Papers
12
Total Citations
94
H-Index
5
About
R.W. Harrigan is a pioneering researcher in telerobotics and intelligent system control, with a career focused on making remote manipulation accessible, safe, and effective in hazardous environments. His most influential work, "Telerobotic operation of conventional robot manipulators" (30 citations), introduced a control concept that couples human supervisory commands with computer reasoning, enabling responsive operation with obstacle avoidance. Harrigan’s major contributions center on the Generic Intelligent System Controller (GISC) and the Umbra Simulation Framework (19 citations), which allow rapid modeling and simulation for complex robotic systems. He demonstrated the practical impact of these technologies in environmental restoration, including model-based, sensor-directed remediation of underground storage tanks and radiation surveys on nuclear waste casks. Harrigan also addressed the fundamental usability barrier in remote manipulation, advocating for systems that reduce operator fatigue while outperforming fully autonomous approaches in unstructured environments. His work on virtual collaborative environments and distributed robotics resources further advanced remote programming and control. With a career spanning from the early 1990s to the 2000s, Harrigan’s research remains foundational for modern telerobotic and hazardous-environment robotics.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Telerobotic operation of conventional robot manipulators30 citations · 2003
- 2The Umbra Simulation Framework19 citations · 2001
- 3Automating the operation of robots in hazardous environments11 citations · 2002
- 4Model based, sensor directed remediation of underground storage tanks5 citations · 2002
- 5Dexterous Manipulation: Making Remote Manipulators Easy to Use5 citations · 2001
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- 10The role of model based control in robotics4 citations · 1990