Paul Glotfelter
Georgia Institute of Technology, York College of Pennsylvania
Papers
11
Total Citations
832
H-Index
10
About
Paul Glotfelter is a robotics and control systems researcher whose work sits at the intersection of multi-robot systems, safety-critical control, and distributed autonomy. He is perhaps best known for his foundational contributions to nonsmooth barrier functions — mathematical tools that enable robotic systems to provably satisfy multiple simultaneous constraints such as collision avoidance, speed regulation, and connectivity maintenance. His 2017 paper on nonsmooth barrier functions has accumulated over 300 citations, establishing it as a landmark reference in the field, while subsequent work on hybrid and composable barrier functions extended these ideas to increasingly complex, real-world scenarios. Equally significant is Glotfelter's role in the development of the Robotarium, a remotely accessible multi-robot research testbed at Georgia Tech that has democratized swarm robotics research by offering free, physical experimentation to researchers worldwide. This platform-building effort, reflected across multiple highly cited publications totaling hundreds of citations, has had broad infrastructural impact on the research community. His later work on data-driven robust barrier functions addresses long-term autonomous operation under uncertainty, pushing the frontier toward resilient, adaptive robotic systems. Across his career, Glotfelter has consistently bridged rigorous control theory with accessible, impactful experimental platforms.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Nonsmooth Barrier Functions With Applications to Multi-Robot Systems303 citations · 2017
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- 5A Nonsmooth Approach to Controller Synthesis for Boolean Specifications38 citations · 2020
- 6
- 7Data-Driven Robust Barrier Functions for Safe, Long-Term Operation31 citations · 2021
- 8Safe, Remote-Access Swarm Robotics Research on the Robotarium29 citations · 2016
- 9The Robotarium: A remotely accessible swarm robotics research testbed26 citations · 2017
- 10The Robotarium: Automation of a Remotely Accessible, Multi-Robot Testbed20 citations · 2021