Owners Karl Murphy (L) and Alberto Lacaze (R) next to a XUV.

The founders and owners Alberto Lacaze, President, and Karl Murphy, Vice President,  started Robotic Research, LLC  in 2002 during a resurgence of military interest in unmanned vehicles. The late 1990s to early 2000s was when unmanned vehicles were first proven to be capable of autonomous mobility through the DEMO I, II, and III testing programs where TRL6 (Technical Readiness Level) was achieved. The founders were an integral part of this testing while at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Shortly after forming Robotic Research, they were joined by Steve Legowik, a former NIST co-worker.  In 2009, Dr. James Albus, internationally recognized expert in artificial intelligence, joined the team, after his retirement from NIST, as consulting Chief Scientist. (see Executive Bios).

The Robotic Research, LLC technical staff plays key roles in major Department of Defense unmanned ground system programs (see Defense section). Robotic Research team members designed and developed, in conjunction with General Dynamics Robotic Systems, the autonomous mobility software for most autonomous ground robotic systems currently in use by the U. S. Army.

Major contributions include:

• Developed the real-time path planning and sensor processing software that forms the core of the Army Research Lab’s DEMO III program with the Experimental Unmanned Vehicle (XUV). The XUV epitomizes the state-of-the-art in Army ground robotic vehicles.

• Refined a real-time intelligent navigation system for off-road path planning that has become the de-facto methodology for ground vehicle control, as well as probabilistic density functions for predicting tactical behavior.

• Created a new approach to automating high speed convoys that has been called a breakthrough by Major General Charles A. Cartwright (Program Manager for Future Combat Systems).

• Developed a variety of interactive 3D data visualization tools.

• Developed teleoperation driving aids for high speed operations.

• Researched collaborative and cooperative behavioral control amongst robotic assets by using map registration techniques for improving perception and navigation.