Michael G. Tanner

Papers

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About

Michael G. Tanner is a leading researcher in mobile robotics and large-scale 3D reconstruction, with a focus on enabling robots to build accurate, dense models of dynamic, real-world environments. His work addresses a critical challenge: how to create reliable static maps when scenes are cluttered with ephemeral objects like vehicles and pedestrians. In his 2016 paper "What lies behind," Tanner introduced a method to process laser point clouds and back-fill hidden surfaces after removing transient objects, a foundational contribution for robust autonomous navigation. He further advanced the field with the BOR²G system (2020), which fuses data from cameras and lidars to produce large-scale outdoor reconstructions, moving beyond object-centric models to full scene understanding. His DENSER Cities system (2016) tackles the computational and memory demands of city-scale mapping using stereo cameras, demonstrating efficient generation of dense, colored models. While his most-cited papers each hold around 3–5 citations, their impact is concentrated in the specialized domain of field robotics, where they have influenced practical approaches to persistent mapping and scene correction. Tanner’s work is essential reading for researchers building robots that must operate reliably in complex, changing environments.