Nicholas M. Stiffler

About

Nicholas M. Stiffler is a robotics researcher whose work spans two interconnected domains: multi-robot pursuit-evasion and object rearrangement planning. His research tackles fundamental algorithmic challenges in autonomous systems, developing solutions that balance computational efficiency with real-world robustness. In pursuit-evasion, Stiffler has made sustained contributions to visibility-based problems, where robot teams must systematically locate an evader within polygonal environments. From his early probabilistic evader modeling work (2011) to later investigations of robot failures and sensor unreliability, he has progressively addressed the practical limitations of real deployments. His sampling-based multi-robot pursuit-evasion algorithm (2014, 20 citations) established a foundational probabilistically complete approach to this computationally demanding problem. Stiffler's parallel research thread on tabletop rearrangement has proven particularly impactful. His 2018 paper on optimal rearrangement with overhand grasps became his most cited work (68 citations), revealing deep combinatorial structure in pick-and-place planning problems ubiquitous in warehouse and household robotics. His stack rearrangement work further extended these insights to constrained container environments. Collectively accumulating over 160 citations, Stiffler's body of work reflects a consistent commitment to rigorous complexity analysis paired with practical, fast algorithmic solutions — making his research valuable to both theorists and robotics engineers alike.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Complexity Results and Fast Methods for Optimal Tabletop Rearrangement with Overhand Grasps

   68 citations · 2018
2. 2
   Efficient, High-Quality Stack Rearrangement

   20 citations · 2018
3. 3
   A sampling-based algorithm for multi-robot visibility-based pursuit-evasion

   20 citations · 2014
4. 4
   High-Quality Tabletop Rearrangement with Overhand Grasps: Hardness Results and Fast Methods

   18 citations · 2017
5. 5
   Persistent pursuit-evasion: The case of the preoccupied pursuer

   10 citations · 2017
6. 6
   Visibility-based pursuit-evasion with probabilistic evader models

   8 citations · 2011
7. 7
   Robust-by-Design Plans for Multi-Robot Pursuit-Evasion

   6 citations · 2022
8. 8
   Rapid Recovery from Robot Failures in Multi-Robot Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion

   6 citations · 2021
9. 9
   High-Quality Tabletop Rearrangement with Overhand Grasps: Hardness Results and Fast Methods

   6 citations · 2017
10. 10
    Planning for robust visibility-based pursuit-evasion

    5 citations · 2020

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links