Clayton Kunz

About

Clayton Kunz is a pioneering roboticist whose work bridges human-robot collaboration and autonomous exploration in extreme environments. His research spans three core areas: reusable robotic software architectures, peer-to-peer human-robot interaction (HRI), and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) mapping. Kunz made foundational contributions through the CLARAty framework (98 citations), a generic object-oriented system that advanced reusable robotic software for motion control and vision. He also developed the Human-Robot Interaction Operating System (HRI/OS, 93 citations) and led the Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction project (84 citations), which redefined how robots and humans coordinate as equal partners for space missions. His impact extends to planetary science: Kunz designed the AUVs Jaguar and Puma, deployed under Arctic ice to search for hydrothermal vents (61 citations), and created a system fusing acoustic and visual data for 3D underwater mapping (44 citations). Notably, his Mobot Museum Robot Series (66 citations) provided six years of operational insights into socially interactive robots in public spaces. With over 530 total citations across key papers, Kunz’s work continues to shape both terrestrial robotics and NASA’s vision for lunar and Martian exploration.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   CLARAty: Challenges and Steps toward Reusable Robotic Software

   98 citations · 2006
2. 2
   The human-robot interaction operating system

   93 citations · 2006
3. 3
   The Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction Project

   84 citations · 2005
4. 4
   The History of the Mobot Museum Robot Series: An Evolutionary Study

   66 citations · 2001
5. 5
   Toward extraplanetary under‐ice exploration: Robotic steps in the Arctic

   61 citations · 2009
6. 6
   Map Building Fusing Acoustic and Visual Information using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

   44 citations · 2013
7. 7
   A Preliminary Study of Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction

   36 citations · 2006
8. 8
   Human-Robot Site Survey and Sampling for Space Exploration

   22 citations · 2006
9. 9
   Automatic Mapping of Dynamic Office Environments

   16 citations · 1999
10. 10
    Autonomous Robotic Inspection for Lunar Surface Operations

    13 citations · 2008

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links