Maurice Fallon

Maurice Fallon (IEEE, Senior Member) is an Associate Professor in Engineering Science and a Royal Society University Research Fellow. He leads the Dynamic Robot Systems Group. You will find more information about his research on the DRS website.

His research is focused on probabilistic methods for localization and mapping. He has also made research contributions to state estimation for legged robots and is interested in dynamic motion planning and control. Of particular concern is developing methods which are robust in the most challenging situations by leveraging sensor fusion.

Dr. Fallon studied Electronic Engineering at University College Dublin. His PhD research in the field of acoustic source tracking was carried out in the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge.

Immediately after his PhD he moved to MIT as a post-doc and later research scientist in the Marine Robotics Group (2008-2012). From 2012-2015 he was the perception lead of MIT’s team in the DARPA Robotics Challenge – a multi-year competition developing technologies for semi-autonomous humanoid exploration and manipulation in disaster situations.

After a period as a Lecturer at University of Edinburgh, he moved to Oxford and took up the Royal Society University Research Fellowship in October 2017.

He has been PI/co-I on several large UK and EU collaborative projects including ORCA, RAIN, THING, MEMMO as well as the DARPA SubT Challenge winning team CERBERUS. Current ongoing projects include the EU Horizon Europe project DigiForest as well as collaborations with UKAEA (RACE). 

• M. Ramezani, G. Tinchev, E. Iuganov, and M. Fallon, “Online LiDAR-SLAM for Legged Robots with Robust Registration and Deep-Learned Loop Closure,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2020.
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• O. Melon, M. Geisert, D. Surovik, I. Havoutis, and M. Fallon, “Reliable Trajectories for Dynamic Quadrupeds using Analytical Costs and Learned Initializations,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020.
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• Y. Wang, M. Ramezani, and M. Fallon, “Actively Mapping Industrial Structures with Information Gain-Based Planning on a Quadruped Robot,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020.
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• D. Wisth, M. Camurri, and M. Fallon, “Preintegrated Velocity Bias Estimation to Overcome Contact Nonlinearities in Legged Robot Odometry,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020.
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• M. Camurri, M. Ramezani, S. Nobili, and M. Fallon, “Pronto: a Multi-Sensor State Estimator for Legged Robots in Real World Scenarios,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2020.
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• H. Kolvenback, D. Wisth, R. Buchanan, G. Valsecchi, R. Grandia, M. Fallon, and M. Hutter, “Towards Autonomous Inspection of Concrete Deterioration in Sewers with Legged Robots,” Journal of Field Robotics, 2020.
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2019

• D. Wisth, M. Camurri, and M. Fallon, “Robust Legged Robot State Estimation Using Factor Graph Optimization,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2019.
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• G. Tinchev, A. Penate-Sanchez, and M. Fallon, “Learning to See the Wood for the Trees: Deep Laser Localization in Urban and Natural Environments on a CPU,” , 2019.
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• C. Rauch, V. Ivan, T. Hospedales, J. Shotton, and M. Fallon, “Learning Driven Coarse-to-Fine Articulated Robot Tracking,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, 2019.
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• M. Brandao, M. Fallon, and I. Havoutis, “Multi-controller multi-objective locomotion planning for legged robots,” in IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019.
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2018

• M. Fallon, “Accurate and robust localization for walking robots fusing kinematics, inertial, vision and LIDAR,” Interface Focus, 2018.
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• S. Nobili, G. Tinchev, and M. Fallon, “Predicting Alignment Risk to Prevent Localization Failure,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, 2018.
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• C. Rauch, T. Hospedales, J. Shotton, and M. Fallon, “Visual Articulated Tracking in the Presence of Occlusions,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, 2018.
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• R. Scona, M. Jaimez, Y. R. Petillot, M. Fallon, and D. Cremers, “StaticFusion: Background Reconstruction for Dense RGB-D SLAM in Dynamic Environments,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, 2018.
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• P. Marion, M. Fallon, R. Deits, A. Valenzuela, C. P. D’Arpino, G. Izatt, L. Manuelli, M. Antone, H. Dai, T. Koolen, J. Carter, S. Kuindersma, and R. Tedrake, “Director: A User Interface Designed for Robot Operation With Shared Autonomy,” , 2018.
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• G. Tinchev, S. Nobili, and M. Fallon, “Seeing the Wood for the Trees: Reliable Localization in Urban and Natural Environments,” in IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, 2018.
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2017

