About Me
I am a passionate, self-driven robotics researcher. Since growing up with Star Wars, I have always been fascinated with robotics and I’ve turned that interest into a fulfilling career that has allowed me to hone my researching abilities while overseeing a broader research portfolio. Recently, I have expanded this knowledge even further by embarking on a part-time PhD program in addition to my full-time career. I’ve started this site to share in my progress, practice my writing, document my projects, and pass on useful information I’ve discovered along the way.
Work Experience
Lab Director
2018-Present
Robotics and Intelligent Systems Engineering Lab, Department of the Navy
- Lead a lab of 9 full time researchers, 2 part time researchers, and numerous rotations and interns with an annual operating budget of approximately $1.3M
- Developed roadmap and strategic plan to guide lab’s project proposals, hiring plan, and training requests
- Created 101 tutorial with case study and setup guides to teach new members essential tools
- Wrote code review SOP to improve efficiency merging in new software features
- Implemented SOPs for rotation recruitment and onboarding to reduce time and effort securing quality rotations
- Worked with IT to shift lab from unconnected to connected computers without disrupting workflow, decreasing support costs and increasing team collaboration
- Guided 5 mentees in identifying strategic rotations that expanded their knowledge and brought enhanced capabilities back to the lab
- Regularly provide briefs ranging from admirals to high school students, tailoring each brief to the audience
Robotics Integration Lead
2018-Present
Robotics and Intelligent Systems Engineering Lab, Department of the Navy
- Wrote, briefed, and was successfully awarded 7 research projects totaling approximately $1M
- Implementing a vision-only simultaneous localization and mapping system for ground robot navigation
- Developed automated test routine to tune and compare various point cloud registration algorithms
- Rapidly developed a remote-controlled forklift to access OSHA condemned building containing $10M of Fleet critical equipment, receiving recognition from the command’s admiral
- Developed an autonomous vision-based navigation system to allow a COTS bomb disposal robot to identify and drive to its storage crate
- Trained a neural network to track aircraft, people, and equipment as they traveled about the carrier deck
- Developed an automated object recognition dataset generator using Gazebo and ROS
- Design robot component integration framework to speed integration of sensors for tests
Mechanical Engineer
2013-2018
Robotics and Intelligent Systems Engineering Lab, Department of the Navy
- Implemented version control and issue tracking SOPs for entire lab
- Developed sensor fusion algorithm to explore operations in degraded environmental conditions
- Developed autonomous parking movement algorithm and implemented in ROS move_base as a plugin
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering
Ongoing
Robust Field Autonomy Lab, Stevens Institute of Technology
Advisor: Dr. Brendan Englot
Potential Research: Monocular SLAM using Ground Textures
Master of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
2013
Lehigh University
Researched a tricycle based LIDAR mapping platform
Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering
2012
Lehigh University
Computer Science Minor
Publications
- K. M. Hart, B. Englot, R. P. O’Shea, J. D. Kelly, and D. Martinez, “Monocular Simultaneous Localization and Mapping using Ground Textures,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, London, UK, May 2023.
- G. Hwang, A. Katre, K. Hart, and C. Rea, “Analysis techniques of autonomy framework metrics for autonomous developers,” in Autonomous Systems: Sensors, Processing and Security for Ground, Air, Sea and Space Vehicles and Infrastructure 2022, Orlando, United States, Jun. 2022, p. 15. doi: 10.1117/12.2623376.
- K. M. Hart, A. B. Goodman, and R. P. O’Shea, “Automatic Generation of Machine Learning Synthetic Data Using ROS,” in Artificial Intelligence in HCI, vol. 12797, H. Degen and S. Ntoa, Eds. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021, pp. 310–325. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-77772-2_21.
- J. Hing, K. Hart, and A. Goodman, “Towards Autonomous Weapons Movement on an Aircraft Carrier: Autonomous Swarm Parking,” in Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information in Applications and Services, vol. 10905, S. Yamamoto and H. Mori, Eds. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018, pp. 403–418. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-92046-7_34.
- J. Hing, R. Boczar, and K. Hart, “Parking Autonomous Skids,” in Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Knowledge in Context, Cham, 2015, pp. 557–568. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-20618-9_55.
- K. Hart et al., “RoSCAR: robot stock car autonomous racing,” in Proceedings of the 2014 workshop on Mobile augmented reality and robotic technology-based systems, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA, Jun. 2014, pp. 3–8. doi: 10.1145/2609829.2609837.
Presentations
- K. M. Hart, “Monocular Simultaneous Localization and Mapping using Ground Textures,” presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, London, UK, May 2023.
- K. M. Hart, “Automatic Generation of Machine Learning Synthetic Data Using ROS,” presented at the HCI International 2021, Virtual, Jul. 25, 2021.
- K. M. Hart and N. Kumia, “Cooperative Unmanned Air Systems and Robots for Remote Explosive Ordnance Disposal,” presented at the CURRE ANTX Demonstration, Patuxent River, MD, Aug. 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUR8KhWFlOI
- K. Hart, “Towards Autonomous Weapons Movement on an Aircraft Carrier: Autonomous Swarm Parking,” presented at the HCI International 2018, Las Vegas, NV, Jul. 18, 2018.
Skills
- ROS/ROS2
- C++
- Python
- Docker
- CMake
- Git
- GitHub/GitLab CI Pipelines
- Unit Testing/Googletest
Interest Areas
- Monocular SLAM using ground textures
- Autonomous operations in sparse/restrictive environments
- Autonomous architectures
- Quality software development practices