RI | People | Christopher Urmson

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Christopher Urmson
Assistant Research Professor

Associated centers: SRI and FRC

Email address: curmson@ri.cmu.edu

Mailing address:
Carnegie Mellon University
Robotics Institute
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Jump to: Research interests | Keywords | Labs & groups | Projects | Publications

Research interests

I am generally interested in the development of mobile robots performing interesting tasks in the real world. To that end, I work to understand the interplay between motion planning algorithms and the tasks that they support, the development of new outdoor navigation algorithms for robots traversing cross country terrain, and appropriate architectures that allow their rapid development and reliable operation.

This section last updated - January 1999.

Research interest keywords

architectures, field robotics, mobile robots, obstacle avoidance, planning, and space robotics

Current Labs & Groups

Reliable Autonomous Systems Lab - We are developing reliable, highly autonomous systems (especially mobile robots) that operate in rich, uncertain environments.

Current Projects [Past projects]

Autonomous Ground Vehicle Design - Pursuing high speed navigation of unrehearsed terrain in pursuit of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge	Grace - The Grace project is a collaboration among several schools and research labs to design a robot capable of fully performing the AAAI Grand Challenge.
Life in the Atacama - Robotic field investigation will bring new scientific understanding of the Atacama as a habitat for life with distinct analogies to Mars.	Tartan Racing - Carnegie Mellon University is teaming with General Motors to compete in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.
Urban Challenge

Recent publications [View all 22 publications]

• A Multisensor Multiobject Tracking System for an Autonomous Vehicle Driving in an Urban Environment
  M. Darms, P. Rybski, and C. Urmson
  AVEC 2008 - 9th International Symposium on Advanced Vehicle Control, Kobe, September, 2008. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [2145 KB] copyrighted

• A perception mechanism for supporting autonomous intersection handling in urban driving
  Y. Seo and C. Urmson
  Proceedings of IEEE International Conference Intelligent Robots and Systems, September, 2008. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [278 KB], ps.gz [1687 KB] copyrighted

• Autonomous driving in urban environments: Boss and the Urban Challenge
  C. Urmson, J. Anhalt, H. Bae, J. Bagnell, C. Baker, R.E. Bittner, T. Brown, M.N. Clark, M. Darms, D. Demitrish, J. Dolan, D. Duggins, D. Ferguson, T. Galatali, C.M. Geyer, M. Gittleman, S. Harbaugh, M. Hebert, T. Howard, S. Kolski, M. Likhachev, B. Litkouhi, A. Kelly, M. McNaughton, N. Miller, J. Nickolaou, K. Peterson, B. Pilnick, R. Rajkumar, P. Rybski, V. Sadekar, B. Salesky, Y. Seo, S. Singh, J.M. Snider, J.C. Struble, A. Stentz, M. Taylor, W.L. Whittaker, Z. Wolkowicki, W. Zhang, and J. Ziglar
  Journal of Field Robotics Special Issue on the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, Part I, Vol. 25, No. 8, June, 2008, pp. 425-466. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [1176 KB] copyrighted

• Classification and tracking of dynamic objects with multiple sensors for autonomous driving in urban environments.
  M. Darms, P. Rybski, and C. Urmson
  Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, IEEE, June, 2008, pp. 1197-1202. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [529 KB] copyrighted

• Detection, Prediction, and Avoidance of Dynamic Obstacles in Urban Environments
  D. Ferguson, M. Darms, C. Urmson, and S. Kolski
  Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, IEEE, Eindhofen, June, 2008, pp. 1149-1154. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [1328 KB] copyrighted

• Self-Driving Cars and the Urban Challenge
  C. Urmson and W.L. Whittaker
  IEEE Intelligent Systems, Vol. 23, No. 2, April, 2008, pp. 66-68. [Abstract]

• An adaptive model switching approach for a multisensor tracking system used for autonomous driving in an urban environment
  M. Darms, P. Rybski, and C. Urmson
  AUTOREG 2008, Steuerung und Regelung von Fahrzeugen und Motoren: 4. Fachtagung, VDI-Verlag, Duesseldorf, February, 2008, pp. 521-530. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [1838 KB] copyrighted

• Vehicle detection and tracking for the Urban Challenge
  M. Darms, C. Baker, P. Rybski, and C. Urmson
  5. Workshop Fahrerassistenzsysteme, M. Maurer & C. Stiller, ed., Freundeskreis Mess- und Regelungstechnik Karlsruhe e.V. (FMRT), Karlsruhe, 2008, pp. 57-67. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [141 KB] copyrighted

• A Robust Approach to High-Speed Navigation for Unrehearsed Desert Terrain
  C. Urmson, J. Anhalt, D. Bartz, M. Clark, T. Galatali, A. Gutierrez, S. Harbaugh, J. Johnston, H. Kato, P.L. Koon, W. Messner, N. Miller, A. Mosher, K. Peterson, C. Ragusa, D. Ray, B.K. Smith, J.M. Snider, S. Spiker, J.C. Struble, J. Ziglar, and W.L. Whittaker
  Journal of Field Robotics, Vol. 23, No. 8, August, 2006, pp. 467-508. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [3058 KB] copyrighted

• Preplanning for high performance autonomous traverse of desert terrain exploiting a priori knowledge to optimize speeds and to detail paths
  A. Gutierrez, T. Galatali, J.P. Gonzalez, C. Urmson, and W.L. Whittaker
  tech. report CMU-RI-TR-05-54, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, December, 2005. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [18575 KB] copyrighted