Raj Madhavan

Dr. Raj Madhavan is an assistant research scientist with the Institute for Systems Research (ISR), University of Maryland College Park and a guest researcher with the Intelligent Systems Division of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Over the last decade, he has contributed to various topics in field robotics, systems and control theory. His current research interests include autonomous vehicle navigation in complex unstructured environments, performance metrics for intelligent systems, manufacturing automation, and urban search and rescue robotics. He has published over 125 papers in archival journals, book chapters, refereed conference proceedings, and technical reports.

Many of his current research activities are centered around bringing together the research community to address performance evaluation issues collectively and towards standards-defining activities especially in mobile robotics navigation and mapping. He serves on the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s (IEEE-RAS) Industrial Activities Board and on the Standards Committee. He is the 2010 Industry Editor and a co-contributor to the quarterly Industry Research/News Column for the IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine. He is the founding Chair (co-Chairs: Angel del Pobil of Univ. Jaume-I, Spain and Elena Messina) of the IEEE-RAS Technical Committee (TC) on ‘Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Robotic and Automation Systems’ which is intended to serve as an umbrella TC for other existing TCs focusing on research in specific areas pertaining to robotics and automation.

Since 2006, he has been the Program Chair for the NIST-hosted annual Performance Metrics for Intelligent Systems (PerMIS) Workshop. The workshop is the only one of its kind dedicated to defining measures and methodologies of evaluating performance of intelligent systems. He has edited two books: Intelligent Vehicle Systems: A 4D/RCS Approach (with E. Messina and J. Albus), Nova Science Publishers, Inc., December 2006, and Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems (with E. Tunstel and E. Messina), Springer Publishers, September 2009. He has also edited the following two journal special issues on quantifying performance of robotic systems: 1) Journal of Field Robotics: ‘Quantitative Performance Evaluation of Robotic and Intelligent Systems’, R. Madhavan, 27 A. Jacoff and E. Messina (eds.), Vol. 24, Issue 8-9, pp. 623-799, August-September 2007, and 2) Autonomous Robots Journal: ‘Characterizing Mobile Robot Localization and Mapping’, R. Madhavan, C. Scrapper and A. Kleiner (eds.), Vol. 27, No. 4, November 2009.  

Dr. Madhavan is an elected eminent Engineer of the Tau Beta Pi University of Maryland Chapter, a full member of the scientific research society, Sigma Xi (NIST Chapter), and the Washington Academy of Sciences. He is a senior member of IEEE, 2010 Chair of the IEEE Washington Section and is the founding Chair of the IEEE Washington/ Northern Virginia Section Robotics Automation Society (2007-2009) and Sensors Council Chapters (2008-present). He has won numerous service awards from IEEE (most recently he was voted as the 2008 Volunteer of the Year). He was the postgraduate winner of the 1998 IEEE Region 10 (Asia and the Pacific) student paper competition and the graduate division winner of the 1998 Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) outstanding student paper contest. He has served as an invited independent judge for robotics competitions, has given numerous invited presentations in research organizations in several countries and as an invited chair of sessions and on program committees of premier robotics, automation, and control conferences. He received his Ph.D. in Field Robotics from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Engineering (Research) in Systems Engineering from the Australian National University, Australia.

Selected Significant Publications