James Farrell

Papers

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About

James Farrell is a robotics engineer and researcher whose work has focused on the design and control of advanced anthropomorphic manipulator systems, with particular emphasis on dexterous telerobots for space servicing and industrial automation applications. His most significant contribution is the development of the K/B-2017 Dexterous Manipulator, a 17-axis dual-arm robotic system featuring humanlike kinematics that he helped bring from early conceptual design in the late 1980s through to refined, deployable hardware by the early 2000s. His 2002 paper presenting the dual-arm configuration has garnered 20 citations, reflecting sustained interest in anthropomorphic robotics within the research community. Farrell's early work in 1989 laid the foundational architecture for this massively redundant telerobot, coordinating two seven-degree-of-freedom arms on a three-degree-of-freedom torso-waist assembly — a formidable engineering challenge at the time. Complementing this, his research on reflexive obstacle avoidance addressed the critical challenge of real-time, sensor-driven control for kinematically redundant systems, envisioning applications ranging from space operations to firefighting and battlefield support. His career represents a sustained commitment to bridging humanlike dexterity with practical robotic deployment.