Brian D. O. Anderson

About

Brian D. O. Anderson is a towering figure in control theory and multi-agent systems, whose work has fundamentally shaped how robots and autonomous vehicles perceive, navigate, and coordinate. His research centers on target pursuit, localization, and formation control, with a particular emphasis on using minimal sensory data—such as distance measurements and bearing angles—to achieve complex tasks. One of his landmark contributions is the development of adaptive control frameworks for target localization and circumnavigation, enabling non-holonomic robots to pursue and circle a target using only bearing information (55+ citations). He also pioneered cooperative self-localization techniques for mobile agents like UAVs, solving the challenge of positioning without GPS by leveraging inter-agent distances and landmark angles (31 citations). More recently, Anderson has advanced path-following control with guiding vector fields, allowing robots to navigate occluded paths and avoid obstacles while maintaining convergence to a desired trajectory (26+ citations). His work on formation rigidity and distributed optimization has provided the theoretical backbone for maintaining stable multi-robot platoons (14+ citations). With over 66 citations on his adaptive pursuit paper alone, Anderson’s research continues to influence modern robotics, autonomous vehicles, and sensor networks.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Adaptive range‐measurement‐based target pursuit

   66 citations · 2012
2. 2
   Target localization and circumnavigation by a non-holonomic robot

   55 citations · 2012
3. 3
   Cooperative Self-Localization of Mobile Agents

   31 citations · 2011
4. 4
   Guiding Vector Fields for Following Occluded Paths

   26 citations · 2022
5. 5
   Topological Analysis of Vector-Field Guided Path Following on Manifolds

   18 citations · 2022
6. 6
   Information Architecture and Control Design for Rigid Formations

   14 citations · 2006
7. 7
   Switching control for robust autonomous robot and vehicle platoon formation maintenance

   11 citations · 2007
8. 8
   Variable constraint control of underactuated free flying robots-mechanical design and convergence

   9 citations · 1999
9. 9
   On the Use of Convex Optimization in Sensor Network Localization and Synchronization

   7 citations · 2009
10. 10
    Distributed optimization on proximity network rigidity via robotic movements

    6 citations · 2015

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links