• S. Nobili, M. Camurri, V. Barasuol, M. Focchi, D. Caldwell, C. Semini, and M. Fallon, “\textbfHeterogeneous Sensor Fusion for Accurate State Estimation of Dynamic Legged Robots,” in Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Cambridge, MA, 2017.
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• M. Camurri, M. Fallon, S. Bazeille, A. Radulescu, V. Barasuol, D. G. Caldwell, and C. Semini, “Probabilistic Contact Estimation and Impact Detection for State Estimation of Quadruped Robots,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 2, pp. 1023-1030, 2017.
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• P. Marion, M. Fallon, R. Deits, A. Valenzuela, C. P. D’Arpino, G. Izatt, L. Manuelli, M. Antone, H. Dai, T. Koolen, J. Carter, S. Kuindersma, and R. Tedrake, “Director: A User Interface Designed for Robot Operation With Shared Autonomy,” J. of Field Robotics, vol. 34, pp. 225-426, 2017.
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• S. Nobili, R. Scona, M. Caravagna, and M. Fallon, “Overlap-based ICP Tuning for Robust Localization of a Humanoid Robot,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Singapore, 2017.
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• W. Merkt, Y. Yang, T. Stouraitis, C. Mower, M. Fallon, and S. Vijayakumar, “Robust Shared Autonomy for Mobile Manipulation with Continuous Scene Monitoring,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Xian, China, 2017.
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• R. Scona, S. Nobili, Y. Petillot, and M. Fallon, “Direct Visual SLAM Fusing Proprioception for a Humanoid Robot,” in IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Vancouver, Canada, 2017.
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2016

• Y. Yang, V. Ivan, Z. Li, M. Fallon, and S. Vijayakumar, “iDRM: Humanoid Motion Planning with Real-time End-pose Selection in Complex Environments,” in IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Humanoid Robots, 2016.
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• F. Nori, S. Traversaro, and M. Fallon, “Sensor fusion and State estimation of the robot,” in Humanoid Robotics: a Reference, A. G. Prahlad Vadakkepat, Ed., Springer, Berlin, 2016.
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2015

• M. F. Fallon, P. Marion, R. Deits, T. Whelan, M. Antone, J. McDonald, and R. Tedrake, “\textbfContinuous Humanoid Locomotion over Uneven Terrain using Stereo Fusion,” in IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Humanoid Robots, Seoul, Korea, 2015.
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• M. F. Fallon, Continuous Locomotion with Stereo Fusion and Online Footstep OptimizationHamburg, Germany: , 2015.
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• S. Kuindersma, R. Deits, M. F. Fallon, A. Valenzuela, H. Dai, F. Permenter, T. Koolen, P. Marion, and R. Tedrake, “\textbfOptimization-based locomotion planning, estimation, and control design for the Atlas humanoid robot,” Autonomous Robots, pp. 1-27, 2015.
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• P. Marion, M. F. Fallon, R. Deits, T. Whelan, M. Antone, J. McDonald, and R. Tedrake, “Continuous Humanoid Locomotion over Uneven Terrain using Stereo Fusion,” in Dynamic Walking, Columbus, Ohio, 2015.
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• M. Fallon, S. Kuindersma, S. Karumanchi, M. Antone, T. Schneider, H. Dai, C. P. D’Arpino, Robin Deits, M. DiCicco, D. Fourie, T. Koolen, P. Marion, Michael Posa, A. Valenzuela, K. Yu, J. Shah, K. Iagnemma, R. Tedrake, and S. Teller, “\textbfAn Architecture for Online Affordance-based Perception and Whole-body Planning,” J. of Field Robotics, vol. 32, pp. 229-254, 2015.
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• T. Whelan, M. Kaess, H. Johannsson, M. F. Fallon, J. J. Leonard, and J. B. McDonald, “Real-time Large Scale Dense RGB-D SLAM with Volumetric Fusion,” Intl. J. of Robotics Research, vol. 34, iss. 4-5, pp. 598-626, 2015.
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2014

