Dinesh Manocha
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, University of Maryland, College Park, University of California, Berkeley, University of North Carolina Health Care, Stanford University, Florida State University, Park University, University of Maryland, Baltimore
Papers
186
Total Citations
9,160
H-Index
45
About
Dinesh Manocha is a prominent computer scientist whose research spans multi-agent motion planning, collision avoidance, and autonomous navigation — fields that sit at the intersection of robotics, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence. He is perhaps best known for pioneering the Optimal Reciprocal Collision Avoidance (ORCA) framework, with his 2011 paper "Reciprocal n-Body Collision Avoidance" accumulating over 1,800 citations, establishing it as a foundational reference for anyone working on multi-agent systems. His subsequent extensions — including the Hybrid Reciprocal Velocity Obstacle and acceleration-constrained collision avoidance — further refined this paradigm, demonstrating its adaptability across diverse robotic and simulation contexts. Manocha's contributions extend to practical software infrastructure, notably through FCL, a widely adopted collision and proximity query library with over 500 citations, bridging theoretical advances and real-world deployment. His work on autonomous driving, exemplified by the PORCA pedestrian prediction model, reflects a forward-looking application of his foundational research to safety-critical systems. With trajectory optimization methods like ITOMP addressing dynamic real-world environments, Manocha's body of work has collectively shaped modern robotics and simulation, earning him recognition as one of the field's most influential and prolific researchers.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Reciprocal n-Body Collision Avoidance1,811 citations · 2011
- 2FCL: A general purpose library for collision and proximity queries537 citations · 2012
- 3The Hybrid Reciprocal Velocity Obstacle450 citations · 2011
- 4ClearPath291 citations · 2009
- 5Reciprocal collision avoidance with acceleration-velocity obstacles286 citations · 2011
- 6Generalized velocity obstacles244 citations · 2009
- 7Collision and Proximity Queries218 citations · 2017
- 8PORCA: Modeling and Planning for Autonomous Driving Among Many Pedestrians207 citations · 2018
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