Mike Rubenstein

University of Southern California, Inspire

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Mike Rubenstein is a pioneering roboticist whose work centers on modular, reconfigurable, and bio-inspired robotic systems. His major contributions lie in developing hardware and software that enable robots to autonomously change shape, climb, and self-assemble into functional structures—mimicking the collective behaviors of social insects. His most cited paper, "Rolling and Climbing by the Multifunctional SuperBot Reconfigurable Robotic System" (2008, 20 citations), details the design of 20 SuperBot modules for NASA applications, demonstrating versatile locomotion like rolling at 1 km/hour. In "TENTACLES: Self-configuring robotic radio networks in unknown environments" (2009, 17 citations), he introduced a distributed algorithm for robot teams to maintain communication links autonomously. His work "Towards self-assembled structures with mobile climbing robots" (2015, 14 citations) showcases a tread-based robot that uses its own body as a building block, inspired by ant rafts and bridges. Rubenstein’s research has significantly advanced the fields of modular robotics and swarm intelligence, with his SuperBot system enabling multifunctional behaviors from rolling tracks to climbing spiders. His achievements include pioneering self-assembly algorithms and contributing to NASA’s exploration technologies, making him a leading figure in adaptive, autonomous robotic systems.