Papers
38
Total Citations
423
H-Index
13
About
Robert J. Griffin is a prominent robotics researcher whose work centers on bipedal locomotion, humanoid robot control, and exoskeleton systems. His research has made significant contributions to the challenge of enabling robots and wearable robotic devices to walk stably and efficiently in real-world environments. Griffin's most influential contributions span whole-body control, model predictive control for dynamic locomotion, and balance stability analysis. His work on Mina v2 brought rigorous quantitative methods to exoskeleton safety assessment (40 citations), while his straight-leg walking algorithm demonstrated how natural, energy-efficient gaits could be achieved without complex pre-planning (39 citations). His MPC-based locomotion framework extended beyond simplified rigid-body models to better handle robots with heavy limbs (35 citations), representing a meaningful step forward in locomotion realism. A defining achievement in Griffin's career was his involvement with Team VALOR's ESCHER humanoid, developed at Virginia Tech for the DARPA Robotics Challenge—a landmark competition pushing the boundaries of disaster-response robotics. His work on angular momentum-aware walking planners, vertical center-of-mass balancing strategies, and mixed reality teleoperation further demonstrates a researcher consistently bridging theory and practical deployment, with a cumulative citation record reflecting growing influence across the robotics community.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Stability of Mina v2 for Robot-Assisted Balance and Locomotion40 citations · 2018
- 2Straight-Leg Walking Through Underconstrained Whole-Body Control39 citations · 2018
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- 6Detecting Usable Planar Regions for Legged Robot Locomotion25 citations · 2020
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- 8Mixed Reality Teleoperation Assistance for Direct Control of Humanoids16 citations · 2024
- 9Disturbance compensation and step optimization for push recovery16 citations · 2016
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