David Lenz

Technical University of Munich, Georgia Institute of Technology

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

David Lenz is a roboticist whose work bridges motion planning, semantic mapping, and unconventional hardware control. His most influential contribution, "Heuristic search in belief space for motion planning under uncertainties" (2015, 9 citations), introduced a framework that uses heuristic search to construct a search graph, enabling robots to account for actuator and sensor errors during the planning phase—a critical step toward robust autonomy in real-world environments. Lenz also advanced spatial AI with "Online Semantic Mapping of Urban Environments" (2012, 5 citations), developing methods for robots to build and update meaningful maps of complex cityscapes in real time. Demonstrating a flair for creative engineering, he explored novel computing substrates in "Using floating-gate based programmable analog arrays for real-time control of a game-playing robot" (2011, 5 citations), where he programmed a mobile manipulator to play the Towers of Hanoi using analog hardware. This work showcased the potential of alternative architectures for responsive control. Though his citation counts are modest, Lenz’s research is notable for its breadth—tackling fundamental planning problems, semantic understanding, and hardware innovation—making him a versatile contributor to the field of intelligent robotics.