Anna Boettcher
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Papers
6
Total Citations
34
H-Index
3
About
Anna Boettcher is a robotics engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory whose work is helping to unlock the secrets of ocean worlds—icy moons like Europa and Enceladus that harbor subsurface liquid water. Her research centers on the design, autonomy, and control of robotic systems for extreme planetary environments, with a focus on mobility and sampling. Boettcher’s most cited paper, “Design optimization of a lightweight rocker–bogie rover for ocean worlds applications” (2019, 19 citations), presents a novel rover chassis optimized for the rugged, low-gravity terrains of these distant moons. She also leads the development of the Lander Autonomy Testbed (OWLAT), a platform for evaluating autonomous sampling technologies under the communication delays and resource constraints of deep-space missions. Her work on closed-loop compliant motion control addresses a critical gap in planetary robotics, moving beyond simple open-loop strategies to enable precise, force-sensitive manipulation. Boettcher’s contributions are foundational to NASA’s Ocean Worlds Exploration Program, advancing the robotic systems that will one day search for signs of life beyond Earth.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Development of a Lander Autonomy Testbed for Ocean Worlds Missions5 citations · 2021
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- 6Robotic Mobility and Sampling Systems for Ocean-World Bodies1 citations · 2023