MINHO HWANG
Associate Professor
333, Techno jungang-daero, Hyeonpung-eup, Dalseong-gun, Daegu, Republic of Korea
Email: minho@dgist.ac.kr / gkgk1215@gmail.com
Website: SURGLAB
Research Theme
- AI-Assisted Surgical Robotics
- Autonomous Precision Manipulation
- Continuum and Flexible Robots
- Visual Intelligence and Shared Autonomy
- Learning-based Robot Control for Contact-rich Manipulation
Education
2017-08-18
Ph.D.,
Mechanical Engineering
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
Thesis: Surgical Joint with Enhanced Payload Capability with its application to Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot
2012-02-01
M.S.,
Mechanical Engineering
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
Thesis: Miniaturized Force Transducer for Minimally Invasive Surgical Instrument
Professional Affiliations
2026-09-01 –
Current
Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST)
Daegu, South Korea
Associate Professor, Robotics Engineering
Daegu, South Korea
Associate Professor, Robotics Engineering
2025-08-01 –
2025-10-01
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA, USA
Visiting Scholar, Electrical and Computer Engineering
La Jolla, CA, USA
Visiting Scholar, Electrical and Computer Engineering
2021-08-01 –
2026-08-31
Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST)
Daegu, South Korea
Assistant Professor, Robotics Engineering
Daegu, South Korea
Assistant Professor, Robotics Engineering
2019-06-24 –
2021-06-23
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, USA
Postdoctoral Researcher, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Berkeley, CA, USA
Postdoctoral Researcher, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
2018-07-01 –
2019-06-06
U-jin Tech (start-up)
Daejeon, South Korea
General Director of Technology
Daejeon, South Korea
General Director of Technology
2017-08-21 –
2018-06-30
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Daejeon, South Korea
Postdoctoral Researcher, Mechanical Engineering
Daejeon, South Korea
Postdoctoral Researcher, Mechanical Engineering
Honors and Awards
2026-07-03
Excellence Award (2nd Overall)
“2026 Humanoid Challenge”
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Award
DGIST SurGLab demonstrated autonomous manipulation accuracy and system stability across four manufacturing-field Missions: part sorting, box transport, sequential assembly, and wheel fastening.
2026-06-04
1st Place Award
“Autonomous AI, Real dVRK Track”
AI for Robotic Surgery Competition, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2026)
2026-06-04
2nd Place Award
“Human Teleoperation, Sim dVRK Track”
AI for Robotic Surgery Competition, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2026)
2026-04-10
Excellence Award
“Demonstration of an RB-Y1-based Humanoid Laparoscopic Surgical System”
Humanoid Real-World Challenge
(Hosted by Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement, KIRIA)
2023-02-17
Outstanding Paper Award
“Hysteresis Compensation of Flexible Continuum Manipulator using Deep Neural Network”
The 19th Korea Robotics Society Annual Conference (KRoC 2023)
2022-11-26
Outstanding Paper Award
“Design of a Multi-bending Flexible Manipulator for Gastrointestinal Surgery”
The 13th Korean Society of Medical Robotics
2022-06-23
Outstanding Young Researcher Award
The 37th Institute of Control, Robotics, and Systems Annual Conference (ICROS)
2021-10-29
Best Paper Award
“Efficient Calibration Method of Cable-driven Robot using RGBD Fiducial Sensing and Recurrent Neural Network”
The 12th Korean Society of Medical Robotics
2019-11-06
Top 10 Mechanical Engineering Technology of 2019
“Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot, K-FLEX”
The Korean Federation of Mechanical Engineering Societies
2018-11-18
Best Paper Award
“A flexible endoscopic surgery robot K-FLEX and its feasibility validation in in-vivo animal trial”
The 14th Asian Conference on Computer Aided Surgery (ACCAS)
2018-06-29
Best Application Award and Overall Winner
“Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot, K-FLEX”
Surgical Robot Challenge 2018, Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics
2015-06-27
ISCAS Olympus Best Paper Award
“A steerable endoscopic robot for endonasal skull base surgery: development and a cadaver experiment”
19th Annual Conference of the International Society of Computer Aided Surgery
2013-09-18
Finalist for the Best Paper Award
