Shankar Sastry

About

Shankar Sastry stands as one of the most influential figures in robotics, control theory, and autonomous systems research. His seminal textbook, *A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation* (6,720 citations), has become a cornerstone reference for generations of roboticists, providing an elegant geometric framework for understanding robot kinematics, dynamics, and control. His early work on sliding mode control and tracking in nonlinear systems (1,788 citations) laid critical theoretical foundations for robust feedback control, while his research on adaptive control of mechanical manipulators (1,286 citations) and linearizable systems (1,195 citations) significantly advanced the field's ability to handle uncertain, real-world dynamics. Sastry's contributions extend to multifingered robotic grasping, rolling contact kinematics, and nonholonomic motion planning — areas where his mathematical rigor helped transform intuitive engineering problems into tractable, principled frameworks. His later work on decentralized model predictive control for autonomous aerial vehicles foreshadowed modern multi-robot systems research. With tens of thousands of cumulative citations across foundational topics, Sastry's legacy bridges elegant mathematical theory and practical robotics, making his scholarship essential reading for anyone serious about understanding autonomous and intelligent systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation

   6,720 citations · 2017
2. 2
   Tracking control of non-linear systems using sliding surfaces, with application to robot manipulators†

   1,788 citations · 1983
3. 3
   Adaptive Control of Mechanical Manipulators

   1,286 citations · 1987
4. 4
   Adaptive control of linearizable systems

   1,195 citations · 1989
5. 5
   A calculus for computing Filippov's differential inclusion with application to the variable structure control of robot manipulators

   734 citations · 1987
6. 6
   Grasping and Coordinated Manipulation by a Multifingered Robot Hand

   345 citations · 1989
7. 7
   Kinematics and control of multifingered hands with rolling contact

   316 citations · 1989
8. 8
   Nonholonomic Motion Planning

   275 citations · 2017
9. 9
   Trajectory generation for the N-trailer problem using Goursat normal form

   275 citations · 1995
10. 10
    Decentralized nonlinear model predictive control of multiple flying robots

    216 citations · 2003

Key Collaborators

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