Johann Borenstein (Retired from life in academia since April 2013)

Research Professor and Head of the Mobile Robotics Lab
within the University of Michigan's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Member of Michigan Robotics

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Research Interests:

My main field of interest is Mobile Robotics. I started building my first mobile robot, the "Nursing Robot," in 1983 as part of my D.Sc. Thesis. Since then I have been focusing on experimental work with mobile robots. I have authored or co-authored to date some 170 publications. These are my main areas of interest:

Mobile Robot Positioning

Current work:

Pedestrian Tracking -- Measuring the position of a walking person without any external references, such as GPS.
Vehicle Tracking -- Measuring the position of a vehicles without any external references, such as GPS.

Earlier work:

High-accuracy dead-reckoning on rugged terrain.
Precision gyro calibration -- Improves the accuracy of fiber optic gyros 10-fold (Now commercially available)
Internal Position Error Correction (IPEC)
Gyrodometry -- novel method for fusing gyroscope- and odometry data
University of Michigan Benchmark (UMBmark) test and calibration procedure for measuring and improving odometric accuracy in mobile robots. This report is available for free and can be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat file named "umbmark.pdf."
"Where am I?" comprehensive report on mobile robot positioning systems (the 1996 edition has 282 pages, ~200 illustrations, ~400 references). This report is available for free and can be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat file named "pos96rpt.pdf."
The most comprehensive book published to date on mobile robot navigation, entitled "Navigation Mobile Robots: Sensors and Techniques". This book is also available on CD-ROM.

Unconventional Robotic Vehicles

Current work:

Earlier work:

OmniTread - An innovative serpentine robot (snakebot) capable of traversing extremely rugged terrain
Hoverbot - An electrically powered flying robot
Multi-Degree-of-Freedom (MDOF) - Mobile robot with unique motion capabilities
OmniMate - Commercially available MDOF robot with internal odometry error correction
GuideCane - A Computerized wheeled navigation aid for the blind

Obstacle Avoidance

Earlier work:

Virtual Force Field (VFF) and Vector Field Histogram (VFH)
Error Eliminating Rapid Ultrasonic Firing (EERUF)
Tele-autonomous Operation With Obstacle Avoidance
Obstacle Avoidance for Large, Non-Point Mobile Robots
GuideCane - Computerized wheeled navigation aid for the blind
Micro-controller interface board (MCIB) -- a firmware implementation of the EERUF method
Tactical Mobile Robots (TMR) -- Obstacle avoidance in zero-visibility
Obstacle Avoidance Testbed -- Unique linear motion table for creating controlled obstacle avoidance conditions.
Map-building and obstacle negotiation with a 2-D laser rangefinder

Robotic Technologies for the Disabled

Earlier work:

Nursing robot - Mobile robot with manipulator arm (D.Sc. Thesis, 1987)
NavChair - Power wheelchair with automatic obstacle avoidance
NavBelt - Computerized portable navigation aid for the blind
GuideCane - Computerized wheeled navigation aid for the blind.

Publications, most of them downloadable

Commercialized products and services

I am grateful for the ongoing support by DOE under the University Research Program in Robotics (URPR) as well as current and past funding from DARPA, NASA, TACOM and other great agencies.

Link to other great robotics resources on the web