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About

Marin Kobilarov is a robotics researcher whose work spans motion planning, geometric mechanics, autonomous systems, and medical robotics. He is perhaps best known for his contributions to probabilistic and optimization-based motion planning, particularly through his development of cross-entropy methods for computing high-quality trajectories in constrained environments — work that has accumulated over 180 combined citations and influenced how robotic systems navigate complex, nonlinear settings. His earlier research on person tracking with mobile robots using omnidirectional cameras and laser range-finders (173 citations) demonstrated a practical commitment to robust human-robot interaction in unstructured outdoor environments. Kobilarov has also made significant theoretical contributions through discrete geometric mechanics, developing symmetry-aware discretization and control schemes for nonholonomic systems that preserve the intrinsic structure of mechanical models — work that bridges abstract mathematics and real-world autonomous vehicle control. More recently, his research has expanded into robot-assisted retinal microsurgery, where he has pioneered adaptive control frameworks and RNN-based active intervention systems to improve surgical precision and safety, work that addresses one of the most delicate challenges in medical robotics. Across these diverse domains, Kobilarov's research is unified by a rigorous mathematical foundation applied to high-stakes, real-world robotic challenges.