Robert E. Karlsen

About

Robert E. Karlsen is a robotics researcher whose career has centered on advancing autonomous mobile robot capabilities, with particular expertise in terrain perception, classification, and robot navigation. His most influential contribution, "Terrain Characterization and Classification with a Mobile Robot" (2006), introduced novel methods for associating terrain types — such as gravel, sand, and asphalt — with predefined categories, earning 182 citations and establishing him as a significant voice in the field of robot terrain understanding. Building on this foundation, Karlsen developed systems capable of forecasting terrain trafficability from visual appearance, enabling robots to make smarter, safer navigation decisions in complex real-world environments. His work extends beyond perception into practical robotics applications, including the development of ODIS, an under-vehicle inspection robot designed to support counter-terrorism efforts, and research into intuitive robot control interfaces using Android and iOS devices. More recently, Karlsen has explored trust-based learning in multi-agent robotic systems, addressing the critical challenge of ensuring reliable cooperation between robots in convoy scenarios. Spanning early investigations into stereo illumination for terrain perception to sequential learning approaches for visual classification, his body of work reflects a sustained commitment to making autonomous robots more capable, trustworthy, and operationally ready.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Terrain characterization and classification with a mobile robot

   182 citations · 2006
2. 2
   Terrain Understanding for Robot Navigation

   10 citations · 2007
3. 3
   ODIS the under-vehicle inspection robot: development status update

   6 citations · 2003
4. 4
   Control solutions for robots using Android and iOS devices

   5 citations · 2012
5. 5
   Trust-based learning and behaviors for convoy obstacle avoidance

   4 citations · 2015
6. 6
   Sequential learning for robot vision terrain classification

   3 citations · 2009
7. 7
   <title>Preliminary investigation into the use of stereo illumination to enhance mobile robot terrain perception</title>

   3 citations · 2001
8. 8
   Terrain perception for robot navigation

   3 citations · 2007
9. 9
   Image Understanding for Robot Navigation

   2 citations · 2006

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links