Research Associate
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Phone: +49 8153 28-1306
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Thomas Hulin
Thomas Hulin joined the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2003 as a research associate. Since 2020, he heads the Telemanipulation Research Group. His research interests include haptic teleoperation (control, devices, and algorithms), physical human-robot interaction, robot visualization, augmented reality, and skill transfer. He is co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles in international journals, books and conferences. He was granted 9 patents and is co-inventor of the robotic systems HUG and SwarmRail, and of the interaction devices CoaxHaptics, VibroTac S, and FingerTac. He has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE since 2019 (IEEE ICRA 2020 and 2021, IEEE WHC 2021, RA-L since 2021).
Projects/Cooperation within CeTI you are involved in:
I am involved in two main cooperative activities, (i) researching haptic codecs and control approaches for teleoperation over the internet, and (ii) creating a haptic data glove that combines sensory technology with tactile augmented feedback.
CeTI rooms within CeTI you are involved in:
K1, TP2
Further Questions:
What do you value most about your work at CeTI?
In CeTI, I enjoy the great collaboration with excellent scientists and the stimulating conversations and meetings. CeTI offers an inspiring work environment and enough freedom to realize my own ideas.
What was your best moment at CeTI so far?
The best CeTI moment was when I was able to experience augmented haptic feedback for the first time: Our tactile device FingerTac changed the perception with the real world, in a way that the touch of the keys on the keyboard was altered. I wish everyone interested could experience augmented haptic feedback soon.
What else would you like to research?
I would like to make haptic teleoperation tangible for everyone. For this purpose, I want to research new haptic control approaches, haptic devices, haptic algorithms, and teleoperation concepts.
How do you spend your spare time?
In my spare time, I teach my kids the important skills for little robotic engineers that often fall short in school, e.g. programming, mechanical design and 3d printing.
Publications:
| 1. | Model-augmented energy-flow reference for high-delay telemanipulation (Journal Article) In: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 3131–3138, 2024. |
| 2. | Touch the metaverse: Demonstration of haptic feedback in network-assisted augmented reality (Proceedings Article) In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom), 2024. |
| 3. | Passivity control with energy reflection and haptic data reduction for delayed robust bilateral teleoperation (Proceedings Article) In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 2023. |
| 4. | Demonstrating vibrotactile feedback in augmented reality with the FingerTac (Proceedings Article) In: Proceedings of the IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC), 2023. |
| 5. | Rendering and displaying tactile properties of virtual objects via ViESTac and FerroVibe (Proceedings Article) In: Proceedings of the IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC), 2023. |
| 6. | Towards a VR evaluation suite for tactile displays in telerobotic space missions (Proceedings Article) In: Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference (AeroConf), 2023. |
| 7. | A novel energy compensation scheme for quality enhancement in time-delayed teleoperation with multi-DoF haptic data reduction and communication (Journal Article) In: IEEE Transactions on Haptics, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 936–944, 2021. |
| 8. | Model-augmented haptic telemanipulation: Concept, retrospective overview, and current use cases (Journal Article) In: Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol. 8, pp. 611251:1–22, 2021. |
| 9. | Haptic codecs for the Tactile Internet (Book Chapter) In: Fitzek, Frank H. P.; Li, Shu-Chen; Speidel, Stefanie; Strufe, Thorsten; Şimşek, Meryem; Reisslein, Martin (Ed.): Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop, Chapter 5, pp. 105–133, Academic Press, 2021. |
| 10. | Sensors and actuators (Book Chapter) In: Fitzek, Frank H. P.; Li, Shu-Chen; Speidel, Stefanie; Strufe, Thorsten; Şimşek, Meryem; Reisslein, Martin (Ed.): Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop, Chapter 10, pp. 229–254, Academic Press, 2021. |