• M. F. Fallon, Bridging the Gap between Operator Intent and Robot Execution with Automated Whole-Body Planning and PerceptionMadrid, Spain: , 2014.
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• T. Whelan, M. Kaess, R. Finman, M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, J. J. Leonard, and J. McDonald, “3D mapping, localisation and object retrieval using low cost robotic platforms: A robotic search engine for the real-world,” in RSS Workshop on RGB-D: Advanced Reasoning with Depth Cameras, 2014.
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• R. Tedrake, M. Fallon, S. Karumanchi, S. Kuindersma, M. Antone, T. Schneider, T. Howard, M. Walter, H. Dai, R. Deits, M. Fleder, D. Fourie, R. Hammoud, S. Hemachandra, P. Ilardi, C. Pérez-D’Arpino, S. Pillai, A. Valenzuela, C. Cantu, C. Dolan, I. Evans, S. Jorgensen, J. Kristeller, J. A. Shah, K. Iagnemma, and S. Teller, “A Summary of Team MIT’s Approach to the Virtual Robotics Challenge,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Hong Kong, China, 2014.
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• H. Wang, Y. Landa, M. Fallon, and S. Teller, “Spatially Prioritized and Persistent Text Detection and Decoding,” in Camera-Based Document Analysis and Recognition (CBDAR), Springer-Verlag, 2014, pp. 3-17.
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• J. C. Leedekerken, M. F. Fallon, and J. J. Leonard, “Mapping Complex Marine Environments with Autonomous Surface Craft,” in Experimental Robotics, O. Khatib, V. Kumar, and G. Sukhatme, Eds., Springer, Berlin, 2014, vol. 79, pp. 525-539.
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• M. F. Fallon, M. Antone, N. Roy, and S. Teller, “\textbfDrift-Free Humanoid State Estimation fusing Kinematic, Inertial and LIDAR sensing,” in IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Humanoid Robots, Madrid, Spain, 2014.
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2013

• M. Fallon, H. Johannsson, M. Kaess, and J. J. Leonard, “The MIT Stata Center Dataset,” Intl. J. of Robotics Research, IJRR, vol. 32, iss. 14, pp. 1695-1699, 2013.
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• M. F. Fallon, J. Folkesson, H. McClelland, and J. J. Leonard, “Relocating Underwater Features Autonomously Using Sonar-Based SLAM,” Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 38, pp. 500-513, 2013.
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• H. Johannsson, M. Kaess, M. F. Fallon, and J. J. Leonard, “Temporally Scalable Visual SLAM using a Reduced Pose Graph,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013.
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• T. Whelan, M. Kaess, M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, J. Leonard, and J. McDonald, “Kintinuous: Spatially Extended KinectFusion,” 2013.
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• H. Wang, Y. Landa, M. Fallon, and S. Teller, “Spatially Prioritized and Persistent Text Detection and Decoding,” in International Workshop on Camera-Based Document Analysis and Recognition (CBDAR), 2013.
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2012

