Benjamin Morrell
Papers
28
Total Citations
1,129
H-Index
15
About
Benjamin Morrell is a robotics researcher whose work centers on autonomous navigation, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and multi-robot systems for extreme and GPS-denied environments. He has made significant contributions to enabling robots to explore perceptually degraded subterranean settings — including tunnels, caves, and underground structures — where conventional sensing and localization methods routinely fail. His landmark LAMP and LAMP 2.0 systems, which together have accumulated over 340 citations, introduced scalable, robust SLAM architectures capable of supporting heterogeneous robot teams across large-scale underground environments. Morrell was a core contributor to Team CoSTAR, NASA JPL's entry in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, whose NeBula autonomy framework helped secure victory in Phase II of the competition. His work on LOCUS 2.0 advanced computationally efficient LiDAR odometry for real-time 3D mapping, while his exploration of event camera-based odometry opens promising pathways for future planetary robotics, including Mars helicopter missions. With over 949 cumulative citations across his most prominent works, Morrell's research is shaping the frontier of resilient robot autonomy, with implications spanning search-and-rescue operations, planetary exploration, and beyond.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Present and Future of SLAM in Extreme Environments: The DARPA SubT Challenge176 citations · 2023
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- 6Exploring Event Camera-Based Odometry for Planetary Robots69 citations · 2022
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- 9Present and Future of SLAM in Extreme Underground Environments38 citations · 2022
- 10Loop Closure Prioritization for Efficient and Scalable Multi-Robot SLAM32 citations · 2022