ProbeMDE: Uncertainty-Guided Active Proprioception for Monocular Depth Estimation in Surgical Robotics

Britton Jordan, Branden Frieden, Alan Kuntz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in press, 2026

DiffDef: A Diffusion Model for Generating Multimodal Goal Shapes From Demonstrations for Deformable Object Manipulation

Tanner Watts, Mariana E. Smith, Bao Thach, Alan Kuntz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in press, 2026

Neural Operators for Design-Space Surrogate Modeling of Tendon-Actuated Continuum Robots

Branden Frieden, Brian Y. Cho, Alan Kuntz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in press, 2026

PushCVAE: Generative Autonomous Nonprehensile Surgical Retraction from Monocular Endoscopic Images

Tanner Watts, Mariana E. Smith, Shing-Hei Ho, Alan Kuntz

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), in press, 2026

A Supervised Autonomous Resection and Retraction Framework for Transurethral Enucleation of the Prostatic Median Lobe

Mariana E. Smith, Tanner Watts, Shing-Hei Ho, Alan Kuntz

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), in press, 2026 ★ Best Paper Finalist ★ Best Student Paper Finalist

Needle-And-Thread Suturing with Concentric Tube Robots for Tracheal Stent Fixation

Jesse F. d'Almeida, Brian Y. Cho, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), in press, 2026 ★ Best Paper Finalist ★ Best Student Paper Finalist

Medical Needles in the Hands of AI: Advancing Toward Autonomous Robotic Navigation

Ron Alterovitz, Janine Hoelscher, Alan Kuntz

Science Robotics, Vol. 10, Issue 104, eadt1874, 2025

Integrating Learned Retraction and Model-Based Resection Planning for Automated Central Airway Obstruction Removal

Tanner Watts, Mariana E. Smith, Zohre Karimi, Shing-Hei Ho, Alan Kuntz

IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, 2025

Autonomous Vision-Guided Resection of Central Airway Obstruction

Mariana E. Smith, Tanner Watts, Bao Thach, Shing-Hei Ho, Alan Kuntz

Journal of Medical Robotics Research, 2025

Uncertainty Aware Forward and Inverse Kinematics for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots via Mixture Density Networks

Jordan Thompson, Brian Y. Cho, Branden Frieden, Alan Kuntz

Journal of Medical Robotics Research, Vol. 10, No. 01n02, 2540002, 2025

Encoding Desired Deformation Profiles in Endoscope-Like Soft Robots

Daniel S. Esser, Margaret F. Rox, Robert P. Naftel, D. Caleb Rucker, Eric J. Barth, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III

IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, 2025

Toward Autonomous Medical Robots: A Review of AI Guidance for Medical Motion Planning

Ron Alterovitz, Alan Kuntz

Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, Vol. 9, 2025

From Monocular Vision to Autonomous Action: Guiding Tumor Resection via 3D Reconstruction

Ayberk Acar, Tanner Watts, Mariana E. Smith, Alan Kuntz

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2025

Agreement Volatility: A Second-Order Metric for Uncertainty Quantification in Surgical Robot Learning

Jordan Thompson, Brian Y. Cho, Alan Kuntz

Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL), 2025

Touching is Believing: Contact Sensing to Enhance Situational Awareness for Concentric Tube Robots

Nithin Kumar, Brian Y. Cho, Alan Kuntz

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 2025

A Rotational Stiffness Model for Magnetic Microrobots in Soft Tissue

Benjamin A. Minor, Adam J. Sperry, Jake J. Abbott, Alan Kuntz

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 2025

Exploring Modal Switch in Metamaterial-Based Robots

Britton Jordan, Daniel S. Esser, Jeonghyeon Kim, Brian Y. Cho, Robert J. Webster III, Alan Kuntz

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2024

Leveraging Fixed-Parameter Tractability for Robot Inspection Planning

Yosuke Mizutani, Daniel Coimbra Salomao, Alex Crane, Matthias Bentert, Pål Grønås Drange, Felix Reidl, Alan Kuntz, Blair D. Sullivan

16th International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), 2024

Accounting for Hysteresis in the Forward Kinematics of Nonlinearly-Routed Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots via a Learned Deep Decoder Network

Brian Y. Cho, Daniel S. Esser, Jordan Thompson, Bao Thach, Robert J. Webster III, Alan Kuntz

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), Vol. 9, No. 11, pp. 9263–9270, 2024

In Vivo Demonstration of a Bevel Tip Steerable Needle with an Integrated Fluid Channel

