Spencer Backus
Yale University, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University
Papers
12
Total Citations
257
H-Index
8
About
Spencer Backus is a leading roboticist specializing in the design of highly underactuated grippers and manipulators for extreme environments. His research focuses on enabling robotic grasping and perching in domains where traditional hands fail—specifically for aerial, deep-ocean, and planetary applications. Backus’s major contributions include the development of the JPL-Nautilus Gripper, a 16-finger microspine gripper for deep-ocean geological sampling (41 citations), and the LORIS lightweight free-climbing robot for extreme terrain exploration (18 citations). He is also known for pioneering work on adaptive, single-actuator hands, such as the three-fingered prismatic gripper (76 citations) and the PRR joint hand for grasping from UAVs (13 citations). His innovations extend to contact detection, where he developed a robust resonant-frequency-based method for robotic manipulators (26 citations combined). Backus has also contributed to space exploration through the REMORA CubeSat concept for debris mitigation and the COLDArm system for cryogenic lunar operations. With over 250 total citations, his work bridges the gap between minimalist mechanical design and high-performance grasping in the world’s most challenging environments.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1An Adaptive Three-Fingered Prismatic Gripper With Passive Rotational Joints76 citations · 2016
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- 4LORIS: A Lightweight Free-Climbing Robot for Extreme Terrain Exploration18 citations · 2024
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- 10Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm (COLDArm) System Development and Test7 citations · 2023