ihmcrobotics/ihmc-open-robotics-software
Oct 2024 – Sep 2025
9 Months active
Languages Used
JavaIDLGradleC++
Technical Skills
Control SystemsRoboticsSoftware DevelopmentSoftware EngineeringInverse KinematicsKinematics
Stephen McCrory
PROFILE
Stephen Mccrory
Sean McCrory developed advanced robotics control and perception features for the ihmc-open-robotics-software repository, focusing on terrain analysis, locomotion, and teleoperation. He engineered CUDA-accelerated terrain plane fitting, robust footstep planning, and direct Center of Mass streaming, leveraging C++ and Java for high-performance computation and real-time control. His work included refactoring geometry processing pipelines, integrating ROS 2 logging for data-driven debugging, and enhancing VR-based teleoperation interfaces. By addressing both algorithmic depth and system reliability, Sean improved robot stability on uneven terrain, reduced control latency, and streamlined environment integration, demonstrating strong proficiency in control systems, GPU computing, and robotics software engineering.
Overall Statistics
Feature vs Bugs
83%Features
Repository Contributions
34Total
Bugs
4
Commits
34
Features
19
Lines of code
20,184
Activity Months9
Your Network
18 people
Work History
September 2025
8 Commits • 3 Features
Sep 1, 2025For 2025-09, delivered key terrain analysis and stepping improvements that enhance planning robustness, speed, and operator clarity. Implemented squared-error terrain plane fitting with a CUDA kernel, added robust edge-case handling and normal-calculation metrics, and fixed a squared-error calculation bug. Refactored terrain steppability data model to height/normal/traversability with updated messages and visualizers. Improved Step Generation by initializing the 2D footstep pose before adjustments and reintroduced environmental constraints to fix yaw instability. Expanded test coverage for the new features.
8 Commits • 3 Features
Sep 1, 2025For 2025-09, delivered key terrain analysis and stepping improvements that enhance planning robustness, speed, and operator clarity. Implemented squared-error terrain plane fitting with a CUDA kernel, added robust edge-case handling and normal-calculation metrics, and fixed a squared-error calculation bug. Refactored terrain steppability data model to height/normal/traversability with updated messages and visualizers. Improved Step Generation by initializing the 2D footstep pose before adjustments and reintroduced environmental constraints to fix yaw instability. Expanded test coverage for the new features.
September 2025
August 2025
9 Commits • 4 Features
Aug 1, 2025August 2025 monthly summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software. Delivered navigation, terrain, and developer tooling improvements across the repository, with safety hardening and refactors to streamline terrain analysis. The work improved robustness on uneven terrain, accelerated environment provisioning, and reduced maintenance burden through targeted refactors and tooling. Key achievements (business value and technical impact): - Body path planning enhancements: integrated Turn-Walk-Turn planner with a body path plan; added a configurable collisionStartTolerance and a UI toggle to enable/disable body path planning, enabling more reliable walking on complex paths. - Height map based footstep adjustments: added HeightMapCommand and HeightMapFootstepSnapper to snap footsteps to terrain for stability on uneven surfaces, improving reliability in challenging environments. - Height map data handling refactor and obstacle detection removal: refactored height map data handling by removing unused fields and legacy obstacle detection/planar region components, reducing complexity and maintenance effort. - RDX environment export tool: introduced RDXEnvironmentExporter to generate Java code for defining RDX environments from JSON, enabling faster integration with Simulation Construction Set. - FootstepPlanner height map data copy bug fix: fixed incorrect copying of height map data in FootstepPlannerRequest by referencing the other object's environment handler to ensure correct data transfer. Major bugs fixed: - Command input manager safety improvements: enable the command input manager only when the update method is called and the controller is in a walking state; clear all commands when not walking to prevent unintended actions. Overall impact and accomplishments: - Significantly improved navigation robustness and terrain handling, with quicker environment setup and reduced risk of unintended actions. The changes lay groundwork for more reliable autonomous operation in variable terrain and streamline ongoing maintenance by removing legacy components and adding tooling for environment integration. Technologies/skills demonstrated: - Java-based robotics planning and terrain processing, UI integration, and tooling development (RDX environment export) with a focus on robustness, safety, and maintainability.
