I'm a research scientist at the Toyota Research Institute. I received my Ph.D. from MIT in 2017, where I was advised by Prof. Pablo Parrilo and Prof. Russ Tedrake. I received my BS from the University of Houston and MS from Stanford, both in Electrical Engineering. From 2004-2007, I developed flight software for the International Space Station, implementing algorithms that continuously regulate the attitude (orientation) of the space station. From 2007-2011, I codeveloped Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot in space. My current research interests include optimization and control and their applications to autonomous vehicles.

Contact

• Email:

Thesis

• Reduction methods in semidefinite and conic optimization, August 2017
  [dspace]

Publications and Preprints

• Log-domain interior-point methods for quadratic programming
  F. Permenter
  [pdf]

• An unconstrained convex formulation of compliant contact
  A. Castro, F. Permenter, X. Han
  [pdf]

• A geodesic interior-point method for linear optimization over symmetric cones
  F. Permenter
  [pdf], [slides]

• Dimension Reduction For SDPs via Jordan Algebras
  F. Permenter, P.A. Parrilo
  [pdf]

• Optimization-based locomotion planning, estimation, and control design for Atlas
  S. Kuindersma, R. Deits, M. Fallon, A. Valenzuela, H. Dai, F. Permenter, T. Koolen, P. Marion, R. Tedrake.
  Autonomous Robots, 2016
  [pdf]

• Solving conic optimization problems via self-dual embedding and facial reduction: a unified approach
  F. Permenter, Henrik Friberg, and Erling Andersen
  [pdf]

• Finding sparse, equivalent SDPs using minimal coordinate projections
  F. Permenter and P. A. Parrilo
  [pdf], [examples], [software]

• Partial facial reduction: Simplified, equivalent semidefinite programs via approximations of the positive semidefinite cone.
  F. Permenter and P. A. Parrilo
  [pdf], [software]

• Basis selection for SOS programs via facial reduction and polyhedral approximations
  F. Permenter and P. A. Parrilo
  Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, December 2014
  [pdf]

• An Efficiently Solvable Quadratic Program for Stabilizing Dynamic Locomotion.
  S. Kuindersma, F. Permenter, R. Tedrake.
  In Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2014
  [pdf]

• A numerical algebraic geometry approach to regional stability analysis of polynomial systems
  F. Permenter, C.W. Wampler, and R. Tedrake
  Proceedings of the American Control Conference, June 2013
  [pdf]

• Selecting a monomial basis for sums of squares programming over a quotient ring
  F. Permenter and P. A. Parrilo
  Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, December 2012
  [pdf]

• Using Bayesian filtering to localize flexible materials during manipulation
  R. Platt, F. Permenter, and J. Pfeiffer
  IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2011
  

• Robonaut 2: the first humanoid robot in space
  M.A. Diftler, N.A. Radford, J.S. Mehling, M.E. Abdallah, F. Permenter, R.O. Ambrose, et al.
  Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2011
  

• A miniature load cell suitable for mounting on the phalanges of human-sized robot fingers
  R. Platt, C. Ihrke, L. Bridgewater, D. Linn, M.A. Diftler, M.E. Abdallah, S. Askew, F. Permenter.
  Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2011
  

Software

frlib -- a pre-processing tool for SDP using techniques described here

• github

Teaching

MIT

• Fall 2013: TA for 6.255/15.093J Optimization Methods