“A Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot for NOTES and its In-vivo Animal Experiment”
The 9th Asian Conference on Computer Aided Surgery (ACCAS)
Professional Service
Organizing Committee
- Late Breaking Report Chair, IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), South Korea, 2023
- Program Chair, Asian Conference on Computer Aided Surgery (ACCAS), Online, 2021
- Program Chair, Asian Conference on Computer Aided Surgery (ACCAS), Thailand, 2022
Editorial Advisory Board
- The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (IJMRCAS), (2023-04 – Current)
Reviewer
- IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (TMECH)
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
- IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
- IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
- The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery (IJMRCAS)
- IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE)
Conference Assistant
- IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, South Korea, 2016
Member
- International dVRK (da Vinci Research Kit) community
- K-NOTES (The Korean NOTES Society)
Teaching
2026 Fall
Intelligent Robot Manipulation, DGIST
2026 Spring
Robot Dynamics and Control (MECH401), DGIST
2025 Fall
Robot System Implementation (RT750), DGIST
2025 Spring
Engineering Vibration (MECH306), DGIST
Introduction to AI/ML Engineering (AT501), DGIST
2024 Fall
Robot System Implementation (RT750), DGIST
Introduction to Biomedical Engineering (MECH205), DGIST
2024 Spring
Robot Dynamics and Control (MECH401), DGIST
2023 Fall
Kinematics (MECH303), DGIST
2023 Spring
Engineering Vibration (MECH306), DGIST
2022 Fall
Robot System Implementation (RT750), DGIST
Introduction to Biomedical Engineering (MECH302), DGIST
2022 Spring
Robot Dynamics and Control (MECH401), DGIST
2021 Fall
Robot System Implementation (RT750), DGIST
Invited Talks
2026-06-26
“Physical AI for Surgical Robot Automation: Motion Precision, Visual Intelligence, and Shared Autonomy”, Invited Special Lecture, The 13th Mini-MD Workshop, Korean Society of Medical Robotics, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
2026-04-23
“A Flexible Robotic Platform for Advanced Endoscopic Procedures”, KSERS International Symposium
2026-02-06
“The Era of Physical AI: Surgical Robots and the Operating Room of the Future”, The Korean Brain Tumor Society, Invited Talk
2025-11-01
“Toward Autonomous Microsurgical Robotics: Calibration, Pose Estimation, and Visual Servoing”, KSSH Invited Talk
2025-09-28
“Surgical Robotics Research: Flexible Robots and Automation”, ACCAS Rising Star Invited Talk
2025-09-22
“Flexible Endoscopic Robots and Automating Surgical Subtask”, DGIST-KBRI Int. Symposium
2025-09-12
“Surgical Robots and Task Automation”, KETI, Invited Seminar
2025-05-27
“Surgical Robotics and Robotic Manipulation”, SAMSUNG Electronics Invited Seminar
2025-05-07
“Flexible Surgical Robotics and Autonomous Robotic Manipulation”, CNU Graduate School Seminar
2024-04-12
“Flexible Surgical Robots and Surgical Task Automation”, KSERS International Symposium
2024-03-26
“Flexible Surgery Robots”, Intervest Venture Capital Invited Seminar
2024-03-09
“Flexible Surgery Robots and Surgery Automation”, KGESS&KARS Joint Symposium
2024-03-06
“Flexible Surgery Robots and Surgery Automation”, KIST Invited Seminar
2023-12-22
“Surgical guidance algorithm & console development”, Symposium on Sleeve Gastrectomy Balloon Catheter
2023-06-12
“Surgical Robotics and Robotic Manipulation”, MERRIC Interview
2022-11-09
“Flexible Surgery Robot”, Asan International Biomedical Engineering Symposium
2022-11-03
“Flexible Surgery Robot with AI-assisted Control”, Institute of Integrated Technology, GIST
2022-10-28
“Flexible Surgery Robot with AI-assisted Control”, Kyungbook National Univ. (KNU)
2022-10-07
“Robotics Research toward Flexible Endoscopic Surgery”, World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery
2022-09-22
“Surgery Robotics Research”, Robot-AI Symposium, GIST Robot-AI Symposium
2022-06-22
“Surgery Robotics Research”, Young Researcher Session, ICROS
2021-11-03
“Surgery Robotics Research”, Asan Int. Biomed. Eng. Symposium
2021-04-23
“Future Surgical Robotics”, CivHacks, UC Berkeley
2021-03-04
“Surgeon-Equivalent Surgical Peg Transfer”, dVRK/Raven Symposium
2019-10-29
“Flexible Surgery Robot Research”, Intuitive Surgical Inc.
2018-12-15
“Flexible Surgery Robot Research”, Int. Robotic Surgery Live, Severance Hosp.
