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Awards

The following table lists major awards given to JPL Robotics personnel over the past 20 years. Please click on the award names for more information.

Year Award Name Effort Recipient(s)
2012 Popular Science Best of What's New Asteroid Anchors Aaron Parness;
Matt Frost
2012 NASA Early Career Achievement Medal For exceptional technical achievement developing autonomous dexterous manipulation technology applicable to NASA and terrestrial applications. Nicolas Hudson
2012 NASA Group Achievement Award For the development of autonomous robotic manipulation software technology, which leads the nation in capability and has utility in NASA missions and terrestrial applications. Autonomous Robotic Manipulation Software Team
2011 NASA Group Achievement Award For exemplary performance in development and transition of first-of-its-kind intelligent autonomy technology derived from NASA flight missions to the US Navy maritime domain. Intelligent Autonomy for Unmanned Vehicles Team
2011 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal For exemplary leadership and effort in engineering the technical success of the All-Terrain Hex Limbed Extraterrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) robotic vehicle research project. Jaret B. Matthews
2011 NASA Exceptional Service Medal For exceptional service leading the Mobility and Robotic Systems Section to the forefront of flight and technology development. Richard A. Volpe
2010 NASA Group Achievement Award For successful implementation of the R9.3 software enabling Mars Exploration Rover operations past 2010. MER R9.3 Flight Software Team
2010 NASA Group Achievement Award For the quick and extensive action by the operations team that permitted the Spirit rover to survive a massive and fast moving global Martian dust storm. MER Spirit Dust Storm Survival Team
2010 IEEE Aerospace Conference Best Paper Analysis of Flash Lidar Field Test Data for Safe Lunar Landing, IEEE Aerospace Conference, 6-13 March 2010 Tonislav Ivanov, A. E. Johnson, J. A. Keim
2009 King-Sun Fu Best IEEE Transactions on Robotics Paper Award Vision-Aided Inertial Navigation for Spacecraft Entry, Descent, and Landing, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Vol. 25, No. 2, Page(s): 264 - 280 Adnan Ansar, Larry Matthies, A. I. Mourikis, N. Trawny, S. I. Roumeliotis, A. E. Johnson
2009 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal For outstanding leadership of the Phoenix mission Robotic Arm system development. Robert Bonitz
2009 NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal For the successful maturation, validation, and deployment of the Visual Targeting Tracking capability for the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Won Kim
2009 NASA Group Achievement Award For outstanding achievement in developing an innovative Mars entry, descent, and landing simulation and targeting tool for the Phoenix and Mars Science Laboratory missions. DSENDS Team
2009 NASA Group Achievement Award For outstanding contributions to the development and operations of the Aerobot Testbed in support of proposed NASA Titan missions. Titan Aerobot Testbed Development Team
2009 NASA Group Achievement Award For successful implementation, delivery, and operation of the payload for the Phoenix Mars Lander. Phoenix Project Payload Team
2008 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Leadership and effective collaboration oversight of the technology infusion of new autonomy software into the MER flight software. Khaled Ali
2008 IEEE Robotics and Automation Award For contributions to robotics enabling effective autonomous operations of science investigations under extreme conditions on the planet Mars. Paul Backes, Larry Matthies, Eric Baumgartner
2007 NASA Inventions and Contributions Board Major Space Act Award Mars Exploration Rovers Flight Software Khaled Ali, Jeffrey Biesiadecki, Robert Bonitz, Mark Maimone, Todd Litwin, Chris Leger
2007 IEEE Region 6 Outstanding Engineer award For exceptional technical leadership in diagnosing the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity robotic arm anomaly culminating in a successful resolution of the problem and continued use of the arm in extended mission operations. Also for exceptional service to the IEEE as a Guest Editor in organizing and publishing a special issue of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine on Mars Exploration Rovers, June 2006. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu
2007 Institution of Engineering and Technology Achievement Medal - Sir Monty Finniston Award for an outstanding technical contribution to an engineering project Mars Exploration Rovers extended mission operations and engineering. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu
2007 Robotics Society of Japan, Best Paper Award For the paper, "Slip-compensated path following for planetary exploration rovers," Advanced Robotics, Vol.20, No.11, pp.1257-1280, October, 2006. Daniel Helmick, Yang Cheng, Daniel Clouse, Max Bajracharya, Larry Matthies
2007 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Computer Vision Research and Mission Infusion Larry Matthies
2007 NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal Robotics engineering in research and flight, and consistent support of Equal Opportunity Programs Edward Tunstel
2007 NASA Group Achievement Award Development of the Descent Image Motion Estimation System (DIMES) for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission Andrew Johnson, Yang Cheng, Reg Willson, Jay Goguen, Chris Leger, Miguel Sanmartin
2007 NASA Inventions and Contributions Board Major Space Act Award Sub-pixel Fiducial Detection Max Bajracharya
2007 NASA Inventions and Contributions Board Major Space Act Award AUTOAPPROACH: System for Single Command Science Target Rendezvous Terry Huntsberger, Yang Cheng, Chris Leger
2006 World Automation Congress Lifetime Career Achievement Award In Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to Multivariable Control Systems, Robotic Systems, and Space Applications Homayoun Seraji
2006 ASPRS John I Davidson Award for Practical Papers Initial Results of Rover Localization and Topographic Mapping for the 2003 MER Mission Mark Maimone, Larry Matthies, et al.
