Alberto Elfes
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Alberto Elfes obtained a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, with concentration in Robotics, from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1989. From 1986 to 1993, he held research scientist positions at the Robotics Institute and the Engineering Design Research Center, CMU, and later at the Department of Computer Sciences, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he was one of the founders of the Autonomous Robotics Laboratory.
From 1994 to 2000 Dr. Elfes was the Coordinator of Advanced Education and Strategic Research for a pilot United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project in strategic information technologies. He also served as director of the Automation Institute, Brazil, where he established new laboratories and projects in the areas of robotics, rapid rototyping, and industrial decision support systems. In 1997 he also initiated and led AURORA, the first autonomous airship project reported in the literature.
During 2000/2001 he was on sabbatical in Germany as recipient of the prestigious Mercator Professorship Award of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Dr. Elfes is presently a Principal Member of Technical Staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he leads projects in the areas of complex systems analysis, strategic technology and mission portfolio planning and design, autonomous airships, and supervisory control of teams of multiple heterogeneous robots.
He has published extensively in the autonomous robotics area, and is the author of the Occupancy/Inference Grid framework, a stochastic approach to autonomous perception, mapping, navigation and control.
His current research interests include the development of decision-theoretic models for complex systems analysis and design, risk assessment and management; autonomy technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); planetary aerobots; and coordination and control of teams of ground and aerial robots.
His other interests include medieval and renaissance music, jazz, literature, and sailing.
