Andrew Beathard

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Andrew Beathard is a robotics researcher whose work focuses on visibility-based motion planning and multi-agent coordination, with a particular emphasis on safety-critical scenarios. His most notable contribution is the formulation and solution of a novel "visibility-based escort problem," which extends the classic family of pursuit-evasion problems in robotics. In this work, Beathard models a scenario where an escort agent must protect a vulnerable VIP agent from potential threats in a 2D environment, introducing new theoretical frameworks for ensuring the VIP's safety through strategic positioning and visibility constraints. Though early in his career, his foundational paper (2023) has already garnered 4 citations, signaling growing interest in this underexplored area of robotic security and assistance. Beathard's research bridges theoretical geometry and practical robotics, offering promising applications in autonomous security patrols, crowd management, and assistive robotics for vulnerable individuals. His work stands out for addressing a gap in visibility-based planning—moving beyond pure pursuit-evasion to proactive protection—and lays important groundwork for future studies in human-robot interaction and multi-agent safety systems.