ALAN DAVID KUNTZ portrait
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
  • Assistant Professor, School Of Computing

Publications

  • 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 (2024). Screw-tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles. IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. Vol. 6, 4-17. Published, 02/2024.
  • 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 (2023). Autonomous Medical Needle Steering In Vivo. Science Robotics. Vol. 8, eadf7614. Published, 09/2023.
  • Alexandra Leavitt, Ryan Lam, Nicholas Crawford Taylor, Daniel S. Drew & Alan Kuntz (2023). Toward a Millimeter-Scale Tendon-Driven Continuum Wrist with Integrated Gripper for Microsurgical Applications. The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics. Published, 06/2023.
  • Michael Bentley, Caleb Rucker, Chakravarthy Reddy, Oren Salzman & Alan Kuntz (2023). Safer Motion Planning of Steerable Needles via a Shaft-to-Tissue Force Model. Journal of Medical Robotics Research. Vol. 08, 2350003. Published, 06/2023.
  • Margaret Rox, Daniel S. Esser, Mariana E. Smith, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Maxwell Emerson, Fabien Maldonado, Erin A. Gillaspie, Alan Kuntz & Robert J. Webster III (2023). Toward Continuum Robot Tentacles for Lung Interventions: Exploring Folding Support Disks. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. Vol. 8, 3494-3501. Published, 06/2023.
  • Mengyu Fu, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman & Ron Alterovitz (2023). Asymptotically Optimal Inspection Planning via Efficient Near-optimal Search on Sampled Roadmaps. International Journal of Robotics Research. Vol. 42, 150-175. Published, 06/2023.
  • Mariana E. Smith, Daniel S. Esser, Margaret Rox, Alan Kuntz & Robert J. Webster III (2023). A Radial Folding Mechanism to Enable Surgical Continuum Manipulators to Fit Through Smaller Ports. International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR). Published, 04/2023.
  • Michael Bentley, Caleb Rucker & Alan Kuntz (2022). Interactive-rate Supervisory Control for Arbitrarily-routed Multi-tendon Robots via Motion Planning. IEEE Access. Vol. 10, 80999-81019. Published, 08/2022.
  • Trevor J. Schwehr, Adam J. Sperry, John D. Rolston, Matthew D. Alexander, Jake J. Abbott & Alan Kuntz (2022). Toward Targeted Therapy in the Brain by Leveraging Screw-Tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles. The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics. Published, 06/2022.
  • Margaret Rox, Aidan Copinga, Robert P. Naftel, Robert J. Webster, III & Alan Kuntz (2022). Optimizing Continuum Robot Tendon Routing for Minimally Invasive Brain Surgery. The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics. Published, 06/2022.
  • Bao Thach, Brian Y. Cho, Alan Kuntz & Tucker Hermans (2022). Learning Visual Shape Control of Novel 3D Deformable Objects from Partial-View Point Clouds. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 8274-8281. Published, 05/2022.
  • Maxwell Emerson (2021). A Recurrent Neural Network Approach to Roll Estimation for Needle Steering. International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER). Published, 11/01/2021.
  • Brian Y. Cho, Tucker Hermans & Alan Kuntz (2021). Planning Sensing Sequences for Subsurface 3D Tumor Mapping. International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR). Published, 11/2021.
  • Yixuan Huang, Michael Bentley, Tucker Hermans & Alan Kuntz (2021). Toward Learning Context-Dependent Tasks from Demonstration for Tendon-Driven Surgical Robots. International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR). Published, 11/2021.
  • Inbar Fried (2021). Design Considerations for a Steerable Needle Robot to Maximize Reachable Lung Volume. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 1418-1425. Published, 05/30/2021.
  • Janine Hoelscher, Mengyu Fu, Inbar Fried, Maxwell Emerson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Margaret Rox, Alan Kuntz, Jason A. Akulian, Robert J. Webster III & Ron Alterovitz (2021). Backward Planning for a Multi-Stage Steerable Needle Lung Robot. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. Vol. 6, 3987-3994. Published, 04/01/2021.
  • Sarvenaz Chaeibakhsh, Roya Sabbagh Novin, Tucker Hermans, Andrew Merryweather & Alan Kuntz (2021). Optimizing Hospital Room Layout to Reduce the Risk of Patient Falls. The International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES). 36-48. Published, 02/01/2021.
  • Tayfun Efe Ertop, Maxwell Emerson, Margaret F. Rox, Josephine Granna, Fabien Maldonado, Erin A. Gillaspie, Michael Lester, Alan Kuntz, D. Caleb Rucker, Mengyu Fu, Janine Hoelscher, Inbar Fried, Ron Alterovitz & Robert J. Webster III (2020). Steerable Needle Trajectory Following in the Lung: Torsional Deadband Compensation and Full Pose Estimation with 5DOF Feedback for Needles Passing Through Flexible Endoscopes. ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Conference. Published, 10/01/2020.
  • 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 (2020). Decoupling Steerability from Diameter: Helical Dovetail Laser Patterning for Steerable Needles. IEEE Access. Vol. 8, 181411-181419. Published, 10/01/2020.
  • 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 (2020). Comparing the Accuracy of the da Vinci Xi and da Vinci Si for Image Guidance and Automation. The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery. e2149. Published, 08/01/2020.
  • Haonan Chen, Hao Tan, Alan Kuntz, Mohit Bansal & Ron Alterovitz (2020). Enabling Robots to Understand Incomplete Natural Language Instructions Using Commonsense Reasoning. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 1963-1969. Published, 06/2020.
  • 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 (2020). Toward Practical and Accurate Touch-Based Image Guidance for Robotic Partial Nephrectomy. IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. Vol. 2, 196-205. Published, 05/2020.
  • Alan Kuntz, Armaan Sethi, Robert J. Webster III & Ron Alterovitz (2020). Learning the Complete Shape of Concentric Tube Robots. IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics. Vol. 2, 140-147. Published, 02/19/2020.
  • Sherdil Niyaz, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman, Ron Alterovitz & Siddhartha S. Srinivasa (2019). Optimizing Motion-Planning Problem Setup via Bounded Evaluation with Application to Following Surgical Trajectories. 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 1355-1362. Published, 11/2019.
  • Alan Kuntz, Mengyu Fu & Ron Alterovitz (2019). Planning High-Quality Motions for Concentric Tube Robots in Point Clouds via Parallel Sampling and Optimization. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 2205-2212. Published, 11/2019.
  • Mengyu Fu, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman & Ron Alterovitz (2019). Toward Asymptotically- Optimal Inspection Planning via Efficient Near-Optimal Graph Search. Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS). Published, 06/2019.
  • Alan Kuntz, Armaan Sethi & Ron Alterovitz (2019). Estimating the Complete Shape of Concentric Tube Robots via Learning. The Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics. 43-44. Published, 06/2019.
  • Sherdil Niyaz, Alan Kuntz, Oren Salzman, Ron Alterovitz & Siddhartha S. Srinivasa (2018). Following Surgical Trajectories with Concentric Tube Robots via Nearest-Neighbor Graphs. International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER). Published, 11/2018.
  • Mengyu Fu, Alan Kuntz, Robert J. Webster III & Ron Alterovitz (2018). Safe Motion Planning for Steerable Needles Using Cost Maps Automatically Extracted from Pulmonary Images. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 4942-4949. Published, 10/2018.

