S.W.E. Earles

About

S.W.E. Earles has made foundational contributions to the fields of robot motion planning, nonholonomic control, and redundant manipulator coordination. Their work is distinguished by a focus on practical, provably optimal solutions for complex robotic systems under real-world constraints. Earles pioneered the use of shortest-path algorithms for nonholonomic mobile robots, developing time-optimal, smooth-path strategies that respect kinematic constraints without requiring a full configuration space. In control theory, they introduced an exponentially stable robust control law that eliminates chattering—a persistent problem in sliding-mode control—while preserving asymptotic stability. Their research also advanced multi-robot systems, with novel objective functions like the Maximum Distance Criterion for collision avoidance in redundant manipulators and dynamic programming approaches for scheduling in assembly workcells. With over 220 total citations across their most-cited works, Earles’s papers on adaptive control, 3D path planning, and robust-adaptive combined methods remain essential references. Their ability to bridge theoretical rigor with implementable algorithms—from reversal manoeuvres for car-like robots to compression strategies for multi-robot cells—has left a lasting impact on both autonomous navigation and industrial robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   A Shortest Path Based Path Planning Algorithm for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots

   46 citations · 1999
2. 2
   Adaptive Control Of Robot Manipulators

   45 citations · 1992
3. 3
   Time-optimal smooth-path motion planning for a mobile robot with kinematic constraints

   29 citations · 1997
4. 4
   Exponentially stable robust control law for robot manipulators

   25 citations · 1994
5. 5
   Finding the 3D shortest path with visibility graph and minimum potential energy

   19 citations · 2002
6. 6
   Robust adaptive control for robot manipulators using a combined method

   17 citations · 2002
7. 7
   Collision Avoidance in Multiple-Redundant Manipulators

   13 citations · 1997
8. 8
   Redundancy utilization for obstacle avoidance of planar robot manipulators

   10 citations · 1997
9. 9
   Motion Planning with Reversal Manoeuvres for a Non-Holonomic Constrained Robot

   10 citations · 1996
10. 10
    Scheduling and compression for a multiple robot assembly workcell

    7 citations · 1998

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links