Papers
6
Total Citations
39
H-Index
3
About
Adam Pettinger is a robotics researcher focused on enabling robots to perform complex physical tasks with greater autonomy and reliability. His work centers on **affordance modeling**, **compliant manipulation**, and **constrained motion planning**—critical for robots operating in uncertain or remote environments, from industrial settings to space. Pettinger’s most influential contribution is the development of **Affordance Primitives**, a framework that uses screw theory to model how a robot can interact with objects, reducing the cognitive burden on human teleoperators. His 2020 paper on this topic has garnered **14 citations**, establishing a foundation for supervised autonomy in contact tasks. He also introduced the **Generalized Contact Control Framework (GCCF)** for integrating active and passive compliance, enabling robots to complete tasks despite environmental uncertainty. Notably, Pettinger designed a **passive tool changer** for elastic manipulators, advancing multi-tool autonomy. His latest work includes the **Robotic Space Simulator (RSS)**, a dual-Gough-Stewart platform testbed for in-space robotic operations, and a novel method for **direct sampling of screw-constraint manifolds** to efficiently plan motions for articulated objects. With over **39 total citations** and a trajectory toward space robotics, Pettinger is shaping how robots handle contact-rich tasks in the real world.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 2Passive Tool Changer Development for an Elastic and Compliant Manipulator10 citations · 2019
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