PhD in Computer Science

Thesis: Teleoperation Methods for High-Risk, High-Latency Environments

Advisors: Peter Kazanzides and Simon Leonard

Master of Science in Robotics Engineering

Advisor: Dmitry Berenson

Bachelor of Science, Double Major in Robotics Engineering and Computer Science

• Led end-to-end resolution of multiple high-priority controls issues by characterizing system behavior, identifying root causes, and implementing and verifying software fixes in C++.
• Designed and developed Python-based infrastructure for support tools, enabling development of reliable analysis and calibration utilities.

• 2019: Designed and implemented a new control mode for Verb’s robotic platform.
• 2018: Implemented dynamic compensation on a medical robot. Work included signal conditioning, MATLAB and C++ data analysis and software development, physical testing, and performance analysis.

• Developed client web applications using PHP and JavaScript, both independently and collaboratively.

• Researched visualization and planning technologies to support telerobotic satellite servicing in Prof. Peter Kazanzides’ Sensing, Manipulation, and Real-Time Systems lab, leading to multiple publications.
• Developed and evaluated full-featured human-in-the-loop motion planning system with multiple user interfaces, written in C++ and ROS.
• Designed and implemented hybrid deep learning and classical-method needle localization system for magnetic needle control, leading to 2021 publication.
• Engineered a multi-threaded, multi-process robot controller in Python, enabling simultaneous high-frequency control (over 1kHz), computationally intensive localization, and real-time monitoring.

• Researched incremental perception and its integration with motion planning in Prof. Dmitry Berenson’s lab, culminating in 2016 publication.

• Analyzed pitch-by-pitch event data from the internet baseball simulator Blaseball to characterize new game mechanics and emergent phenomena, enabling player optimization.
• Leveraged analytical tools such as Support Vector Classification to reverse-engineer significant portions of the game code and enable third-party implementations. Collaborated using Discord and GitHub.

• Held twice-weekly office hours, hours by appointment, and exam review sessions, graded homeworks, and coordinated other TAs’ office hours and grading schedules.

• Held twice- or thrice-weekly office hours, answered student questions online.

A tool for efficient labeling of video frames with locations of known geometries for machine learning applications. Written in Rust (Rocket) and JavaScript (React).

A collection of scripts, commands, and queries for analyzing Blaseball data. Demonstrates knowledge of SQL, Python, numpy, matplotlib, and API programming.

Reverse-engineered portions of Blaseball from archived data. My contributions include data processing, multi-core support, and methods to derive equations from data, such as Support Vector Classification.

Will Pryor, Teleoperation Methods For High-Risk, High-Latency Environments, Ph. D. dissertation, Dept. of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, 2023.

Will Pryor, Liam J. Wang, Arko Chatterjee, Balazs P. Vagvolgyi, Anton Deguet, Simon Leonard, Louis L. Whitcomb, Peter Kazanzides, A Virtual Reality Planning Environment for High-Risk, High-Latency Teleoperation, 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, United Kingdom, 2023. pp. 11619-11625, doi: 10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161029.

Yotam Barnoy, Onder Erin, Suraj Raval, Will Pryor, Lamar O. Mair, Irving N. Weinberg, Yancy Diaz-Mercado, Axel Krieger, Gregory D. Hager, Control of Magnetic Surgical Robots With Model-Based Simulators and Reinforcement Learning, IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, Nov. 2022. vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 945-956, doi: 10.1109/TMRB.2022.3214426.

Onder Erin, Suraj Raval, Trevor J. Schwehr, Will Pryor, Yotam Barnoy, Adrian Bell, Xiaolong Liu, Lamar O. Mair, Irving N. Weinberg, Axel Krieger, Yancy Diaz-Mercado, Enhanced Accuracy in Magnetic Actuation: Closed-Loop Control of a Magnetic Agent With Low-Error Numerical Magnetic Model Estimation, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Oct. 2022. vol. 7, no. 4, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2022.3191047.

Peter Kazanzides, Balazs P. Vagvolgyi, Will Pryor, Anton Deguet, Simon Leonard, Louis L. Whitcomb, Teleoperation and Visualization Interfaces for Remote Intervention in Space, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Dec. 2021. vol. 8, doi: 10.3389/frobt.2021.747917.

Suraj Raval, Onder Erin, Xiaolong Liu, Lamar O. Mair, Will Pryor, Yotam Barnoy, Irving N. Weinberg, Axel Krieger, Yancy Diaz-Mercado, Magnetic Model Calibration for Tetherless Surgical Needle Manipulation using Zernike Polynomial Fitting, 2021 IEEE 21st International Conference on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering (BIBE), Kragujevac, Serbia, 2021. pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/BIBE52308.2021.9635512.

Will Pryor, Yotam Barnoy, Suraj Raval, Xiaolong Liu, Lamar Mair, Daniel Lerner, Onder Erin, Gregory D. Hager, Yancy Diaz-Mercado, Axel Krieger, Localization and Control of Magnetic Suture Needles in Cluttered Surgical Site with Blood and Tissue, 2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Prague, Czech Republic, 2021. pp. 524-531, doi: 10.1109/IROS51168.2021.9636441.

Will Pryor, Balazs P. Vagvolgyi, Anton Deguet, Simon Leonard, Louis L. Whitcomb, Peter Kazanzides, Interactive Planning and Supervised Execution for High-Risk, High-Latency Teleoperation, 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Las Vegas, NV, USA, 2020. pp. 1857-1864, doi: 10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9340800.

Amama Mahmood, Balazs P. Vagvolgyi, Will Pryor, Louis L. Whitcomb, Peter Kazanzides, Simon Leonard, Visual Monitoring and Servoing of a Cutting Blade during Telerobotic Satellite Servicing, 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Las Vegas, NV, USA, 2020. pp. 1903-1908, doi: 10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9341485.

Will Pryor, Balazs P. Vagvolgyi, William J. Gallagher, Anton Deguet, Simon Leonard, Louis L. Whitcomb, Peter Kazanzides, Experimental Evaluation of Teleoperation Interfaces for Cutting of Satellite Insulation, 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, QC, Canada, 2019. pp. 4775-4781, doi: 10.1109/ICRA.2019.8793968.

Balazs P. Vagvolgyi, Will Pryor, Ryan Reedy, Wenlong Niu, Anton Deguet, Louis L. Whitcomb, Simon Leonard, Peter Kazanzides, Scene Modeling and Augmented Virtuality Interface for Telerobotic Satellite Servicing, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Oct. 2018. vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 4241-4248, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2018.2864358.

Will Pryor, Yu-Chi Lin, Dmitry Berenson, Integrated Affordance Detection and Humanoid Locomotion Planning, 2016 IEEE-RAS 16th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), Cancún, Mexico, 2016. pp. 125-132, doi: 10.1109/HUMANOIDS.2016.7803264.

Will Pryor, Automatic Contact Surface Detection, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Major Qualifying Project, Worcester, MA, USA, 2016.