About Us

On This Page:

• Hanson's Bio
• Publications
• Employment History
• Art Shows
• Honors

David Franklin Hanson, Jr. was born December 20, 1969 in Dallas, TX, the son of David Hanson Sr. and Elaine Kay Ericson. After graduating from Highland Park High School, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). An honors student, David graduated in 1996 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Film-Video. During that time, he also attended Brown University through RISD, taking courses in holography and computer science. David continued his education as a visiting student at the University of California-Los Angeles, taking graduate courses in art with Paul McCarthy and studying cognitive science under Jochen Triesch. He entered graduate school at the University of Texas at Dallas in January 2002, pursuing a doctorate degree in Aesthetic Studies. David has been published extensively and has worked in varied capacities within his chosen field. In addition, David has won wide recognition for his work. He is married and has a son, Zeno Hanson. His goal in life is to advance the human race by creating benevolent robotic applications which will serve for the greater good of all mankind.

Publications

2006

Hanson, David. "Expanding the Design Domain of Humanoid Robots." In Proc. ICCS CogSci Conference, special session on Android Science, Vancouver, 2006.

Hanson, David, Bergs, R., Tadesse, Y., White, V., Priya S. "Enhancement of EAP Actuated Facial Expressions by Designed Chamber Geometry in Elastomers." In Proc. SPIE's Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conf., 10TH Smart Structures and Materials Symposium, San Diego, USA, 2006.

Jun-Ho, O., David Hanson, I. Y. Han, J. K. Kim, W. S. Kim, and I. W. Park. Design of android type humanoid robot Albert HUBO. In Proc. IEEE/RJS IROS Robotics Conference, Beijing.

 

2005

Hanson, David. "Bioinspired Robotics." In Biomimetics, ed. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, CRC Press, 2005.

Hanson, David. "Expanding the Aesthetics Possibilities for Humanlike Robots." In Proc. IEEE Humanoid Robotics Conference, special session on the Uncanny Valley; Tskuba, Japan, December 2005.

Hanson, David, A. Olney, S. Prilliman, E. Mathews, M. Zielke, D. Hammons, R. Fernandez, and H. Stephanou. "Upending the Uncanny Valley." In Proc. AAAI's National Conference, Pittsburgh, 2005.

 

2004

Hanson, David. "Applications for Electrically Actuated Polymer Actuators." In Electrically Actuated Polymer Actuators as Artificial Muscles, 2d ed., ed. Yoseph Bar-Cohen. Washington: SPIE Press, 2004.

Hanson, David, and V. White. "Converging the Capabilities of Electroactive Polymer Artificial Muscles and the Requirements of Bio-Inspired Robotics." Proc. SPIE's Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conf., 10th Smart Structures and Materials Symposium, San Diego, USA, 2004.

 

2003

Hanson, David. "EAP Actuator Design for Biologically-Inspired Face-Based Communication Robots." Proc. SPIE's Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conf., 9th Smart Structures and Materials Symposium, San Diego, USA, 2003.

Hanson, David. "The Neural Basis of the Uncanny Valley," graduate research paper for Alice O'Toole in UTD Brain Sciences. September, 2003.

Hanson, David, D. Rus, S. Canvin, and G. Scmeirer. "Applications of Bio-Inspired Robotics." Biologically Inspired Intelligent Robots, ed. Yoseph Bar-Cohen and Cynthia Breazeal. Washington: SPIE Press, 2003.

Pioggia, G., David Hanson, S. Dinelli, F. Di Francesco, R. Francesconi, and D. De Rossi. "The Importance of Nonverbal Expression to the Emergence of Emotive Artificial Intelligence Systems." Proc. SPIE's Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conf., 8th Smart Structures and Materials Symposium, San Diego (2003): 4695-51.

 

2002

Hanson, David. "Bio-Inspired Facial Expression Interface for Emotive Robots." Proc. AAAI National Conference in Edmonton, CA, 2002.

Hanson, David, and G. Pioggia. "Entertainment Applications for Electrically Actuated Polymer Actuators." Electrically Actuated Polymer Actuators as Artificial Muscles. Washington: SPIE Press, 2002.

