Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Laura Oliva Maza is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of autonomous navigation and medical robotics, with her work spanning planetary exploration and minimally invasive surgery. Her most impactful contribution, the MADMAX dataset (54 citations), provides the planetary robotics community with a critical resource for developing and testing visual-inertial navigation systems under Mars-like conditions, directly supporting future rover missions. In the medical domain, she has advanced surgical navigation by adapting ORB-SLAM3 for ureteroscopy (13 citations), enabling real-time 3D mapping of renal anatomy and instrument localization—a significant step toward autonomous kidney stone treatment. Her most recent achievement, the CoFlex robotic system (5 citations), introduces a novel solo-surgery platform for flexible ureteroscopy, combining gravity compensation with virtual safety barriers to reduce the need for an assistant surgeon. This work, developed and evaluated with clinical users, demonstrates her commitment to translating robotics research into practical surgical tools. With a total of over 70 citations across her key publications, Maza’s dual focus on extraterrestrial and intracorporeal navigation showcases her unique ability to bridge fundamental SLAM algorithms with real-world applications in extreme environments.