M.S./Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Dissertation: Resilience of Reinforcmenet Learning in Out-of-Distribution
Chan Kim, Ph.D.
Robotics AI Researcher, Future Robotics Office
Samsung Electronics
Hi, I’m Chan Kim, a Robotics AI Researcher at the Future Robotics Office of Samsung Electronics.
My passion lies in developing artificial intelligence that empowers autonomous vehicles and robots with human-like capabilities. I focus on bridging the gap between machine perception and human-level decision-making.
I hold a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Seoul National University, co-advised by Prof. Seong-Woo Kim and Prof. Seung-Woo Seo. Previously, I received my B.S. in Automotive Engineering from Hanyang University. My research journey also took me to the University of Florida, where I served as a visiting scholar under Prof. Christophe Bobda.
Research Interests
Education
B.S. in Automotive Engineering
Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
Thesis: Landmark-based Localization for Autonomous Vehicles
Research Experience
Research Assistant
Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Visiting Researcher
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Under the guidance of Prof. Christophe Bobda
Publications
Journal Articles
- [J4]Dong-Wook Kim, E-In Son, Chan Kim, Ji-Hoon Hwang, Seung-Woo Seo, "PTS-Map: Probabilistic Terrain State Map for Uncertainty-Aware Traversability Mapping in Unstructured Environments," IEEE RA-L, 2024
- [J3]Hyung-Suk Yoon, Ji-Hoon Hwang, Chan Kim, E-In Son, Se-Wook Yoo, Seung-Woo Seo, "Adaptive Robot Traversability Estimation Based on Self-Supervised Online Continual Learning in Unstructured Environments," IEEE RA-L, 2024 (IROS 2024 option)
- [J2]Se-Wook Yoo, Chan Kim, Jinwoo Choi, Seong-Woo Kim, Seung-Woo Seo, "GIN: Graph-based Interaction-aware Constraint Policy Optimization for Autonomous Driving," IEEE RA-L, 2022 (ICRA 2023 option)
- [J1]Chan Kim, Jae-Kyung Cho, Hyung-Suk Yoon, Seung-Woo Seo, Seong-Woo Kim, "UNICON: Uncertainty-Conditioned Policy for Robust Behavior in Unfamiliar Scenarios," IEEE RA-L, 2022 (IROS 2022 option)
Conference Papers
- [C8]Mintaek Oh, Chan Kim, Seong-Woo Kim, "Language as Cost: Proactive Hazard Mapping using VLM for Robot Navigation," IROS, Hangzhou, China, 2025
- [C7]Chan Kim*, Keonwoo Kim*, Mintaek Oh, Hanbi Baek, Jiyang Lee, Donghwi Jung, Soojin Woo, Younkyung Woo, John Tucker, Roya Firoozi, Seung-Woo Seo, Mac Schwager, Seong-Woo Kim, "E2Map: Experience-and-Emotion Map for Self-Reflective Robot Navigation with Language Models," ICRA, Atlanta, USA, 2025
- [C6]Ju-Hyeok Ryu, Chan Kim, Seong-Woo Kim, "Active Automotive Augmented Reality Displays using Reinforcement Learning," ICRA, Yokohama, Japan, 2024
- [C5]Chan Kim, Jae-Kyung Cho, Christophe Bobda, Seung-Woo Seo, Seong-Woo Kim, "SeRO: Self-Supervised Reinforcement Learning for Recovery from Out-of-Distribution Situations," IJCAI, Macao, 2023
- [C4]Jae-Kyung Cho, Chan Kim, Mohamed Khalid M. Jaffar, Michael W. Otte, Seong-Woo Kim, "Low-level controller in response to changes in quadrotor dynamics," ICRA, London, UK, 2023
- [C3]Chan Kim*, Hyung-Suk Yoon*, Seung-Woo Seo, Seong-Woo Kim, "STFP: Simultaneous Traffic scene Forecasting and Planning for Autonomous Driving," IROS, Prague, Czech Republic, 2021
- [C2]Hyung-Suk Yoon*, Chan Kim*, Seong-Woo Kim, Seung-Woo Seo, "Self-Balancing of Online Dataset for Incremental Driving Intelligence," IROS, Prague, Czech Republic, 2021
- [C1]Younghwa Jung, Mingu Jeon, Chan Kim, Seung-Woo Seo, Seong-Woo Kim, "Uncertainty-Aware Fast Curb Detection Using Convolutional Networks in Point Clouds," ICRA, Xi'an, China, 2021
* indicates equal contribution
Projects
LIMBO: Language-Image-based Mobile Robot
A mobile robot designed to navigate toward specified goals by following language instructions. Inspired by human emotional mechanisms, integrating emotion for one-shot behavioral adaptation.
VISKY: Mobile Robot for Autonomous Exploration
Developed a mobile robot for autonomous exploration in unknown and unstructured environments. Evaluated across various off-road and mountainous terrains.
SNUVI empowered by AI
Developed an autonomous driving system for urban scenarios, evaluated at K-City — a dedicated testbed for autonomous driving in South Korea.
Loki: Autonomous Golf Cart
Upgraded a golf cart for autonomous driving capabilities and demonstrated autonomous rear-parking on the Seoul National University campus.
Technical Skills
- Programming
- PythonPyTorchTensorFlowLangChainC/C++MATLABJuliaLaTeX
- Robotics
- ROSHumanoid ControlPath PlanningMotion PlanningControl SystemsSLAM
- ML / AI
- Reinforcement LearningImitation LearningDeep LearningLLMs
- Simulation
- MuJoCoIsaac SimPyBulletCARLAGazebo
- Hardware
- Humanoid4-Wheel RobotsQuadruped RobotsLiDARCamera SystemsIMU
Teaching Experience
- TA · Basic Mathematics and Programming Practice for Machine Learning — Spring 2020, 2021
- TA · Autonomous Robot Intelligence — Fall 2019, 2022, 2024
Academic Service
Conference Reviewer
- ICRA 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025
- IROS 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025
- IJCAI 2023
- ICML 2022
Journal Reviewer
- IEEE TNNLS, 2023
- JAIR, 2022
Patents & Awards
Korean Patents
- Method and Apparatus of Uncertainty-Conditioned Deep Reinforcement Learning (KR 1025907910000)
- Method and Apparatus of Self-Balancing Online Dataset for Machine Learning (KR 1025907930000)
Awards
- Gold Prize — Intelligent Model Car Competition 2018