Emily McCabe, Margaret Rox, Maxwell Emerson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Inbar Fried, Mengyu Fu, Janine Hoelscher, Fabien Maldonado, Erin Gillaspie, Jason Akulian, Yueh Lee, Alan Kuntz, Ron Alterovitz, Robert J. Webster III

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 2024

A Continuum Lung Stapler Leveraging Phase Changing Metal for Dexterity and Stiffness

Daniel Esser, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Emily McCabe, Fabien Maldonado, Erin Gillaspie, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 2024

Modeling Kinematic Uncertainty of Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots via Mixture Density Networks

Jordan Thompson, Brian Y. Cho, Daniel S. Brown, Alan Kuntz

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), 2024

Reward Learning from Suboptimal Demonstrations with Applications in Surgical Electrocautery

Zohre Karimi, Shing-Hei Ho, Bao Thach, Alan Kuntz, Daniel S. Brown

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), 2024 ★ Best Paper Finalist ★ Best Student Paper Finalist

DefGoalNet: Contextual Goal Learning from Demonstrations For Deformable Object Manipulation

Bao Thach, Tanner Watts, Shing-Hei Ho, Tucker Hermans, Alan Kuntz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 3145–3152, 2024

Efficient and Accurate Mapping of Subsurface Anatomy via Online Trajectory Optimization for Robot Assisted Surgery

Brian Y. Cho, Alan Kuntz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 15478–15484, 2024

The Impact of Design Factors on User Behavior in a Virtual Hospital Room to Explore Fall Prevention Strategies

Nooshin Seddighi, Ying-Ching Chen, Andrew S Merryweather, K Bo Foreman, Alan Kuntz, Edoardo Battaglia, Haohan Zhang, Ellen Taylor, Bob Wong, Peter C Fino

HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 2024

Directional Stiffness Switching via Phase Changing Metallic Spines

Daniel S. Esser, Emily M. McCabe, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III

IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), 2024

Combining Thermoelectrics and Low Melting Point Alloys to Create Reconfigurable Rigid-Compliant Manipulators

Emily M. McCabe, Daniel S. Esser, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III

IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), 2024

General-Purpose Foundation Models for Increased Autonomy in Robot-Assisted Surgery: Challenges and Opportunities

Samuel Schmidgall, Zehui Wang, Alan Kuntz, Axel Krieger, Jason Ziglar, Ryan Hruska, Tim Durand, Andrew McNeil, Peter Bailey, Chester Sorabji, Grayson Baird, George Bojko, Alexis Murret, Kevin Shieh, Peter Kazanzides, Nicolas Padoy, Danail Stoyanov, Russ Taylor

Nature Machine Intelligence, Vol. 6, pp. 1275–1283, 2024

Screw-tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles

Adam J. Sperry, Trevor J. Schwehr, Emma K. Pinegar, Olivia B. Richards, John D. Rolston, Matthew D. Alexander, Brittany Coats, Jake J. Abbott, Alan Kuntz

IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, February 2024

Autonomous Medical Needle Steering In Vivo ★ Featured in Forbes

Alan Kuntz, Maxwell Emerson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Inbar Fried, Mengyu Fu, Janine Hoelscher, Margaret Rox, Jason Akulian, Erin A. Gillaspie, Yueh Z. Lee, Fabien Maldonado, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

Science Robotics, Vol. 8, Issue 82, eadf7614, 2023

Safer Motion Planning of Steerable Needles via a Shaft-to-Tissue Force Model

Michael Bentley, Caleb Rucker, Chakravarthy Reddy, Oren Salzman, Alan Kuntz

Journal of Medical Robotics Research, Vol. 8, No. 01n02, 2350003, 2023

Asymptotically Optimal Inspection Planning via Efficient Near-Optimal Search on Sampled Roadmaps

Mengyu Fu, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman, Ron Alterovitz

The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2023

Toward a Millimeter-Scale Tendon-Driven Continuum Wrist with Integrated Gripper for Microsurgical Applications

Alexandra Leavitt, Ryan Lam, Nichols Crawford Taylor, Daniel S. Drew, Alan Kuntz

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, pp. 61–62, 2023

A Radial Folding Mechanism to Enable Surgical Continuum Manipulators to Fit Through Smaller Ports

Mariana E. Smith, Daniel S. Esser, Margaret Rox, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), 2023

Toward Continuum Robot Tentacles for Lung Interventions: Exploring Folding Support Disks

