GCER Guest Speakers | KISS Institute for Practical Robotics

Global Conference on Educational Robotics Speakers

Benjamin Morrell Ph.D.

Bio

Benjamin Morrell is a Robotics Technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, working on autonomous navigation technology for robots flying and exploring underground and in space. He is the Supervisor of the Aerial Robotic Systems Group, where his group works on research, development and implementation of the next generation of flying robotic explorers on other worlds. They previously work on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first controlled, powered flying vehicle on another world. Previously, Ben was the Perception Lead on Team CoSTAR, a JPL-led team competing in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, with the goal to deploy teams of autonomous robots to rapidly explore unknown underground environments. Ben completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in the School of Aerospace Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering in 2018 and his Bachelor’s of Aeronautical (Space) Engineering at the University of Sydney in 2013.

Autonomous Robotic Space Explorers

Abstract

The exploration of other planets, moons and asteroids in our solar system is a challenging endeavor, one that we currently, can’t pursue with Astronauts. Hence, autonomous exploration robots are critical to allowing us to discover and learn more about the solar system. This talk will cover these different robotic explorers, and autonomy they use, showing how these systems are similar to those teams develop for Botball. We will look in detail at the Mars Rovers, and the Mars Helicopter, before looking at the future robot explorers in development right now.