Papers
88
Total Citations
2,318
H-Index
28
About
David Wettergreen is a pioneering roboticist whose career has been defined by the development of autonomous field robots capable of operating in some of Earth's and the solar system's most extreme environments. Best known for his foundational work on legged locomotion and planetary exploration robotics, Wettergreen led the Dante II project — a rappelling walking robot that descended into volcanic craters and garnered 269 citations for its enduring lessons on high-mobility robotic systems. His subsequent Nomad robot and years of fieldwork in Chile's Atacama Desert advanced scientific understanding of how autonomous robots can search for life in Mars-analog terrains, contributing to NASA's broader vision for space exploration as reflected in his co-authored space robotics survey. A recurring theme throughout his research is human-robot collaboration: a landmark 2007 field study with 161 citations demonstrated how autonomy can evolve organically within real science teams over time. Beyond planetary science, Wettergreen has extended robotic intelligence into precision agriculture, developing 3D imaging systems for automated plant phenotyping. With contributions spanning gait generation, mission-level path planning, and life detection, his work stands as a cornerstone of field robotics research.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Dante II: Technical Description, Results, and Lessons Learned269 citations · 1999
- 2Autonomy and Common Ground in Human-Robot Interaction: A Field Study161 citations · 2007
- 3Exploring Mount Erebus by walking robot79 citations · 1993
- 4A Survey of Space Robotics65 citations · 2003
- 5Developing Nomad for robotic exploration of the Atacama Desert59 citations · 1999
- 6
- 7
- 8Gait Generation For Legged Robots54 citations · 2005
- 9Mission-level path planning and re-planning for rover exploration49 citations · 2006
- 10Behavior-based gait execution for the Dante II walking robot49 citations · 2002