James W. Jennings

About

James W. Jennings is a pioneering researcher in distributed mobile robotics, best known for his foundational work on multi-robot coordination and manipulation. His research focuses on how teams of autonomous robots can collaborate to perform complex physical tasks—such as pushing and rearranging furniture—without relying on explicit communication or centralized control. Jennings’ most influential paper, “Moving furniture with teams of autonomous robots” (2002, 276 citations), demonstrates how coordinated pushing can alter object poses and challenges the necessity of global planning. His concept of “Information Invariants” (1997, 122 citations) provides a theoretical framework for removing communication from manipulation protocols, a breakthrough that has shaped the field of distributed manipulation. Jennings also contributed to sensor interpretation and task-directed planning, using perceptual equivalence classes to manage uncertainty (52 citations). His work on dynamic teams and distributed map-making (32 and 11 citations, respectively) further advances cooperative robotics in dynamic environments. With over 600 total citations, Jennings’ research has profoundly influenced how robots work together in unstructured settings, making him a key figure in the evolution of autonomous multi-agent systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Moving furniture with teams of autonomous robots

   276 citations · 2002
2. 2
   Information Invariants for Distributed Manipulation

   122 citations · 1997
3. 3
   Analyzing teams of cooperating mobile robots

   75 citations · 2002
4. 4
   Sensor interpretation and task-directed planning using perceptual equivalence classes

   52 citations · 2002
5. 5
   Distributed Mobile Robotics by the Method of Dynamic Teams

   32 citations · 1998
6. 6
   Towards a Theory of Information Invariants for Cooperating Autonomous Mobile Robots

   24 citations · 1993
7. 7
   Constructive recognizability for task-directed robot programming

   19 citations · 1992
8. 8
   Constructive recognizability for task-directed robot programming

   13 citations · 2003
9. 9
   Information invariants for distributed manipulation

   12 citations · 1995
10. 10
    Distributed map-making and navigation in dynamic environments

    11 citations · 2002

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links