Papers
12
Total Citations
317
H-Index
7
About
Thomas Touma is a leading roboticist whose work centers on autonomous navigation, multi-robot coordination, and resilient mobility for extreme environments. He is best known for his pivotal contributions to Team CoSTAR in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, where his work on the NeBula autonomy stack—detailed in papers with over 105 and 51 citations—enabled robots to explore unmapped, communication-denied tunnels and urban ruins. Touma pioneered hybrid aerial-terrestrial vehicles like the Drivocopter and BAXTER, which combine flight and driving for long-endurance missions, addressing critical payload and flight-time limitations. His research on communication-aware multi-robot coordination (ACHORD, 37 citations) and legged locomotion with Boston Dynamics’ Spot (14 citations) has pushed the boundaries of field robotics. Notably, his work on predictive proprioception for failure detection (PrePARE, 13 citations) and learning-based safety frameworks for human-robot collaboration demonstrates a commitment to robust, safe autonomy. With over 300 total citations, Touma’s innovations are foundational for search-and-rescue, subterranean exploration, and beyond.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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