2018-10-31
“Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot”, MDRIP Lab., Kyungbook National Univ. (KNU)
2018-05-24
“Miniature Joint Mechanisms for Medical Application”, KIST
2018-05-09
“Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot”, Medical Korea Symposium
2018-04-03
“Flexible Surgery Robot”, Dep. of Mechanical Eng., Kyungbook National Univ. (KNU)
2018-03-08
“Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot”, CIS-Young Scientist Forum
2017-11-25
“Flexible Endoscope Surgical Robots”, Korean Digestive Disease Week
2017-05-01
“Emerging Trends in Medical Robotics and Surgical Robots at KAIST”, Regular Conference of the Korean Society of Healthcare Management
2016-03-19
“Advanced Endoscopic Platform for Surgical Operations”, KIMES (Korea International Medical & Hospital Equipment Show)
Refereed Publications
International Journal
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SAM: Semi-Active Mechanism for Extensible Continuum Manipulator and Real-time Hysteresis Compensation Control Algorithm
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Efficacy of robot arm-assisted endoscopic submucosal dissection in live porcine stomach (with video)
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Hysteresis Compensation of Flexible Continuum Manipulator using RGBD Sensing and Temporal Convolutional Network
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Asymmetric Rolling Contact Joint for Enhanced Payload Capabilities
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Sigmoidal Auxiliary Tendon-Driven Mechanism Reinforcing Structural Stiffness of Hyper-Redundant Manipulator for Endoscopic Surgery
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Automating Surgical Peg Transfer: Calibration with Deep Learning Can Exceed Speed, Accuracy, and Consistency of Humans
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Bed-mounted laparoscopic surgical robot system with novel positioning arm mechanism
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Recovery RL: Safe Reinforcement Learning with Learned Recovery Zones
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A novel microsurgery robot mechanism with mechanical motion scalability for intraocular and reconstructive surgery
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A Highly Intuitive and Ergonomic Redundant Joint Master Device for 4-Degrees of Freedom Flexible Endoscopic Surgery Robot
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Efficiently Calibrating Cable-Driven Surgical Robots With RGBD Sensing, Temporal Windowing, and Linear and Recurrent Neural Network Compensation
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K-FLEX: A flexible robotic platform for scar-free endoscopic surgery
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Evaluation of a robotic arm assisted endoscope to facilitate endoscopic submucosal dissection (with video)
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Effect of backlash hysteresis of surgical tool bending joints on task performance in teleoperated flexible endoscopic robot
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Strong Continuum Manipulator for Flexible Endoscopic Surgery
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A 3-Degrees-of-Freedom Gravity-Compensated Robotic Arm with Roll-Pitch-Translational Motion for Remote Center of Motion
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A master manipulator with a remote-center-of-motion kinematic structure for a minimally invasive robotic surgical system
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A single port surgical robot system with novel elbow joint mechanism for high force transmission
International Conference
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Learning Optimal Strategies for Needle Handover in Surgical Suturing
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Markerless 6D Pose Estimation and Position-Based Visual Servoing for Endoscopic Continuum Manipulators
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Vibration-Assisted Hysteresis Mitigation for Achieving High Compensation Efficiency
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OFF-CLIP: Improving Normal Detection Confidence in Radiology CLIP with Simple Off-Diagonal Term Auto-Adjustment
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Optimizing Base Placement of Surgical Robot: Kinematics Data-Driven Approach by Analyzing Working Pattern
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Learning to Localize, Grasp, and Hand Over Unmodified Surgical Needles
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Untangling Dense Non-Planar Knots by Learning Manipulation Features and Recovery Policies
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Intermittent Visual Servoing: Efficiently Learning Policies Robust to Instrument Changes for High-precision Surgical Manipulation
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Learning Dense Visual Correspondences in Simulation to Smooth and Fold Real Fabrics
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Payload optimization of surgical instruments with rolling joint mechanisms
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Deep Imitation Learning of Sequential Fabric Smoothing Policies
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Applying Depth-Sensing to Automated Surgical Manipulation with a da Vinci Robot
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Untangling Dense Knots by Learning Task-Relevant Keypoints
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Effects of Flexible Surgery Robot on Endoscopic Procedure: Preliminary Bench-Top User Test
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Robotic endoscopy system (easyEndo) with a robotic arm mountable on a conventional endoscope
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Kinematic Analysis of Needle-like Overtube Supporting Robot
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Path Planning for Automation of Surgery Robot based on Probabilistic Roadmap and Reinforcement Learning
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Robust trajectory tracking of Master-Slave surgery robot system based on PD with Integral Sliding Mode Control
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Gravity Compensation Mechanism for Roll-Pitch Rotation of a Robotic Arm
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Indirect measure of joint torques of surgical instrument in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery
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A Portable Endoscopic Tool Handler (PETH) with its Ex-vivo ESD Trials
Patents
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내시경 시술 보조를 위한 모듈형 로봇팔
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위소매절제술용 의료장치
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로봇 제어 신호 보정 방법 및 이를 위한 전자 장치
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관절 어셈블리
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수술 로봇
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수술용 기기
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내시경 장비에 부착된 수술 팔을 포함하는 수술용 장치 및 이를 포함하는 수술 시스템
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수술용 기기
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관절 기구
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수술용 기기
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내시경 시스템
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로봇 암 체결단, 인스트루먼트 구동모듈 및 이를 포함하는 로봇
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다 자유도 로봇암 장치
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로봇암 이동을 위한 링크구조 및 그 작동방법
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수술 도구의 위치 결정 장치 및 이를 포함하는 수술 로봇 시스템
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오버튜브
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관절장치
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내시경 수술을 위한 가이드 장치 및 수술 장치
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관절장치
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자유도가 분리된 손목 구조를 가지는 수술용 로봇 핸드
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관절구동장치
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로봇용 관절 구동장치
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각도 제어가 가능한 복강경 수술용 수술 도구 및 그 제어방법
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수술용 관절, 수술도구, 및 구동장치