Bradley C. Buckles

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About

Bradley C. Buckles is a leading robotics researcher advancing NASA’s Artemis vision through pioneering work in autonomous excavation and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for lunar exploration. His primary research areas span robotic mechatronics, autonomous navigation, and perception systems for extreme off-world environments. Buckles’s most significant contribution is the design and development of the ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx), a novel robotic system engineered to mine regolith in the challenging conditions of the lunar south pole. His 2024 paper on the IPEx’s TRL-5 design (9 citations) details the mechanical and mechatronic innovations enabling this critical technology demonstration. To validate these systems, Buckles established the IPEx Autonomy Test-Site, a terrestrial proving ground that simulates the unique lighting and terrain of the lunar south pole, as documented in his 2025 work (3 citations). Further pushing boundaries, his research on instance segmentation-based hazard detection (2 citations) evaluates state-of-the-art models like Mask R-CNN and YOLOv8 for rock avoidance under extreme lighting, directly addressing a key challenge for autonomous ISRU navigation. Buckles’s work is foundational to sustainable human presence on the Moon.