Technology Blog

Dennis Hong is living his dreams ... literally ... in a lab filled with wacky robots"When I was seven years old, I watched the film 'Star Wars' for the very first time. It just completely blew my mind. All the robots and spaceships," recalls Dennis Hong. You never know where you will find inspiration! For Hong, a mechanical engineer, it was there, on the silver screen."R2D2, how it moved, its locomotion, inspired me to study robot locomotion, and C3PO, the human servant robot, inspired me to study human-robot interaction," says Hong. The force has been with him ever since.Hong's lab, the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at Virginia Tech, is filled with robots that would fit right into a "Star Wars" sequel. "From humanoid robots to rolling, climbing, wheel-leg hybrid robots," says Hong, as he points to the row of awards that circle the large rubber robot work out mat on the floor of the lab.With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Hong and his