Ross Pettinger
Papers
1
Total Citations
74
H-Index
1
About
Ross Pettinger is a pioneering roboticist whose work bridges soft robotics, bio-inspired locomotion, and planetary exploration. His research focuses on enabling autonomous vehicles to navigate challenging, deformable terrains—particularly granular environments like lunar or Martian regolith. Pettinger’s most influential contribution is his 2020 study on material remodeling and unconventional gaits for a robophysical rover, which demonstrated how robots can recover from locomotion failure in loose sand by switching between wheeled, legged, and crawling behaviors. This work, cited 74 times, was directly inspired by mobility challenges faced by NASA’s Resource Prospector 15 (RP15) prototype, highlighting its real-world relevance for space exploration. By systematically analyzing how granular media can be reshaped to aid movement, Pettinger has provided a foundational framework for designing more resilient rovers. His interdisciplinary approach—combining physics-based modeling with robophysical experiments—has made him a key figure in advancing adaptive locomotion strategies. For students and researchers, Pettinger’s work offers a compelling example of how fundamental insights into material interactions can solve pressing engineering problems, from planetary rovers to search-and-rescue robots.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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