Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Henry Heetderks is a key engineer behind the robotic systems that make large-scale cosmological surveys possible. His primary research area is the design, production, and testing of high-precision fiber positioners for multi-object spectrographs, with a focus on enabling the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Heetderks’s most significant contribution is his work on the DESI focal plane system, which features 5,020 robotic fiber positioners that automatically retarget optical fibers to individual galaxies and quasars with micron-level precision every 10–20 minutes. This capability is essential for DESI’s mission to measure the expansion history of the Universe using Baryon Acoustic Oscillations. His 2022 paper on the DESI robotic system has garnered 175 citations, reflecting its central role in the instrument’s success. Heetderks also contributed to earlier design iterations for the BigBOSS instrument and led extensive testing and performance validation of the DESI positioners during production. His work directly supports the measurement of spectra for 35 million galaxies and quasars, making him a critical figure in the engineering foundation of modern dark energy research.