• M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, J. Brookshire, S. Teller, and J. J. Leonard, “Sensor Fusion for Flexible Human-Portable Building-Scale Mapping,” in IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2012.
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• H. Johannsson, M. Kaess, M. F. Fallon, and J. J. Leonard, “Temporally Scalable Visual SLAM using a Reduced Pose Graph,” 2012.
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• M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, M. Kaess, D. M. Rosen, E. Muggler, and J. J. Leonard, “Mapping the MIT Stata Center: Large-scale Integrated Visual and RGB-D SLAM,” in RSS Workshop on RGB-D: Advanced Reasoning with Depth Cameras, 2012.
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• T. Whelan, J. McDonald, M. Kaess, M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, and J. J. Leonard, “Kintinuous: Spatially Extended KinectFusion,” 2012.
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• T. Whelan, J. McDonald, M. Kaess, M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, and J. J. Leonard, “Kintinuous: Spatially Extended KinectFusion,” Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, MIT-CSAIL-TR-2012-020, 2012.
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• M. F. Fallon and S. J. Godsill, “Acoustic Source Localisation and Tracking of a Time-Varying Number of Speakers,” IEEE Trans. on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, vol. 20, pp. 1409-1415, 2012.
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• M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, and J. J. Leonard, “Efficient Scene Simulation for Robust Monte Carlo Localization using an RGB-D Camera,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2012.
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• H. Johannsson, M. Kaess, M. F. Fallon, and J. J. Leonard, “Temporally Scalable Visual SLAM using a Reduced Pose Graph,” CSAIL, MIT, MIT-CSAIL-TR-2012-013, 2012.
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• M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, M. Kaess, J. Folkesson, H. McClelland, B. Englot, F. Hover, and J. J. Leonard, “Simultaneous Localization and Mapping in Marine Environments,” in Marine Robot Autonomy, M. Seto, Ed., Springer-Verlag, 2012.
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2011

• M. F. Fallon, H. Johannsson, and J. J. Leonard, “Robust 3D Monte Carlo Localization using an RGB-D Camera and a Semantic Building Model,” in IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2011.
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• M. F. Fallon, M. Kaess, H. Johannsson, and J. J. Leonard, “Efficient AUV Navigation Fusing Acoustic Ranging and Side-scan Sonar,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2011.
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2010

• M. F. Fallon, G. Papadopoulos, J. J. Leonard, and N. M. Patrikalakis, “Cooperative AUV Navigation using a Single Maneuvering Surface Craft,” Intl. J. of Robotics Research, vol. 29, iss. 12, pp. 1461-1474, 2010.
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• M. F. Fallon, G. Papadopoulos, and J. J. Leonard, “A Measurement Distribution Framework for Cooperative Navigation using multiple AUVs,” in IEEE Intl. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010, pp. 4803-4808.
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• M. F. Fallon and S. Godsill, “Acoustic Source Localisation and Tracking using Track Before Detect,” IEEE Trans. on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, vol. 18, iss. 6, pp. 1228-1242, 2010.
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• J. C. Leedekerken, M. F. Fallon, and J. J. Leonard, “Mapping Complex Marine Environments with Autonomous Surface Craft,” in Intl. Sym. on Experimental Robotics (ISER), Delhi, India, 2010.
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• G. Papadopoulos, M. F. Fallon, J. J. Leonard, and N. M. Patrikalakis, “Cooperative Localization of Marine Vehicles using Nonlinear State Estimation,” in IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2010.
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• M. F. Fallon, G. Papadopoulos, and J. J. Leonard, “Cooperative AUV Navigation using a single surface craft,” in Field and Service Robotics, A. Howard, K. Iagnemma, and A. Kelly, Eds., Springer, Berlin, 2010, vol. 79, pp. 331-340.
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2009

• A. Bahr, J. J. Leonard, and M. F. Fallon, “Cooperative Localization for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles,” Intl. J. of Robotics Research, vol. 28, iss. 6, pp. 714-728, 2009.
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• M. F. Fallon, G. Papadopoulos, and J. J. Leonard, “Cooperative AUV Navigation using a Single Surface Craft,” in Field and Service Robotics (FSR), 2009.
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2008

• M. F. Fallon and S. Godsill, “Multi Target Acoustic Source Tracking with an unknown and time varying number of targets,” in Joint Workshop on Hands-free Speech Communication and Microphone Arrays (HSCMA), 2008.
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• M. F. Fallon, “Acoustic Source Tracking using Sequential Monte Carlo,” PhD Thesis, 2008.
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2007

• M. F. Fallon and S. Godsill, “Multi-Target Acoustic Source Tracking Using Track Before Detect,” in Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA), 2007, pp. 77-80.
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2006

• M. F. Fallon, S. Godsill, and A. Blake, “Joint Acoustic Source Location and Orientation Estimation Using Sequential Monte Carlo,” in International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2006, pp. 203-208.
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2004

• S. Rickard and M. F. Fallon, “The Gini Index of Speech,” in Conference on Information Sciences and Systems, Princeton, NJ, 2004.
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