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About

D.R. Broome is a specialist in robotic control systems, with a career focused on the challenging intersection of adaptive control theory and subsea robotics. Working primarily from the early 1990s through the mid-2000s, Broome made significant contributions to the development of intelligent, self-tuning robotic manipulators capable of operating in complex and unpredictable underwater environments. Among his most notable achievements is his sustained involvement in the ARM (Automated Remote Manipulation) project, an industry consortium effort that produced an advanced eight-degree-of-freedom subsea manipulator for diverless inspection, maintenance, and repair of offshore infrastructure. This work, reflected in his most-cited paper (11 citations), addressed real-world engineering challenges including buoyancy, added mass, and viscous drag effects unique to underwater operation. Broome also pioneered adaptive and self-tuning control strategies for robotic force control, demonstrating their effectiveness on the PUMA 560 industrial manipulator and in subsea inspection contexts. His later work explored neural network-based intelligent gain scheduling, anticipating modern machine learning applications in robotics. Collectively accumulating over 45 citations, his research remains a valuable reference for engineers tackling autonomous manipulation in unstructured, safety-critical environments.