Hanson, David, G. Pioggia, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, and D. De Rossi. "Androids: Application of EAP as artificial muscles to Entertainment Industry." Proc. SPIE's Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conf., 7th Smart Structures and Materials Symposium, Newport Beach, USA, 2001.

In addition, Hanson has been a regular contributor to the JPL EAPAD newsletter, authoring articles on artificial muscles. See the following issues: Spring 2001, Fall 2002, 2004, and 2006.

Employment History

Hanson Robotics, Inc. (March 2003-Present)
Founder and Chief Scientist, researching and manufacturing humanlike robots and constituent technologies.
Paul McCarthy Studios (June 2002-June 2003)
Sculptor, Artist's Assistant, Robotics Designer.
Art Center College of Design in Pasadena (September-December 2002)
Studio Instructor in Graduate Industrial Design, sculpting dozens of characters and props for parks, including Tokyo Disney Sea, Disney's California Adventure, and Tokyo Disneyland.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Spring 2002)
Robotics Developer, building a robot face as test platform for electroactive polymer actuators, http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/lommas/eap/EAP-web.htm
Eric Swenson (August 2001-February 2002)
Artist's Assistant.
Walt Disney Imagineering (contracting through TAC) (1996, 1998-2001) Sculptor (1996 and 1998-2000), Sculpting dozens of characters and props for parks, including Tokyo Disney Sea, Disney's California Adventure, Tokyo Disneyland, and Walt Disney World. Characters sculpted included Mickey Mouse, Huey Duck, J. Thadeus Toad, and Pooh's Heffalumps. Robotics/Animatronics Designer and Technical Development (1999-2001), leading the design and construction of an autonomous, walking robotic spider, which would track humans and give chase; duties including lead mechanical and electronics design, AI programming in C, machining, and visual design. Also heading investigation into electroactuated polymer actuators (artificial muscles), building functioning prototypes, and writing a paper published by SPIE.
Universal Studios via Adirondack Scenic, Inc. (May-September, 1998) Sculptor, producing mythical creatures for Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure theme park.
David Hanson, LLC (1993-1998)
Freelance Artist and Designer, contracting for numerous clients with activities including project conceptualization and design mock-up, communication and negotiation with clients, maintenance of workshop and office with fulltime employees, maquette sculpting, and full-scale sculpture production.
Kern Sculpture Company (1996-1998)
Interim Head of Sculpture Dept, Lead Sculptor, Asst Project Manager, producing over thirty works for clients, including Disney, Universal Studios, Mardi Gras, and many casinos and resorts; managing a crew of four, maintaining the shop, dealing with clients and managing projects.
CNN (1993) and MTV (1995)
Freelance Videographer, Electronic News Gathering.

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Art Shows

"Lil Punctum" in the "Second Skin" show, representing the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in Essen Germany, summer 2006.

Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Best Design Triennial, 2006.

"Albert Hubo" at the APEC summit in Busan, Korea, November 2005. Also at the winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, February 2006.

"PKD Android" in the UnReal show at UTDallas, September-November 2005.

"PKD Android" at Ogden Museum, New Orleans, August 2005.

WIRED magazine NextFest 2005, a world technology festival, Chicago, June 2005. "PKD-A, an Android Portrait of Philip K. Dick," made in collaboration with Hanson Robotics, Inc., Andrew Olney, and UTA ARRI. Called "hit of the show" by Chicago Sun Times and "most advanced robot" by Wall Street Journal.

Exhibitor and speaker, 2005 AAAI National Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

"McAnimus" Group show at Market Gallery, Los Angeles, 2004.

Rhode Island School of Design Alumni show, Los Angeles, 2003.

"Gymnosophore," sculpture show and installation, 2001, Side Street Gallery, Los Angeles. A two-man show with David Deaney, "Gymnosophore" offered functioning, sculpted hot tubs for the use of visitors. Reviewed favorably in the Los Angeles Times art reviews by critic Christopher Knight.

"Primordial Ooze Bath," sculpture installation on the Rhode Island School of Design Green, 1995; seventy feet wide and forty feet long, this yoni-lingual swimming-hole sprayed 1200 gallons of seaweed goo (carageenan) over hundreds of playful students, garnering favorable reviews from CNN's Headline News, the front page of Providence Journal Bulletin, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune.

