Roger Bostelman has been engineering project manager in the Intelligent Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for 24 of his 35 years at NIST. He managed NIST programs and numerous internal and external NIST projects, including:
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Intelligent Control of Mobility Systems Program, 1 yr – competed against several other NIST candidates for this position; Projects with this Program included: Army Research Laboratory - to develop and measure autonomous military unmanned ground vehicles, Department of Transportation - to measure advanced sensors performance for cars, NIST Industrial Autonomous Vehicles Project - to improve/support the ANSI B56.5 industrial truck safety standard
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NIST Mobile Autonomous Vehicle Obstacle Detection/Avoidance Project, 3 yr – (current project: http://www.nist.gov/el/isd/ps/mobautovehobstdetavoid.cfm) - develops and deploys the measurement science and standards to enable humans and autonomous mobile vehicles to work safely in close proximity on the factory floor; develop test methods and performance measurements to support ANSI/ITSDF B56.5 safety standard to include non-contact safety sensors. Most recently, he has initiated a new Automated Guided Vehicle Performance Standard through ASTM.
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DARPA Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) Project, 3 yr - manage a team to compete against world class perception and mobility control system researchers to allow mobile robots to learn; NIST outcome - standard plug-and play controls and standard mapping schema.
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USMC Air Transportable Expeditionary Crane Project, 2 yr - develop a RoboCrane concept for operational maneuvers from the shore (OMFTS) to build a 25' x 900' runway in 4 hours vs. current 2 weeks by the Construction Battalion.
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US Navy Mobile Offshore Base (MOB) Project, 2 yr - develop and build RoboCrane prototypes of cargo handling at sea systems from the MOB base
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DOT Bridge Construction RoboCrane Project,1 yr - develop and build scale and working models of a rapid bridge construction system
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NIST Healthcare Mobility Project, 3 yr – design, develop and demonstrate advanced patient assist devices for the disabled; co-invented the HLPR Chair; surveyed the industry of patient lift and mobility.
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Bostelman designed, built and tested mechanical systems and their interface electronics on robot cranes, robot arms and autonomous vehicles including an automated HMMWV; Home Lift, Position, and Rehabilitation Chair; Flying Carpet RoboCrane; and several other RoboCranes. The RoboCrane has since been licensed to crane manufacturers as the manipulator to cleanup Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters, aircraft depainting, and containerized cargo handling at sea. He serves on the ANSI/ITSDF B56.5 subcommittee on manufacturing autonomous guided vehicle safety, is skilled in the NDC8 AGV controller, and served on the ISO 13482 committee on personal care robots.
In addition to serving on the Material Handling & Logistics Magazine board, he is also a member of the International Scholarly Research Network (ISRN) Robotics Journal Review Board. He has over 70 publications in books, journals, magazines, and conference proceedings and he holds eight patents with one pending.
Awards include: Bronze Medal for supporting development of the first technology readiness level robot vehicle test methods; First Place Award for 2010 Paper Competition on World Standards Day; “International Standards Efforts Towards Safe Accessibility Technology for Persons with Disabilities, Cross-Industry Efforts”; Best Presentation, Defense Manufacturing Conference 2007, Gee Whiz Technologies, “Flying Carpet RoboCrane.”
He holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the George Washington University and an M.S. degree in Technical Management from the University of Maryland University College.