Papers
9
Total Citations
521
H-Index
8
About
David Bonnafous is a leading figure in autonomous mobile robotics, specializing in the navigation of nonholonomic systems across challenging, unknown terrains. His seminal work, "Autonomous Rover Navigation on Unknown Terrains: Functions and Integration" (184 citations), established foundational methods for enabling rovers to traverse hundreds of meters without human intervention by integrating environmental mapping, trajectory planning, and execution. Bonnafous is perhaps best known for pioneering reactive path deformation techniques, as detailed in his highly cited 2004 paper (168 citations), which allow nonholonomic robots to dynamically optimize and deform initial trajectories to avoid obstacles in cluttered environments while respecting kinematic constraints. His contributions extend to motion generation for articulated rovers on rough terrains (53 citations), where he developed algorithms that compute safe motions using digital elevation maps and geometric constraints. Through a series of influential works on trajectory deformation and obstacle avoidance, Bonnafous has significantly advanced the reliability and autonomy of planetary rovers and mobile robots operating in complex, real-world settings. His research remains essential reading for engineers and researchers tackling long-range autonomous navigation and reactive control.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Autonomous Rover Navigation on Unknown Terrains: Functions and Integration184 citations · 2002
- 2Reactive Path Deformation for Nonholonomic Mobile Robots168 citations · 2004
- 3Motion generation for a rover on rough terrains53 citations · 2002
- 4Autonomous Rover Navigation on Unknown Terrains Functions and Integration40 citations · 2007
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- 7Autonomous Rover Navigation on Unknown Terrains: Functions and Integration12 citations · 2002
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