Michael Suppa

About

Michael Suppa is a prominent robotics researcher whose work spans autonomous aerial systems, humanoid manipulation, and mobile robotics. Best known for his contributions to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and search-and-rescue robotics, his 2012 paper on fully autonomous UAVs for urban search and rescue has garnered over 800 citations, establishing him as a leading voice in deploying robotic systems in GPS-denied, infrastructure-poor environments. His early work on humanoid two-arm dexterous manipulation systems, drawing on DLR's lightweight robot technology, laid important groundwork for collaborative and industrial robotics, reflected in his widely cited 2006 study with 229 citations. Suppa has consistently pushed the boundaries of robot autonomy — from stereo-vision-based indoor/outdoor navigation and 3D surface reconstruction to planetary exploration and industrial mobile manipulation. His research on IMU-camera registration and depth-based object tracking further demonstrates his breadth across perception and sensor fusion. With contributions to the concept of the "Robotic Co-Worker," he has also shaped thinking around human-robot collaboration in real-world settings. Collectively, his body of work reflects a career dedicated to bridging cutting-edge robotics research with practical, real-world autonomous systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Toward a Fully Autonomous UAV: Research Platform for Indoor and Outdoor Urban Search and Rescue

   802 citations · 2012
2. 2
   A Humanoid Two-Arm System for Dexterous Manipulation

   229 citations · 2006
3. 3
   Efficient next-best-scan planning for autonomous 3D surface reconstruction of unknown objects

   164 citations · 2013
4. 4
   Stereo vision based indoor/outdoor navigation for flying robots

   156 citations · 2013
5. 5
   Towards the Robotic Co-Worker

   117 citations · 2011
6. 6
   Towards Autonomous Planetary Exploration

   88 citations · 2017
7. 7
   Toward fully autonomous mobile manipulation for industrial environments

   73 citations · 2017
8. 8
   Depth-based tracking with physical constraints for robot manipulation

   69 citations · 2015
9. 9
   Stereo-vision based obstacle mapping for indoor/outdoor SLAM

   57 citations · 2014
10. 10
    Spatio-temporal initialization for IMU to camera registration

    56 citations · 2011

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links