Benjamin Charrow

University of Pennsylvania

Papers

9

Total Citations

570

H-Index

8

About

Benjamin Charrow is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of autonomous systems, active perception, and multi-robot coordination. He is best known for pioneering information-theoretic approaches to robot planning, particularly leveraging Cauchy-Schwarz Quadratic Mutual Information as a computationally efficient objective function for autonomous 3D mapping. His 2015 papers on information-theoretic planning with trajectory optimization and active perception have collectively amassed over 320 citations, establishing him as a significant contributor to autonomous mapping for both ground and aerial robots. Charrow's research consistently addresses the challenge of enabling robot teams to intelligently gather information under real-world computational constraints. His work on multi-robot estimation and control for radio source localization demonstrated practical algorithms for target tracking using range-only sensors, accumulating roughly 80 citations across related publications. His doctoral and early career research tackled fundamental questions about how robots can coordinate perception efficiently, with applications spanning search and rescue, environmental monitoring, and space exploration. Across his body of work, Charrow has demonstrated a rare ability to bridge theoretical rigor — grounded in Bayesian estimation and information theory — with deployable systems, making his contributions valuable to both academic researchers and practitioners building real autonomous platforms.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

8
H-Index
9
Papers
570
Total Citations
63
Avg Citations/Paper
🏆 Most Cited Paper
Information-Theoretic Planning with Trajectory Optimization for Dense 3D Mapping
173 citations · 2015
📈 Most Prolific Year: 2015 (4 Papers)
🤝 Key Collaborators: 11
🏛 Institutions: University of Pennsylvania

Top Papers

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Key Collaborators

Contact & Links

Available for collaboration
Content generated · 13 days ago