August 2025
9 Commits • 4 Features
Aug 1, 2025August 2025 monthly summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software. Delivered navigation, terrain, and developer tooling improvements across the repository, with safety hardening and refactors to streamline terrain analysis. The work improved robustness on uneven terrain, accelerated environment provisioning, and reduced maintenance burden through targeted refactors and tooling. Key achievements (business value and technical impact): - Body path planning enhancements: integrated Turn-Walk-Turn planner with a body path plan; added a configurable collisionStartTolerance and a UI toggle to enable/disable body path planning, enabling more reliable walking on complex paths. - Height map based footstep adjustments: added HeightMapCommand and HeightMapFootstepSnapper to snap footsteps to terrain for stability on uneven surfaces, improving reliability in challenging environments. - Height map data handling refactor and obstacle detection removal: refactored height map data handling by removing unused fields and legacy obstacle detection/planar region components, reducing complexity and maintenance effort. - RDX environment export tool: introduced RDXEnvironmentExporter to generate Java code for defining RDX environments from JSON, enabling faster integration with Simulation Construction Set. - FootstepPlanner height map data copy bug fix: fixed incorrect copying of height map data in FootstepPlannerRequest by referencing the other object's environment handler to ensure correct data transfer. Major bugs fixed: - Command input manager safety improvements: enable the command input manager only when the update method is called and the controller is in a walking state; clear all commands when not walking to prevent unintended actions. Overall impact and accomplishments: - Significantly improved navigation robustness and terrain handling, with quicker environment setup and reduced risk of unintended actions. The changes lay groundwork for more reliable autonomous operation in variable terrain and streamline ongoing maintenance by removing legacy components and adding tooling for environment integration. Technologies/skills demonstrated: - Java-based robotics planning and terrain processing, UI integration, and tooling development (RDX environment export) with a focus on robustness, safety, and maintainability.
July 2025
1 Commits • 1 Features
Jul 1, 2025July 2025 monthly summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software focusing on a geometry-based enhancement to foot touchdown detection for improved stability and accuracy.
1 Commits • 1 Features
Jul 1, 2025July 2025 monthly summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software focusing on a geometry-based enhancement to foot touchdown detection for improved stability and accuracy.
July 2025
June 2025
2 Commits • 2 Features
Jun 1, 2025June 2025 Monthly Summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software (ihmcrobotics/ihmc-open-robotics-software): Key features delivered include Multi-Contact Teleoperation and VR Recording Enhancements, which integrate multi-contact teleoperation with direct CoM control in multi-contact configurations, revamp trajectory recording/replaying with ROS 2 logging, and utilize perception surface normals for improved control. Added new visualizations for multi-contact regions and refined the VR control interface for recording/replaying motions. A second major deliverable is Selective Teleportation Mode Toggles in VR Teleporter, enabling independent control over B button, joystick button, and touchpad height teleportation functionalities, with the enabling logic refactored to allow independent enable/disable of these interactions. These initiatives are captured in commits b340b1d4f4ecdebb6dcc5e3b6a87812af050a69f and 3bd5d293efc2354465ea858f2630acea7dd57e6a. Overall impact: These changes substantially improve remote operation capability and safety in complex manipulation tasks, enhance data collection and validation through ROS 2 logging, and boost operator ergonomics and workflow flexibility by enabling granular VR teleport controls. The work demonstrates strong proficiency in ROS 2, perception-based control, multi-contact manipulation strategies, trajectory recording/replay systems, and VR UI/UX design for robotics tooling.
June 2025
2 Commits • 2 Features
Jun 1, 2025June 2025 Monthly Summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software (ihmcrobotics/ihmc-open-robotics-software): Key features delivered include Multi-Contact Teleoperation and VR Recording Enhancements, which integrate multi-contact teleoperation with direct CoM control in multi-contact configurations, revamp trajectory recording/replaying with ROS 2 logging, and utilize perception surface normals for improved control. Added new visualizations for multi-contact regions and refined the VR control interface for recording/replaying motions. A second major deliverable is Selective Teleportation Mode Toggles in VR Teleporter, enabling independent control over B button, joystick button, and touchpad height teleportation functionalities, with the enabling logic refactored to allow independent enable/disable of these interactions. These initiatives are captured in commits b340b1d4f4ecdebb6dcc5e3b6a87812af050a69f and 3bd5d293efc2354465ea858f2630acea7dd57e6a. Overall impact: These changes substantially improve remote operation capability and safety in complex manipulation tasks, enhance data collection and validation through ROS 2 logging, and boost operator ergonomics and workflow flexibility by enabling granular VR teleport controls. The work demonstrates strong proficiency in ROS 2, perception-based control, multi-contact manipulation strategies, trajectory recording/replay systems, and VR UI/UX design for robotics tooling.
May 2025
5 Commits • 3 Features
May 1, 2025May 2025 monthly summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software focused on robustness, performance, and enhanced streaming control. Key work centered on stabilizing kinematics tooling, enabling direct CoM trajectory control during streaming, upgrading performance-related dependencies, and reducing redundant computations in the Whole Body Controller Core. These changes improve reliability of multi-contact IK, enable more responsive and accurate robot control in dynamic tasks, and deliver measurable performance gains without altering external behavior.
5 Commits • 3 Features
May 1, 2025May 2025 monthly summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software focused on robustness, performance, and enhanced streaming control. Key work centered on stabilizing kinematics tooling, enabling direct CoM trajectory control during streaming, upgrading performance-related dependencies, and reducing redundant computations in the Whole Body Controller Core. These changes improve reliability of multi-contact IK, enable more responsive and accurate robot control in dynamic tasks, and deliver measurable performance gains without altering external behavior.
