Carlo Ratti
Papers
12
Total Citations
2,376
H-Index
9
About
Carlo Ratti is a leading researcher in autonomous robotics, with a primary focus on developing intelligent systems for urban waterways. His major contributions center on the design, control, and coordination of autonomous surface vessels (ASVs), most notably through the "Roboat" project—a fleet of modular, self-driving boats designed for Amsterdam’s canals. Ratti’s work spans from low-level sensor fusion to high-level planning: his landmark paper "LIO-SAM" (over 1,900 citations) introduced a tightly-coupled lidar-inertial odometry framework that has become a standard in mobile robot state estimation. He has also pioneered reconfigurable robotic boats that can autonomously latch together to form temporary floating infrastructure like bridges or stages. His research integrates nonlinear model predictive control, deep reinforcement learning, and robust control barrier functions to achieve precise trajectory tracking in challenging natural environments. With multiple papers on autonomous latching systems and multi-objective path planning, Ratti’s work directly addresses real-world urban mobility challenges. His highly cited publications and innovative demonstrations—including the world’s first autonomous passenger-carrying Roboat—underscore his impact at the intersection of robotics, control theory, and smart city infrastructure.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1LIO-SAM: Tightly-coupled Lidar Inertial Odometry via Smoothing and Mapping1,955 citations · 2020
- 2Roboat: An Autonomous Surface Vehicle for Urban Waterways108 citations · 2019
- 3LIO-SAM: Tightly-coupled Lidar Inertial Odometry via Smoothing and Mapping100 citations · 2020
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- 5Autonomous Latching System for Robotic Boats40 citations · 2019
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