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About

Peter F. Stiller is a roboticist whose work bridges geometry and dexterous manipulation, with a focus on enabling robots to handle complex, real-world contact tasks. His research centers on grasp planning, contact kinematics, and motion planning for rigid bodies, particularly in low-friction or uncertain environments. Stiller’s most cited contribution, “Dexterous manipulation planning and execution of an enveloped slippery workpiece” (2002, 58 citations), introduces a method for robotic hands to envelop objects, ensuring grasp stability even under unpredictable external forces—a critical advance for industrial and service robotics. He has also made foundational contributions to the geometry of contact formation, deriving closed-form analytic solutions for the kinematics of sliding and rolling polygons (1995, 17 citations; 2002, 11 citations), which provide a rigorous framework for planning contact tasks. Additionally, his probabilistic motion planning method using medial-axis sampling (1999, 4 citations) offers a computationally efficient approach to navigating cluttered spaces. Stiller’s work stands out for its mathematical depth—applying algebraic geometry to practical robotic challenges—and its lasting influence on dexterous manipulation and autonomous systems.