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About

Maozhen Wang is a leading researcher in robotics, focusing on human-robot interaction, autonomous navigation, and robotic applications in healthcare and extreme environments. His work addresses critical challenges in enabling robots to operate safely and effectively alongside humans, particularly in unstructured and dynamic settings. Wang's most influential contribution is a systematic review on robotics for in-home care of older adults (97 citations), which has become a foundational resource for researchers developing assistive technologies for aging populations. He pioneered affordance-based navigation for mobile robots, allowing them to interact with—rather than simply avoid—movable obstacles, resulting in more natural and efficient motion in cluttered spaces (29 citations). Wang has also advanced humanoid robotics for hazardous environments, including a holistic framework for human-supervised operations in nuclear facilities (16 citations) and in-situ terrain classification for NASA's Valkyrie robot (13 citations), enabling stable locomotion on deformable surfaces. His work directly impacts eldercare, disaster response, and space exploration, demonstrating how robots can extend human capabilities in the most challenging contexts.