A.A. Desrochers

About

A.A. Desrochers is a prominent researcher whose work spans two foundational areas of robotics and automation: Petri net-based modeling of manufacturing systems and optimal control of robotic manipulators. His most influential contribution, "A Hybrid Methodology for Synthesis of Petri Net Models for Manufacturing Systems" (1992), has garnered over 400 citations and established a systematic, top-down framework for designing modular, controllable manufacturing systems — a cornerstone reference in the field of discrete-event systems. Building on this, his work on colored Petri nets for real-time control of flexible manufacturing cells (95 citations) helped bridge theoretical modeling with practical computer-integrated manufacturing applications. Equally significant is Desrochers' rigorous mathematical treatment of minimum-time control for robotic manipulators. Through Hamiltonian canonical formulations and the extended Pontryagin minimum principle, he proved that optimal control laws always require actuator saturation — a result that has shaped trajectory planning research across multiple decades, with related papers accumulating nearly 200 citations combined. His explorations of mobile robots under disturbances and intelligent robotic systems for space exploration further demonstrate the breadth of his impact. Desrochers' career reflects a rare ability to unite formal mathematical theory with real-world engineering challenges in robotics and manufacturing automation.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   A hybrid methodology for synthesis of Petri net models for manufacturing systems

   411 citations · 1992
2. 2
   Real time control of multilevel manufacturing systems using colored Petri nets

   95 citations · 2003
3. 3
   Structure of minimum-time control law for robotic manipulators with constrained paths

   68 citations · 2003
4. 4
   A proof of the structure of the minimum-time control law of robotic manipulators using a Hamiltonian formulation

   59 citations · 1990
5. 5
   Intelligent Robotic Systems for Space Exploration

   35 citations · 1992
6. 6
   Modeling and control of a mobile robot subject to disturbances

   34 citations · 1986
7. 7
   Minimum-time control laws for robotic manipulators

   20 citations · 1993
8. 8
   Time-optimal control of two-degree of freedom robot arms

   20 citations · 2003
9. 9
   General structure of time-optimal control of robotic manipulators moving along prescribed paths

   19 citations · 1992
10. 10
    Sub-time-optimal control strategies for robotic manipulators

    18 citations · 1986

Key Collaborators

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