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About

Kyle Harlow is a robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of autonomous navigation, perception, and state estimation in challenging environments. He has established himself as a leading voice in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), particularly for extreme and GPS-denied settings such as underground tunnels, caves, and extraterrestrial lava tubes. His survey on SLAM in extreme environments, produced in the context of the DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge, has amassed 176 citations and stands as an authoritative reference for researchers tackling navigation in the most demanding real-world conditions. Harlow also contributed to the development of flexible supervised autonomy frameworks that enabled robots to explore unknown subterranean environments without GPS assistance — a critical capability demonstrated through the rigorous SubT competition. Beyond classical sensing modalities, he has helped shape emerging understanding of millimeter-wave radar in robotics, authoring a widely read survey that has garnered over 65 citations and highlights radar as a compelling alternative sensor for robust perception. Across his body of work, Harlow combines theoretical rigor with systems-level thinking, making his research essential reading for anyone working on field robotics, autonomous exploration, or resilient perception systems.