Michael G. Hollars

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About

Michael G. Hollars made significant contributions to the field of robotic control systems during the late 1980s, with a particular focus on addressing one of the era's most pressing engineering challenges: controlling manipulators with flexible drive systems. Working out of Stanford University's prestigious Aerospace Robotics Laboratory, Hollars specialized in developing practical, high-performance control strategies for robotic arms in which drive train and joint flexibility introduced problematic resonances that severely degraded positioning accuracy. His most influential work, a 1988 dissertation accumulating 15 citations, tackled the fundamental problem of lightly-damped drive system resonances that limited real-world robotic performance. Complementing this, his 1986 experimental study on two-link robots with elastic drives — earning 11 citations — systematically evaluated and compared four distinct control strategies using end-point feedback, providing the robotics community with valuable comparative benchmarks. His contributions extended into space robotics applications, where he helped shape Stanford's broader research agenda for advanced robotic control in demanding aerospace environments. Though his citation counts reflect the specialized nature of his niche, Hollars' experimental, hands-on approach to solving flexible manipulator control problems helped lay important groundwork for precision robotics in both industrial and space exploration contexts.