David Stirling

About

David Stirling’s research sits at the intersection of robotics, control theory, and human-machine interaction, with a particular focus on teleoperation systems and motion capture technologies. His most influential work, a 2014 survey on adaptive controllers in teleoperation systems (101 citations), systematically addresses critical challenges such as model uncertainties and force estimation in master-slave configurations. Stirling is perhaps best known for developing the Extended Active Observer (EAOB), a novel framework for simultaneous force estimation and disturbance rejection in robotic manipulators—a contribution that appears across multiple highly-cited papers (67, 36, and 13 citations). His comprehensive reviews of motion capture technologies for robotics (89 and 55 citations) have become foundational references, evaluating sensor systems and data processing methods for human-robot interaction. Stirling has also advanced robot programming by demonstration, using coordinated mixture models to learn robust trajectory representations from human demonstrations (40 citations). His work on autonomous airship control (28 citations) and human behaviour recognition from inertial data (6 citations) demonstrates the breadth of his expertise. With over 440 total citations across a decade of research, Stirling has established himself as a key figure in adaptive control and human-robot collaboration.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Application of Adaptive Controllers in Teleoperation Systems: A Survey

   101 citations · 2014
2. 2
   Motion capture in robotics review

   89 citations · 2009
3. 3
   Extended active observer for force estimation and disturbance rejection of robotic manipulators

   67 citations · 2013
4. 4
   Human motion capture sensors and analysis in robotics

   55 citations · 2011
5. 5
   Learning Trajectories for Robot Programing by Demonstration Using a Coordinated Mixture of Factor Analyzers

   40 citations · 2015
6. 6
   Position and force tracking for non-linear haptic telemanipulator under varying delays with an improved extended active observer

   36 citations · 2015
7. 7
   Control of autonomous airship

   28 citations · 2009
8. 8
   An Improved Extended Active Observer for Adaptive Control of A n −DOF Robot Manipulator

   13 citations · 2016
9. 9
   Nonlinear bilateral teleoperation using extended active observer for force estimation and disturbance suppression

   7 citations · 2014
10. 10
    Human behaviour recognition with segmented inertial data

    6 citations · 2006

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links