Margaret Rox, Daniel S. Esser, Mariana E. Smith, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Maxwell Emerson, Fabien Maldonado, Erin A. Gillaspie, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp. 3494–3501, 2023

Interactive-Rate Supervisory Control for Arbitrarily-Routed Multi-Tendon Robots via Motion Planning ★ 2022 IEEE Access Best Video Award

Michael Bentley, Caleb Rucker, Alan Kuntz

IEEE Access, Vol. 10, pp. 80999–81019, 2022

Toward Targeted Therapy in the Brain by Leveraging Screw-Tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles

Trevor J. Schwehr, Adam J. Sperry, John D. Rolston, Matthew D. Alexander, Jake J. Abbott, Alan Kuntz

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 2022

Optimizing Continuum Robot Tendon Routing for Minimally Invasive Brain Surgery

Margaret Rox, Aidan Copinga, Robert P. Naftel, Robert J. Webster III, Alan Kuntz

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, 2022

Learning Visual Shape Control of Novel 3D Deformable Objects from Partial-View Point Clouds

Bao Thach, Brian Y. Cho, Alan Kuntz, Tucker Hermans

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 8274–8281, 2022

Toward Learning Context-Dependent Tasks from Demonstration for Tendon-Driven Surgical Robots ★ Best Paper Finalist ★ Best Student Paper Finalist

Yixuan Huang, Michael Bentley, Tucker Hermans, Alan Kuntz

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), 2021

Planning Sensing Sequences for Subsurface 3D Tumor Mapping

Brian Y. Cho, Tucker Hermans, Alan Kuntz

International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), 2021

DeformerNet: A Deep Learning Approach to 3D Deformable Object Manipulation ★ Best Paper Honorable Mention

Bao Thach, Alan Kuntz, Tucker Hermans

RSS Workshop on Deformable Object Simulation in Robotics (DO-Sim), 2021

Backward Planning for a Multi-Stage Steerable Needle Lung Robot

Janine Hoelscher, Mengyu Fu, Inbar Fried, Maxwell Emerson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Margaret Rox, Alan Kuntz, Jason A. Akulian, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 3987–3994, 2021

Design Considerations for a Steerable Needle Robot to Maximize Reachable Lung Volume

Inbar Fried, Janine Hoelscher, Mengyu Fu, Maxwell Emerson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Margaret Rox, Josephine Granna, Alan Kuntz, Jason A. Akulian, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021

Optimizing Hospital Room Layout to Reduce the Risk of Patient Falls

Sarvenaz Chaeibakhsh, Roya Sabbagh Novin, Tucker Hermans, Andrew Merryweather, Alan Kuntz

International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES), pp. 36–48, 2021

A Recurrent Neural Network Approach to Roll Estimation for Needle Steering

Maxwell Emerson, James M. Ferguson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Margaret F. Rox, Josephine Granna, Michael Lester, Fabien Maldonado, Erin A. Gillaspie, Ron Alterovitz, Robert J. Webster III, Alan Kuntz

International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER), pp. 334–342, 2020

Comparing the Accuracy of the da Vinci Xi and da Vinci Si for Image Guidance and Automation

James M. Ferguson, E. Bryn Pitt, Alan Kuntz, Josephine Granna, Nicholas L. Kavoussi, Naren Nimmagadda, Eric J. Barth, S. Duke Herrell III, Robert J. Webster III

The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, Vol. 16, Issue 6, 2020

Decoupling Steerability from Diameter: Helical Dovetail Laser Patterning for Steerable Needles

Margaret F. Rox, Maxwell Emerson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Inbar Fried, Mengyu Fu, Janine Hoelscher, Alan Kuntz, Josephine Granna, Jason Mitchell, Michael Lester, Fabien Maldonado, Erin A. Gillaspie, Jason A. Akulian, Ron Alterovitz, Robert J. Webster III

IEEE Access, Vol. 8, pp. 181411–181419, 2020

Steerable Needle Trajectory Following in the Lung: Torsional Deadband Compensation and Full Pose Estimation with 5DOF Feedback ★ Best Student Paper Finalist

Tayfun Efe Ertop, Maxwell Emerson, Margaret F. Rox, Josephine Granna, Fabien Maldonado, Erin Gillaspie, Michael Lester, Alan Kuntz, D. Caleb Rucker, Mengyu Fu, Janine Hoelscher, Inbar Fried, Ron Alterovitz, Robert J. Webster III

ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, 2020

Enabling Robots to Understand Incomplete Natural Language Instructions Using Commonsense Reasoning

