  • N. Dantam and M. Stilman. The Motion Grammar Calculus for Context-Free Hybrid Systems. American Control Conference (ACC). 2012. (best presentation in session)
  • N. Dantam and M. Stilman. The Motion Grammar: Linguistic Perception, Planning, and Control. Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2011. (SAIC student paper award)
  • N. Dantam, P. Kolhe, M. Stilman. The Motion Grammar for Physical Human-Robot Games. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2011.
  • P. Kolhe, N. Dantam, M. Stilman. Dynamic Pushing Strategies for Dynamically Stable Mobile Manipulators. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010.

Workshop / Technical Report

  • Neil Dantam, Irfan Essa, and Mike Stilman. Algorithms for Linguistic Robot Policy Inference from Demonstration of Assembly Tasks. Georgia Insitute of Technology. GT-GOLEM-2012-002. 2012.
  • Neil Dantam and Mike Stilman. Ach: IPC for Real-Time Robot Control. Georgia Insitute of Technology. GT-GOLEM-2011-001. 2011.
  • N. Dantam, M. Egerstedt, M. Stilman. Make Your Robot Talk Correctly: Deriving Models of Hybrid System. RSS Workshop on Grounding Human-Robot Dialog for Spatial Tasks, 2011.
  • N. Dantam, P. Kolhe, M. Stilman. Equations of Motion for Dynamically Stable Mobile Manipulators. Georgia Institute of Technology Technical Report. GT-GOLEM-2010-002. December 2010.
  • N. Dantam and M. Stilman. The Motion Grammar: Linguistic Perception, Planning, and Control. College of Computing. Georgia Institute of Technology. GT-GOLEM-2010-001. 2010.

Professional Experience

Georgia Tech Humanoids Lab (2008-Present)
Research Assistant and Lab Manager – Atlanta, GA
  • Developed robotic system to play the Jenga-like game Yamakuzushi using Schunk LWA3
  • Developed robotic system to play physical human-robot chess using Schunk LWA3 and SDH
  • Developed Real-Time IPC and Robotic Control Software for all lab robots
  • Maintain Lab organization, infrastructure, and computing
  • Established LDAP/Kerberos/NFS services for Lab computing
iRobot (Summer 2010)
Robotics Research Intern – Bedford, MA
  • Improved control performance of 510 PackBot EOD arm by implementing Singularity-Robust Jacobian Inverse Kinematics (IK)
  • Assisted transition of IK to production, ultimately included on all shipping PackBots
  • Developed dynamic model of PackBot arm for workspace force estimation and weight sensing
  • Developed prototype user display of PackBot arm jointspace and workspace forces
  • Mechanical repair of PackBot arm
MIT/Lincoln Laboratory (Summer 2009)
Robotics Intern – Lexington, MA
  • Interfaced iRobot ATRV-Mini robot with Willow Garage ROS software suite
  • Developed local, reactive motion planner for ATRV and PackBot mobile robots using Potential Fields
  • Assisted with system integration and demonstration
MIT/Lincoln Laboratory (Summer 2008)
Software Engineering Intern – Lexington, MA
  • Worked with end users to evaluate software design requirements
  • Developed web-based configuration tool for a Network Emulation Testbed using PHP/AJAX
C-SPAN Archives (Spring 2008)
Web Developer – West Lafayette, IN
  • Improved Flash web video player, adding features and increasing stability
Purdue University (Summer 2007)
Research Assistant – West Lafayette, IN
  • Designed CAN and Ethernet based remote drive-by-wire system for hydrostatic transmission vehicle
  • Completed design of algorithm for conservative, on-the-fly, mostly-copying garbage collection
Raytheon (Summer 2006)
Software Engineering Intern – Indianapolis, IN
  • Evaluated Navy software on Windows NT, Linux, and HP-UX
  • Revised trade study document on Navy software
ContactSul (Summer 2005)
IT Intern – Camboriú, SC, Brazil
  • Configured and deployed Debian GNU/Linux DNS, web, email, and file server
  • Prototyped web-based order system
Delaware Machinery (2003-2004)
Software Developer – Muncie, IN
  • Developed LabView Code Interface Node for network access
  • Designed prototype web-based embedded tape reader emulator for CNC
  • Other embedded and web-based Java programming

Teaching Experience

  • TA, Introduction to Perception and Robotics, Georgia Tech, 2012
  • Volunteer, 2nd Grade Math Club, Hope-Hill Elementary School, Atlanta, GA, 2011
  • TA, Introduction to Perception and Robotics, Georgia Tech, 2010
  • TA, Building Humanoid Robots, Georgia Tech, 2009
  • Lab Instructor, Introductory C Programming, Purdue University, 2006
  • Computer Science Tutor, C, C++, Java, Compilers, 2004-2008

Service and Community

Committees and Groups

  • 2012 Coordinator of ROS Special Interest Group on Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
  • 2012 Program Committee for ROSCon
  • 2011 Georgia Tech Ph.D. Recruiting Committee

Open Source

Ach
Real-Time messaging passing IPC for POSIX, https://github.com/golems/ach
S-Protobuf
Google Protocol Buffers in Common Lisp, https://github.com/ndantam/s-protobuf

Journal and Conference Reviews

  • 2013 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
  • 2012 Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
  • 2012 Discrete Event Dynamic Systems (DEDS)
  • 2012 Transactions on Robotics (TRO)
  • 2012 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
  • 2011 Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)
  • 2011 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

Awards

  • Best presentation in session – American Control Conference, 2012
  • Student Paper Achievement Award – SAIC - Georgia Tech Student Paper Competition, 2011
  • President's Fellowship – Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008
  • Poster Award for Hydrostatic Vehicle Controls – Purdue Undergraduate Research Symposium, 2007
  • Academic Success Award – Purdue University, 2004-2008
  • Indiana Resident Top Scholar – Purdue University, 2004-2008
  • Dean's Engineering Scholar – Purdue University, 2004
  • Chemistry Contest Scholarship – American Chemical Society, 2003
  • Caltech Signature Award – Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, 2003