Dr Tom Carlson

Aspire Lecturer
University College London
United Kingdom

Visiting Academic
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
Switzerland

t.carlson@ucl.ac.uk

Fields of Expertise

Human Robot Interaction (HRI)
Shared Control
Assistive Technology
Wheelchairs
Mobile Robotics
Tele-operation / Tele-presence
Brain-Computer Interfaces
User Evaluations

Biography and Current Work

Since October 2013, Tom is a Lecturer (assistant prof) at the Aspire CREATe (Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology), University College London. His research focus is on the user-centred design of assistive robotic technologies for people with spinal cord injuries. In particular he is developing shared control techniques for operating devices such as wheelchairs, with novel interfaces, e.g. brain-machine interfaces and eye-trackers. Tom is also currently a co-chair of the IEEE SMC Technical Committee on Shared Control, which he co-founded in 2012. He has a number of collaborations with academic, clinical and industrial partners worldwide.

Previously, Tom spent 3.5 years working as a research associate in the CNBI lab, part of EPFL's Centre for Neuroprosthetics, where he worked on shared control techniques for brain-controlled devices (BCI/BMI). His projects included the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics and the EU FP7 project TOBI : Tools for Brain-Computer Interaction, which was rated at the highest level, "excellent progress", in the final project review.

In 2010, he completed his PhD thesis "Collaborative Control Mechanisms for an Intelligent Robotic Wheelchair" under the guidance of Dr. Yiannis Demiris in the Electrical Engineering Department at Imperial College London. During his PhD, aside from the academic publications, presentations and demonstrations, Tom presented his work to MPs at the UK Houses of Parliament (SET for Britain 2009). He worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, contributing to the first and second year Technical Communications course as well as assisting in the computer laboratories for the Introduction to Computer Architecture and Software Engineering courses.

He has an MEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (2006) from Imperial and was awarded the Eric Laithwaite Prize for outstanding innovation in his final year MEng project "From Musical Notes to Optimal 3D Finger Placement". Throughout his undergraduate studies, Tom was a William and Ellen Vinten Trust Scholar and, following a successful internship in 2005, he was sponsored through his final year by ARM Ltd.. He gained further practical industrial experience from the R&D work that he undertook for Griffith Elder in 2006 and 2007.

Academic Activities

Invited Talks

Recipe for a Brain-Controlled Wheelchair: An Overview from EEG Acquisition to Shared Control. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Lab, Korea University, South Korea, October 2012
Shared control for a brain-actuated wheelchair. Departamentul de Informatică, Universitatea A. I. Cuza Iaşi, Romania, January 2012.
A journey from KEVI to brain-controlled robots. Outreach talk at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, UK, May 2011.
Shared control for brain-computer interfaces. Brain Mediated Human-Robot Interaction: A tutorial at HRI 2011, Lausanne, Switzerland, March 2011
Shared control for assistive technology. Workshop on Brain-Machine Interfaces at the IEEE Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Istanbul, Turkey, October 2010
Collaborative control for a robotic wheelchair. Rainbow interaction seminar series, Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, Cambridge, UK, February 2010

Committees

Chair: IEEE SMC Technical Committee on Shared Control
Organiser: Special Session on Shared Control and Tutorial on BMI at IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, San Diego, CA 2014
Chair (local arrangements): IEEE International Conference on Cybernetics, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2013
Organiser: Special Session and Workshop on Shared Control at IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Manchester, UK 2013
PC member: International Conference on Information, Communication and Automation Technologies, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina 2013
PC member and local organising committee: TOBI Workshop VI: Tools for Brain-Computer Interaction. "Practical Brain-Computer Interfaces for End-Users: Progress and Challenges", Sion, Switzerland, 2013
Organiser: Special Session and Workshop on Shared Control at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Seoul, Korea, 2012
PC member: IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics 2012
PC member: TOBI Workshop III : Tools for Brain-Computer Interaction. "Bringing BCIs to End-Users: Facing the Challenge", Würzburg, Germany, March 20-22, 2012
PC member: TOBI Workshop II : Tools for Brain-Computer Interaction. "Translational Issues in BCI Development: User Needs, Ethics, and Technology Transfer" Rome, Italy, December 2-3, 2010

Editor

Guest editor for the Journal of Human Robot Interaction, special issue on Shared Control, 2015

Reviewer for Research Grant Proposals

"Expert evaluator" for the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)

Reviewer for Journals

IEEE Transactions on Robotics
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, part A: Systems and Humans
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, part B: Cybernetics
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, part C: Applications and Reviews
IEEE Transactions on Haptics
Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Springer
Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Elsevier
Control Engineering Practice, Elsevier
Assistive Technology - The Official Journal of RESNA, Taylor & Francis
Journal of Neural Engineering, IOP

Reviewer for Conferences and workshops

IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) 2011-2014
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2012-2014
IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) 2012
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2011-2014
ACM/IEEE Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI) 2010-2013
Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society 2012 and 2013
CT-RSA 2013
International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation 2012
The Berlin BCI Workshop (BBCI) 2012
IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) 2011