Kalind Carpenter
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Papers
27
Total Citations
555
H-Index
11
About
Kalind Carpenter is a robotics engineer and researcher whose work spans advanced robotic mobility, manipulation, and space exploration systems, with particular emphasis on designing robots capable of operating in extreme and unstructured environments. Based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Carpenter has made significant contributions to some of the most ambitious robotics projects in recent memory. His involvement with Team RoboSimian at the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals (86 citations) demonstrated expertise in semi-autonomous mobile manipulation under real-world conditions, while his work on bulk metallic glass strain wave gears (85 citations) addressed critical cost barriers in high-performance robotic actuators. Carpenter has been a driving force behind NASA's EELS project (62 citations), developing snake-like autonomous robots designed to explore icy ocean worlds such as Enceladus — a target of profound astrobiological significance. His innovations extend to origami-inspired pop-up Mars rovers (55 citations), fiber Bragg grating tactile sensing (46 citations), rotary microspine climbing robots (45 citations), and screw-propelled serpentine systems. Collectively, his research portfolio reflects a rare breadth of mechanical ingenuity aimed at pushing robotic exploration into the solar system's most inaccessible frontiers.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 4Pop-up mars rover with textile-enhanced rigid-flex PCB body55 citations · 2017
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- 6Rotary Microspine Rough Surface Mobility45 citations · 2015
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- 9Enceladus Vent Explorer Concept16 citations · 2018
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