Robotics development at Boston Dynamics

Dr. Al Rizzi
Chief Scientist, Boston Dynamics

Abstract:  Only about half the Earth’s landmass is accessible to wheeled and tracked vehicles, yet people and animals can go almost everywhere on foot. Our goal is to develop and productize novel locomotion systems that can go anywhere people and animals go. The systems we build combine dynamic control systems, actuated mechanisms and sensing to travel on terrain that is too rocky, sandy, muddy, snowy, wet or steep for existing conventional vehicles. This talk will provide an overview of past development efforts along with a peek into current and upcoming efforts.

Bio: Dr. Alfred Rizzi is currently the Chief Scientist at Boston Dynamics where he directs research and product development based on novel locomotion and mobile manipulation systems. Prior to joining Boston Dynamics, in 2006, he was an Associate Research Professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University where he directed research projects focused on hybrid sensor-based control of complex and distributed dynamical systems.  Before attending graduate school Dr. Rizzi worked for the Northrop Corporation as a test equipment design engineer. Dr. Rizzi received the Sc.B, degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1990 and 1994 respectively. He has authored over 50 papers in academic journals and conferences and is a co-inventor on more than 10 patents. Dr. Rizzi is a co-recipient of the Nakamura Prize for best paper at the International Symposium on Intelligent Robots and Systems in 2001.  He is a member of the IEEE and serves on the advisory boards of the robotics programs at John’s Hopkins University.