K.S. Roberts
Papers
5
Total Citations
107
H-Index
4
About
K.S. Roberts is a pioneering robotics researcher whose work has significantly advanced the fields of haptic perception, dexterous manipulation, and intelligent robotic grasping. With a career spanning several decades, Roberts has made foundational contributions to how robots sense, interpret, and interact with physical objects in three-dimensional space. Roberts is perhaps best known for research into active touch exploration, with the 2002 paper "Robot active touch exploration: constraints and strategies" accumulating 56 citations — a landmark contribution that combined geometric constraint methods with interpretation-tree approaches to enable robots to recognize objects through haptic feedback alone. This work laid important groundwork for tactile robotics, a field of growing relevance in modern automation. Beyond perception, Roberts developed integrated systems for dextrous manipulation using the Utah-MIT Hand, one of the most sophisticated robotic hand platforms of its era. Contributions include novel quaternion-based algorithms for coordinating multi-fingered hands with robotic arms, as well as multisensor programming environments enabling autonomous grasping tasks incorporating force, position, and tactile sensing. With a cumulative citation record reflecting sustained scholarly influence, Roberts' body of work represents essential reading for researchers exploring robotic manipulation, sensor-based object recognition, and the enduring challenge of human-like dexterity in machines.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Robot active touch exploration: constraints and strategies56 citations · 2002
- 2An integrated system for dextrous manipulation19 citations · 2003
- 3
- 4A system for programming and controlling a multisensor robotic hand14 citations · 1990
- 5