Haonan Chen, Hao Tan, Alan Kuntz, Mohit Bansal, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1963–1969, 2020

Learning the Complete Shape of Concentric Tube Robots

Alan Kuntz, Armaan Sethi, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 140–147, 2020

Toward Practical and Accurate Touch-Based Image Guidance for Robotic Partial Nephrectomy

James M. Ferguson, E. Bryn Pitt, Andria A. Remirez, Michael A. Siebold, Alan Kuntz, Nicholas L. Kavoussi, Eric J. Barth, S. Duke Herrell III, Robert J. Webster III

IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 196–205, 2020

Planning High-Quality Motions for Concentric Tube Robots in Point Clouds via Parallel Sampling and Optimization

Alan Kuntz, Mengyu Fu, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 2205–2212, Macau, 2019

Optimizing Motion-Planning Problem Setup via Bounded Evaluation with Application to Following Surgical Trajectories

Sherdil Niyaz, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman, Ron Alterovitz, Siddhartha S. Srinivasa

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 1355–1362, Macau, 2019

Estimating the Complete Shape of Concentric Tube Robots via Learning

Alan Kuntz, Armaan Sethi, Ron Alterovitz

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, pp. 43–44, London, 2019

Toward Asymptotically-Optimal Inspection Planning via Efficient Near-Optimal Graph Search

Mengyu Fu, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman, Ron Alterovitz

Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Freiburg im Breisgau, 2019

Following Surgical Trajectories with Concentric Tube Robots via Nearest-Neighbor Graphs

Sherdil Niyaz, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman, Ron Alterovitz, Siddhartha S. Srinivasa

International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER), Buenos Aires, 2018

Safe Motion Planning for Steerable Needles Using Cost Maps Automatically Extracted from Pulmonary Images

Mengyu Fu, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 4942–4949, Madrid, 2018

Kinematic Design Optimization of a Parallel Surgical Robot to Maximize Anatomical Visibility via Motion Planning

Alan Kuntz, Chris Bowen, Cenk Baykal, Arthur W. Mahoney, Patrick L. Anderson, Fabien Maldonado, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 926–933, Brisbane, 2018

Fast Anytime Motion Planning in Point Clouds by Interleaving Sampling and Interior Point Optimization

Alan Kuntz, Chris Bowen, Ron Alterovitz

International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR), Puerto Varas, Chile, 2017

Motion Planning for Continuum Reconfigurable Incisionless Surgical Parallel Robots

Alan Kuntz, Arthur W. Mahoney, Nicolas E. Peckman, Patrick L. Anderson, Fabien Maldonado, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 6463–6469, Vancouver, 2017

Toward Transoral Peripheral Lung Access: Steering Bronchoscope-Deployed Needles through Porcine Lung Tissue

Alan Kuntz, Philip J. Swaney, Arthur Mahoney, Richard H. Feins, Yueh Z. Lee, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics, pp. 9–10, London, 2016

Motion Planning for a Three-Stage Multilumen Transoral Lung Access System

Alan Kuntz, Luis G. Torres, Richard H. Feins, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 3255–3261, Hamburg, 2015

A Motion Planning Approach to Automatic Obstacle Avoidance during Concentric Tube Robot Teleoperation

Luis G. Torres, Alan Kuntz, Hunter B. Gilbert, Philip J. Swaney, Richard J. Hendrick, Robert J. Webster III, Ron Alterovitz

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 2361–2367, Seattle, 2015

Crack Detection Sensor Layout and Bus Configuration Analysis

Nathan Sharp, Alan Kuntz, Cole Brubaker, Stephanie Amos, Wei Gao, Gautum Gupta, Charles R. Farrar, David D. Mascarenas, Aditya Mohite

Smart Materials and Structures, 23(5):055021, 2014

A Bio-Inspired Asynchronous Skin System for Crack Detection Applications

Nathan Sharp, Alan Kuntz, Cole Brubaker, Stephanie Amos, Wei Gao, Gautum Gupta, Aditya Mohite, Charles R. Farrar, David D. Mascarenas

Smart Materials and Structures, 23(5):055020, 2014

An Asynchronous Sensor Skin for Structural Health Monitoring Applications

Nathan Sharp, Alan Kuntz, Cole Brubaker, Stephanie Amos, Wei Gao, Gautum Gupta, Aditya Mohite, Charles Farrar, David Mascarenas

SPIE Conference on Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems, San Diego, 2014