Rudolf Bauer

About

Rudolf Bauer is a robotics researcher whose work has fundamentally advanced the field of autonomous mobile robot navigation, with a particular focus on obstacle avoidance, path planning, and localisation in complex, unknown environments. His most influential contribution, the steer angle field approach — first introduced in 1994 and refined in a 2002 paper that has garnered over 80 citations — offers an elegant solution to robust obstacle avoidance by systematically eliminating collision-inducing steering angles based on the robot's nonholonomic kinematics. This work remains a landmark contribution to real-world robot navigation in cramped, cluttered spaces. Bauer's broader research portfolio reveals a sustained commitment to hierarchical control architectures, having developed a three-layered path control system that balances real-time decision-making with higher-level planning across multiple publications spanning nearly a decade. His exploration of sonar-based feature mapping, sliding mode navigation theory, and active manoeuvres for self-localisation further demonstrates the depth and versatility of his contributions. With a cumulative citation record reflecting steady influence across the robotics community, Bauer's work provides essential theoretical and practical foundations for researchers tackling autonomous navigation challenges in dynamic, unstructured environments.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Robust obstacle avoidance in unknown and cramped environments

   81 citations · 2002
2. 2
   Steer angle fields: An approach to robust manoeuvring in cluttered, unknown environments

   26 citations · 1994
3. 3
   Sonar feature based exploration

   23 citations · 2002
4. 4
   A three-layered hierarchical path control system for mobile robots: Algorithms and experiments

   23 citations · 1995
5. 5
   Autonomous Low-Cost Mobile Robots for Complex Non-Production Environments

   16 citations · 1993
6. 6
   Mobile robots in complex environments: a three-layered hierarchical path control system

   12 citations · 2002
7. 7
   Active manoeuvres for supporting the localisation process of an autonomous mobile robot

   12 citations · 1995
8. 8
   On the navigation of mobile robots in narrow passages: A general framework based on sliding mode theory

   9 citations · 1994
9. 9
   Sliding mode navigation control of nonholonomic mobile robots

   2 citations · 1994
10. 10
    Berücksichtigung von Selbstlokalisierung und Landmarkenaufbau bei der Bahnplanung

    2 citations · 1994

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links