Drew Lucas

University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Florida, NSWC Panama City Division

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Drew Lucas is a researcher whose work lies at the intersection of marine robotics, autonomous navigation, and robotic manipulation. His primary contributions focus on developing efficient algorithms for autonomous systems operating in complex, often underwater environments. Lucas’s most cited work, "Exploring Space-Time Tradeoffs in Autonomous Sampling for Marine Robotics" (2013, 11 citations), addresses a fundamental challenge in oceanographic data collection: how to balance the time spent sampling against the spatial coverage of a robotic platform. This research is critical for improving the efficiency of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in long-duration missions. Further expanding on autonomous navigation, Lucas developed a multi-resolution parallel genetic algorithm for path planning (2012, 5 citations), tackling the intractability of deterministic algorithms like A* and D* in large search spaces. This work is particularly relevant for enabling reactive, real-time behavior in AUVs. In a complementary vein, his research on geometrically motivated inverse kinematics for a 7-degree-of-freedom arm (2015, 5 citations) directly addresses the practical needs of teleoperated systems for dangerous maritime tasks, including mine deactivation and underwater salvage. Through these focused contributions, Lucas has advanced both the theoretical and applied aspects of autonomous marine robotics, carving out a niche in making these systems more capable and reliable for challenging real-world missions.