Roger Wattenhofer

About

Roger Wattenhofer is a leading researcher in distributed computing, robotics, and algorithmic game theory, with a particular focus on the coordination and navigation of autonomous agents. His major contributions include groundbreaking work on the gathering problem for robots with limited visibility, where he established a tight runtime bound for synchronous gathering—a fundamental result that has garnered 92 citations. He has also made significant advances in the evacuation problem, exploring how two robots can collaborate without communication to escape a disk (47 citations), and extending this to wireless evacuation on multiple rays with multiple searchers. In the realm of artificial intelligence, Wattenhofer has pioneered the use of deep reinforcement learning for map-based navigation, teaching machines to read 2D maps to navigate complex 3D environments (38 citations). His work bridges theoretical computer science and practical robotics, offering elegant solutions to real-world challenges. With over 100 citations across his top papers, Wattenhofer’s research is highly influential, shaping how autonomous systems coordinate, communicate, and navigate in constrained and dynamic environments.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   A tight runtime bound for synchronous gathering of autonomous robots with limited visibility

   92 citations · 2011
2. 2
   Collaboration Without Communication: Evacuating Two Robots from a Disk

   47 citations · 2017
3. 3
   Teaching a Machine to Read Maps With Deep Reinforcement Learning

   38 citations · 2018
4. 4
   Wireless evacuation on m rays with k searchers

   16 citations · 2018
5. 5
   Teaching a Machine to Read Maps with Deep Reinforcement Learning

   16 citations · 2017
6. 6
   Wireless Evacuation on m Rays with k Searchers

   8 citations · 2017

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links