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About

Sumin Kang is a leading researcher in socially aware robot navigation, focusing on how mobile robots can coexist and interact safely with humans in dynamic, shared environments. Her major contributions include the development of a **Transformable Gaussian Reward Function** for deep reinforcement learning, which enables robots to navigate more naturally by adapting their behavior to social contexts—a breakthrough that has garnered 8 citations since 2024. She also introduced a **Social Type-Aware Navigation Framework**, which accounts for individual human characteristics and social spaces, earning 5 citations. Additionally, Kang advanced door recognition algorithms for mobile manipulators by fusing LiDAR and RGB-D camera data, improving navigation in complex indoor settings like high-rise buildings. Her work bridges robotics and human-robot interaction, addressing the critical challenge of making robots socially intelligent. With a growing citation record and innovative frameworks that redefine robot behavior in human-centric spaces, Kang is shaping the future of autonomous navigation, making her research essential for students and engineers developing robots that truly understand and respect human social norms.