Presentations

  • “The Cutting Edge of Surgery: Medical Robots Improving Precision, Efficiency, and Accessibility,” Utah Data Science Day, University of Utah. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/2024.
  • “Deformable Tissue and Deformable Robots: Algorithmic and Mechanical Solutions to Leverage Robots in Surgical and Interventional Medicine,” Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR) Seminar, Johns Hopkins University. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/2023.
  • “Deformable Robots and Deformable Tissue: Novel Mechanical and Algorithmic Solutions Enabling Robots in Surgical and Interventional Medicine,” Technion Robotics Seminar (TRS), Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/2023.
  • “Autonomously Manipulating Deformable Tissue and Novel Micro-Scale Continuum Robots,” The Holistic Forum of Medical Robotics Junior Professors, International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR). Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2023.
  • “The Cutting Edge of Surgery: Robots Improving Precision, Efficiency, and Accessibility,” Keynote, Guest Faculty Speaker, Computer Science Graduate Student Association Student Conference, University of New Mexico. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2023.
  • “Deformable Objects and Continuum Robots: Novel Mechanical and Algorithmic Solutions to Leverage Robots in Surgical and Interventional Medicine,” Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering Seminar, Vanderbilt University. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2023.
  • “Continuum Robots and Deformable Object Manipulation: Novel Mechanical and Algorithmic Solutions to Leverage Robots in Surgical and Interventional Medicine,” Contextual Robotics Institute Seminar, University of California, San Diego. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/2023.
  • "Tentacle-Like Continuum Robots and Sub-Task Automation,” Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Symposium 10.0, Idaho National Laboratory. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/2023.
  • “Large-Scale Simulation for Calibration-Free Sim to Real Transfer of Deformable Object Manipulation,” 2nd Workshop on Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/2022.
  • “Deformable Robots and Deformable Tissues,” Surgical Robotics: The Next Generation, International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR). Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2022.
  • “Artificial Intelligence in Robot Assisted Surgery,” Utah Informatics Initiative (UI2) and Tanner Humanities Center Artificial Intelligence & Society Symposium. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/2021.
  • Targeted Therapy Delivery in the Lung: Semi-Autonomous Transbronchoscopic Needle Steering,” Autonomous System in Medicine: Current Challenges in Design, Modeling, Perception, Control and Applications, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS),. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/25/2020.
  • Haonan Chen, Hao Tan, Alan Kuntz, Mohit Bansal, and Ron Alterovitz, "Enabling Robots to Understand Incomplete Natural Language Instructions Using Commonsense Reasoning,'' IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1963-1969, Paris, France, June 2020. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 06/2020.
  • Alan Kuntz, Mengyu Fu, and Ron Alterovitz, "Planning High-Quality Motions for Concentric Tube Robots in Point Clouds via Parallel Sampling and Optimization,'' IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 2205-2212, Macau, China, November 2019. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 11/2019.

Patents

  • Methods, systems, and computer readable media for transoral lung access (#10,803,662). Status: Issued. Inventors: Ron Alterovitz, Richard H. Feins, Bryan I. Hartley, Alan D. Kuntz, Erik Lamers, Arthur W. Mahoney, Andria A. Remirez, Philip J. Swaney, and Robert J. Webster III. File date 05/01/2016; Issue date 10/13/2020.