"Scuttling Head" at Brown's "Pong: Art and Technology Festival," 1995, a human-relations robot presenting the sculpted likeness of a distant user on a retractable five foot stalk emerging from a small, agile robotic rover, transmitting video and two-way audio.

Honors

• Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Best Design Triennial, December 2006.
• PC Magazine, Dec. 2006, describes Hanson as the "Quiet Genius" of robotics.
• Cover WIRED magazine, January 2006. Albert-Hubo robot, called "genius", and ranked the seventeenth greatest robot of all history, using our Einstein portrait atop the KAIST walking Hubo robot.
• UTA ARRI Innovation Award, February 2006.
• "Albert Hubo" at the APEC summit in Busan, Korea, November 2005; also at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, February 2006.
• 2005 AAAI award. First Place for Open Interaction for the PKD Android.
• NSF STTR award to investigate piezo-actuated facial expressions with Shashank Priya of ARRI.
• Exhibitor and speaker, 2005 AAAI national Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
• WIRED magazine NextFest 2005, Chicago, June 2005, "PKD-A, Philip K Dick Android."
• Featured in WIRED magazine, June 2005 and July 2004.
• World Technology Award 2004, nominee and semifinalist: Best IT Hardware.
• NIST ATP Award, 2004: "Highly meritorious" designation, with funding pending the 2005 Congressional spending bill.
• Cochair of EAP Applications session at the SPIE International Smart Materials Conference, in San Diego, March 15-19, 2004.
• Exhibitor NEXTfest, WIRED magazine technology festival, San Francisco, CA, May 2004.
• Exhibited at the TED, "Technology Entertainment Design," Monterey, CA, February 2004.
• Speaker at Sandia National Laboratories, Cognitive Systems Workshop, Santa Fe, N M, July 2003: "Facial Veracity in Robotics as a Tool for Understanding Human Social Cognition."
• JPL Open House, 2002, 2003, and 2005. Presenting my robots with the JPL Advanced Actuators Lab.
• Co-organizer and Speaker at the 2003 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Denver, CO: symposium entitled, "Biologically Inspired Intelligent Robotics"; co-organized with Yoseph Bar-Cohen of JPL/CalTech and Cynthia Breazeal of the MIT AI Lab.
• Speaker at American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference, in Edmonton, Canada, August 2002: "Identity Emulation: Integrated Aesthetic Robotics."
• Speaker/Invited Speaker at the SPIE Smart Materials and Structures Conference, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) Symposium, San Diego, CA, March 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.
• Science magazine profile, March 28, 2003, describing Hanson as "head of his class" in sociable robotics.
• Participant and Speaker at the International Workshop on Perceptive Social Agents and Robots in San Diego, January 9-10, 2003.
• Speaker at venues including UCSD, UTD, Telecom Tech, Dallas Robotics Club, FedEx Institute of Technology, Rhode Island School of Design, and Brown.
• Themed Entertainment Association, Best Themed Display Award 1996, First Place for the "World of Disney Themed store" at Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL.
• NASA Inventions and Contributions Space Act Monetary Award, 1994: Second Place, NASA prize for best invention of the year, awarded to Dr. Heinrich Gerritsen, Marilou Jepson and David Hanson for a novel space shuttle lighting system. Using a Fourier transform light-filter, this device output a nearly perfect diffusion of light, useful for science experiments and reducing astronaut eye fatigue.
• Chair, "Miracles and Monstrosities," 1993 symposium on genetically engineered art at Rhode Island School of Design-Brown University art+tech festival PONG.
• Odyssey of the Mind, educational competition, 1992: First Place, world. Team-built tiny robotic vehicle to navigate an obstacle course, automatically dock to a trailer, gather objects, and deliver to a designated area.
• Rhode Island School of Design Merit Award, 1992-1996.
• Vice President, Rhode Island School of Design Student Government, 1995-1996. Co-managed a budget of $365,000; organized functions, lectures, and various student-driven initiatives (such as INTER ALIA, the Student Art-Science Initiative). Co-organized Rhode Island School of Design-Brown University art+tech fest PONG.
• Texas State Poetry Award, 2nd Place, 1987.
• Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 2000.
• Member, SPIE since 2001.
• Member, Visual Sciences Society (VSS) since 2003.