Mark Charlebois

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Mark Charlebois is a pioneering researcher in the field of robotic tactile sensing and dexterous manipulation, with a primary focus on enabling robots to understand object shape through touch. His major contributions center on developing exploratory procedures (EPs) that allow robotic hands to perceive and describe curved surfaces—much like a human exploring an object by feel. In his most cited work (2002, 24 citations), Charlebois introduced a method using multiple fingers to slide along surfaces while sensing contact points and surface normals, providing a robust framework for shape description of general, curved objects. Earlier foundational papers (2000, 10 citations; 1996, 2 citations) established the theoretical basis for estimating local curvature through rolling contact and a "Blind Man's" approach to tactile shape description. Though his citation counts are modest, Charlebois’s work represents an important early step in haptic robotics, laying groundwork for modern tactile sensing in prosthetic hands, industrial robots, and autonomous systems. His research remains relevant for engineers and computer scientists working on non-visual perception and intelligent robotic interaction with unstructured environments.