Leah Kelley

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Leah Kelley is a robotics researcher specializing in the stability and safety of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), particularly skid-steered, tracked robots used in high-risk military and civilian operations like bomb disposal. Her work addresses a critical challenge: these tele-operated robots often carry heavy payloads that raise their center of mass, making them dangerously prone to tip-over on irregular terrain. Kelley’s major contributions lie in developing adaptive control systems and heuristic reactive behaviors that prevent rollovers in real-time, enhancing mission reliability in unstructured environments such as collapsed buildings or rough terrain. Her most-cited paper, "Tip-over prevention: Adaptive control development and experimentation" (2015, 7 citations), introduces a novel control framework that dynamically adjusts robot posture to maintain stability. A second influential work (2014, 4 citations) explores reactive behaviors that allow UGVs to autonomously correct their trajectory when instability is detected. Though her citation counts are modest, Kelley’s research has direct, life-saving implications for bomb disposal crews and military personnel who rely on these robots in dangerous conditions. Her work bridges control theory and practical field robotics, making her a notable contributor to the safety and autonomy of ground vehicles.