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About

Kristin Lakatos is a robotics researcher at the forefront of autonomous planetary exploration, specializing in multi-robot systems, extreme terrain access, and learning-based motion control. Her work addresses a critical challenge in space robotics: enabling rovers to safely and autonomously navigate unknown, hazardous environments like craters and caves. As a key contributor to the ARCHES analog mission, Lakatos demonstrated how collaborative multi-rover teams can explore scientifically valuable but difficult-to-reach terrain, with her 2024 paper on the subject already garnering 7 citations. She also played a central role in developing the DLR Moon-Mars Test Site, a realistic analog environment that accelerates the testing and validation of planetary rovers before deployment. In her most technically innovative work, Lakatos applies self-learning algorithms to improve rover motion control on unknown ground—a project under the ESA’s DeLeMIS initiative that promises to make future missions more adaptive and resilient. With her research bridging field-testing, multi-agent coordination, and machine learning, Kristin Lakatos is shaping the next generation of autonomous explorers for the Moon, Mars, and beyond.