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About

Daniel Clancy’s research lies at the intersection of robotics, education, and autonomous space exploration. His most influential work centers on the **Personal Exploration Rover (PER)** , a robotic exhibit designed for informal learning venues like museums. Clancy’s major contribution here was demonstrating how a physically instantiated robot—combining mechanism, computation, and real-time interaction—can engage visitors in authentic scientific inquiry without direct human mediation. The 2006 paper on PER’s educational assessment, with **28 citations**, remains his most cited work, establishing a benchmark for evaluating robotic exhibits in unmediated settings. Beyond education, Clancy has tackled the formidable challenge of **planning and execution for spacecraft mobile robots (SMRs)** , highlighting how autonomous rovers can reduce mission risk and cost while increasing productivity. He also co-developed the **Mission Simulation Facility (MSF)** , an architecture designed to bridge the gap between research-level autonomy software and flight-ready systems for space missions. Clancy’s work is notable for its dual impact: advancing both the technical frontier of autonomous robotics and the practical deployment of educational robots that inspire the next generation of explorers.