I create robots to explore the Earth and space. My research develops autonomous exploration: enabling robots to make decisions based on analysis of observations, measurements, models and plans in order to guide their own exploration and discovery. I investigate multi-modal perception, endurance navigation, resource-cognizant planning, scientific data analysis, and machine learning. These technologies are needed to create autonomous explorers on land, underwater, in the air and in space. Field experimentation is crucial to understanding performance so I deploy robots in relevant environments in support of scientific investigations. Applications include studying the biology, ecology and geology of extreme environments but also supporting monitoring in forestry and agriculture. I instruct courses in systems engineering to teach the process of designing complex robotic systems and I advise students in research related to robotic exploration.
Research Topics
- Space Robots and Systems
- Robotics for Scientific Discovery
- Robotics in Agriculture and Forestry
- Underwater Robotics
- Learning and Classification
- 3-D Vision and Recognition
- Multisensor Data Fusion
- Active Perception
- AI Reasoning for Robotics
- Human-Robot Interaction
- Field & Service Robotics
- Motion Control
- Motion Planning
- Robotic Systems Architectures and Programming
- Human-Centered Robotics
- Sensing & Perception
- Robotics Foundations
current phd students
current masters students
current affiliates
past masters students
- Joseph Amato
- Paul Bartlett
- Francisco Calderon
- Heather Dunlop
- Kevin Edelson
- Andrew Harris
- Hiroaki Inotsume
- Haidar Jamal
- Suhit Kodgule
- Alan Kraut
- James S. Lee
- Daniel Loret de Mola Lemus
- Rolf Allan Luders
- Samuel Ong
- Karen Orton
- David Russell
- Neal Seegmiller
- Deborah Sigel
- Paloma Sodhi
- Daniel Villa
- Himanshi Yadav
- Zongyi Yang
- Samuel Yim
- Rohan Zeng
Below is a list of this RI member's most recent, active or featured projects. To view archived projects, please visit the project archive