May 2025
March 2025
1 Commits • 1 Features
Mar 1, 2025March 2025 focused on improving Center of Mass (CoM) velocity handling in ihmc-open-robotics-software. Implemented prioritization of the desired CoM velocity when provided, aligning the input velocity to the specified velocity instead of deriving it from position changes, resulting in more accurate and responsive balance/control. Implemented in ihmcrobotics/ihmc-open-robotics-software (commit: d76b2bbc24dfd6193fd78381853aafec9dae201e).
March 2025
1 Commits • 1 Features
Mar 1, 2025March 2025 focused on improving Center of Mass (CoM) velocity handling in ihmc-open-robotics-software. Implemented prioritization of the desired CoM velocity when provided, aligning the input velocity to the specified velocity instead of deriving it from position changes, resulting in more accurate and responsive balance/control. Implemented in ihmcrobotics/ihmc-open-robotics-software (commit: d76b2bbc24dfd6193fd78381853aafec9dae201e).
February 2025
3 Commits • 2 Features
Feb 1, 2025February 2025 — Monthly work summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software focusing on reliability, data-driven debugging, and configurability. Delivered three major items across ihmcrobotics/ihmc-open-robotics-software: a bug fix for CenterOfMassHeightManager going-home behavior, a new ROS 2 Logs Recording and Replay feature, and a KST Joint Deactivation Parameter. These changes improve safety and operational reliability, enable persistent data capture for analysis, and increase system configurability.
3 Commits • 2 Features
Feb 1, 2025February 2025 — Monthly work summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software focusing on reliability, data-driven debugging, and configurability. Delivered three major items across ihmcrobotics/ihmc-open-robotics-software: a bug fix for CenterOfMassHeightManager going-home behavior, a new ROS 2 Logs Recording and Replay feature, and a KST Joint Deactivation Parameter. These changes improve safety and operational reliability, enable persistent data capture for analysis, and increase system configurability.
February 2025
January 2025
3 Commits • 2 Features
Jan 1, 2025January 2025 performance summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software. Delivered two major enhancements focused on control latency, streaming fidelity, and IK stability: (1) CoM streaming and kinematic streaming enhancements enabling direct streaming of Center of Mass setpoints to the controller, reducing latency and improving responsiveness through hand-control-frame methods; (2) a stability-focused inverse kinematics (IK) objective to increase stability margins and simplify the IK workflow by removing a controller-side objective. Parameter retargeting to use the hand-control frame directly further aligned streaming and IK with operator intent. Collectively these changes improve real-time control fidelity, reduce end-to-end latency, and enhance safety in teleoperation scenarios, while maintaining clear commit traceability. Technologies demonstrated include real-time streaming architectures, hand-control-frame alignment, IK objective formulation, and maintainable, commit-driven changes to the codebase.
January 2025
3 Commits • 2 Features
Jan 1, 2025January 2025 performance summary for ihmc-open-robotics-software. Delivered two major enhancements focused on control latency, streaming fidelity, and IK stability: (1) CoM streaming and kinematic streaming enhancements enabling direct streaming of Center of Mass setpoints to the controller, reducing latency and improving responsiveness through hand-control-frame methods; (2) a stability-focused inverse kinematics (IK) objective to increase stability margins and simplify the IK workflow by removing a controller-side objective. Parameter retargeting to use the hand-control frame directly further aligned streaming and IK with operator intent. Collectively these changes improve real-time control fidelity, reduce end-to-end latency, and enhance safety in teleoperation scenarios, while maintaining clear commit traceability. Technologies demonstrated include real-time streaming architectures, hand-control-frame alignment, IK objective formulation, and maintainable, commit-driven changes to the codebase.
October 2024
2 Commits • 1 Features
Oct 1, 2024October 2024: Delivered stability and go-home performance improvements for Pelvis ICP-Based Translation Control in ihmc-open-robotics-software. Implemented rate-limited ICP offset handling fix during reset transitions in PelvisICPBasedTranslationManager, and raised the maximum ICP offset rate to improve go-home responsiveness. Minor test name clarification included. These changes enhance pelvis translation accuracy, safety during resets, and operation throughput.
2 Commits • 1 Features
Oct 1, 2024October 2024: Delivered stability and go-home performance improvements for Pelvis ICP-Based Translation Control in ihmc-open-robotics-software. Implemented rate-limited ICP offset handling fix during reset transitions in PelvisICPBasedTranslationManager, and raised the maximum ICP offset rate to improve go-home responsiveness. Minor test name clarification included. These changes enhance pelvis translation accuracy, safety during resets, and operation throughput.
October 2024
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Quality Metrics
Correctness84.2%
Maintainability83.6%
Architecture82.0%
Performance74.6%
AI Usage20.0%
Skills & Technologies
Programming Languages
C++GradleIDLJava
Technical Skills
3D Geometry ProcessingAPI DevelopmentBug FixingBuild AutomationCUDACode GenerationCode RefactoringComputer VisionControl SystemsData ManagementData ProcessingDependency ManagementFootstep PlanningGPU ComputingGeometry
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