Robotic space exploration - from vision to reality

Dr. Adrian Stoica
Manager, Advanced Robotics Control Group
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

Abstract

The talk will begin with an overview of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and its most significant accomplishments as a leader in robotic space exploration. It will focus on two Mars rover missions, the current Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) and the future Mars Science Laboratory (''Curiosity'). It will provide more information on the sub-systems on these rovers (what's 'under the hood'). On-going research and technology development for future missions will be further detailed. The last part of the presentation focuses on people - those who make these missions possible.

Bio

Dr. Adrian Stoica is a JPL Senior Research Scientist and Manager of Advanced Robotics Control Group at JPL, where he has been since 1996. His research expertise is on learning and adaptation techniques for various autonomous systems, from adaptive hardware to robots. He has done pioneering work in several areas including learning by imitation (1995 PhD thesis "Motion Learning by Robot Apprentices"), evolvable hardware, self-reconfigurable electronics for extreme environments, anti-tamper technologies, biometrics from shadows, etc. In his current role he leads a team of engineers and researchers who perform a wide range of tasks, from research in autonomous planning and navigation for Mars rovers, and daily 'driving' of JPL rovers on Mars to development of algorithms for future wind-based navigation of balloons in Titan atmosphere, to underwater navigation in planetary oceans.