Arturo Rankin

About

Arturo Rankin is a robotics researcher whose career spans nearly three decades of pioneering work in autonomous navigation for both terrestrial and planetary environments. Based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Rankin has made foundational contributions to unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) navigation, developing algorithms and sensor systems that enable robots to perceive, interpret, and traverse complex environments without human intervention. His work on stereo vision-based obstacle detection, thermal infrared perception for night operations, and mud hazard identification has significantly advanced military and civilian UGV capabilities. Rankin's expertise in leader-follower robotics and small robot path-following laid critical groundwork for coordinated multi-robot systems in urban reconnaissance contexts. Perhaps most notably, his contributions to NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission represent a career highlight — his work on the AutoNav autonomous navigation system enabled the rover to self-drive 88% of its first Martian year of travel, a landmark achievement in planetary robotics (106 citations). With research spanning planetary exploration, off-road terrain analysis, and multi-sensor fusion, Rankin's cumulative impact reflects a career dedicated to pushing the boundaries of robotic autonomy across Earth and beyond.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Autonomous robotics is driving Perseverance rover’s progress on Mars

   106 citations · 2023
2. 2
   Algorithms and sensors for small robot path following

   61 citations · 2003
3. 3
   Unmanned ground vehicle perception using thermal infrared cameras

   52 citations · 2011
4. 4
   Stereo-Based Tree Traversability Analysis for Autonomous Off-Road Navigation

   42 citations · 2005
5. 5
   Evaluation of stereo vision obstacle detection algorithms for off-road autonomous navigation

   42 citations · 2005
6. 6
   <title>Autonomous path-planning navigation system for site characterization</title>

   29 citations · 1996
7. 7
   <title>Evaluating a PID, pure pursuit, and weighted steering controller for an autonomous land vehicle</title>

   24 citations · 1998
8. 8
   First 210 solar days of Mars 2020 Perseverance Robotic Operations - Mobility, Robotic Arm, Sampling, and Helicopter

   20 citations · 2022
9. 9
   Passive sensor evaluation for unmanned ground vehicle mud detection

   19 citations · 2010
10. 10
    <title>Sensors and algorithms for small robot leader/follower behavior</title>

    16 citations · 2001

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links