Papers
10
Total Citations
872
H-Index
8
About
Richard Weiss is a pioneer in mobile robotics and autonomous navigation, best known for his groundbreaking work on path planning and vision-based homing. His most influential contribution, "Path planning using Laplace's equation" (2002, 478 citations), introduced a novel method that uses harmonic potential functions to generate smooth, collision-free robot paths—a technique that avoids local minima and remains widely used in robotics. Weiss also made seminal advances in visual navigation with his "Image-based homing" papers (2002, 165 citations; 1992, 98 citations), which developed systems enabling robots to navigate by matching stored snapshots of their environment, laying groundwork for modern visual SLAM. His work on obstacle detection through qualitative and quantitative 3D reconstruction (1997, 46 citations) and combinatorial optimization for 2D model matching (2002, 38 citations) further advanced robot perception. Beyond technical contributions, Weiss has significantly impacted undergraduate computer science education through his criteria for evaluating robot kits (2008, 21 citations), helping shape how robotics is taught. With over 870 total citations across his career, Weiss’s research continues to influence autonomous systems, from path planning algorithms to educational robotics.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Path planning using Laplace's equation478 citations · 2002
- 2Image-based homing165 citations · 2002
- 3Image-based homing98 citations · 1992
- 4Obstacle detection based on qualitative and quantitative 3D reconstruction46 citations · 1997
- 5Combinatorial optimization applied to variable scale 2D model matching38 citations · 2002
- 6
- 7Force domain models for multifingered grasp control9 citations · 2002
- 8Automatic calibration and visual servoing for a robot navigation system8 citations · 2002
- 9
- 10<title>Grasp-oriented sensing and control</title>3 citations · 1991