2006 Center Best One NASA Peer Award CLARAty: Coupled Layer Architecture For Robotic Autonomy Issa Nesnas, et al.
2006 NASA Exceptional Service Medal Control and Modelling Using Spatial Operators for Multibody Dynamics Guillermo Rodriguez
2005 JPL Level A Bonus Award Mars Exploration Rovers Slip Compensation Mark Maimone
2005 NASA Inventions and Contributions Board Major Space Act Award Configuration Control of Dexterous 7-DOF Robotic Arms Homayoun Seraji
2005 The Industrial Robot Highly Commended Award For the paper "LEMUR IIB: a Robotic System for Steep Terrain Access", at the CLAWAR 2005 conference. Brett Kennedy, Avi Okon, Hrand Aghazarian, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Mike Garrett, Lee Magnone, et al.
2004 Imager of the Year award, Advanced Imaging Magazine Visualization and image processing software of the MER's Science Activity Planner (a.k.a. Maestro) Mark Powell
2004 INCOSE Outstanding Paper Award Towards a Systematic Approach for Selection of NASA Technology Portfolios Alberto Elfes, et al.
2004 Journal of Robotic Systems Most-published author in 20-year history Homayoun Seraji
2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Arab Student Organization Arab American Science and Technology Achievement Award Cumulative Khaled Ali
2004 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Mars Exploration Rover Autonomous Surface Navigation System Mark Maimone
2004 NASA Exceptional Service Medal Mars Exploration Rovers Flight Software Jeffrey Biesiadecki
2004 NASA Inventions and Contributions Board Major Space Act Award Planetary Rover Absolute Heading Using a Sun-Sensor Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, et al.
2004 NASA Software Of The Year Award Science Activity Planner Jeff Norris, Mark Powell, Paul Backes, et al.
2003 Best Paper, International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR'03) Sensory Fusion for Planetary Surface Robotic Navigation, Rendezvous, and Manipulation Operat T. Huntsberger, Y. Cheng, E.T. Baumgartner, M. Robinson, and P.S. Schenker
2003 JPL Level A Bonus Award Mars Technology Program Rover Technology Development Richard Volpe
2003 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Galileo, SSI Recovery Greg Levanas
2002 JPL Edward Stone Award for Best Journal Publication "Behavior-Based Robot Navigation on Challenging Terrain: A Fuzzy Logic Approach, IEEE Trans. R&A 18(3), June 2002." Homayoun Seraji, Ayanna Howard
2002 JPL Lew Allen Award for Excellence Early Career Andrew Johnson
2001 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal For exceptional innovations in computer vision technology that enable autonomous navigation of rovers, landers, and orbiters Larry Matthies
2000 NASA Group Achievement Award MER/FIDO Black Rock Summit, NV Field Trials Paul Schenker, et al.
1999 JPL Lew Allen Award for Excellence Early Career Adrian Stoica
1999 NASA Group Achievement Award FIDO Silverlake, CA Field Trials Paul Schenker, et al.
1998 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Mars Pathfinder Development and Operations Al Sirota
1998 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal RCW (Rover Control Workstation) software used on Mars Pathfinder Brian Cooper
1998 NASA Software Of The Year Award, Sole Runner-Up Web Interface for Telescience (WITS) Paul Backes
1998 NASA/U.S. Dept. of Interior William T. Pecora Group Award TOPEX/Poseidon Mission Eddie Tunstel
1997 IEEE Fellow, Robotics and Automation Society For significant original contributions to robotic manipulator control technology Homayoun Seraji
1997 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Rocky 7 Rover Development Richard Volpe
1997 NASA Software Of The Year Award DARTS: Dynamics Algorithms for Real-Time Simulation Abhi Jain, et al.
1997 U.C. Irvine Lauds and Laurels Outstanding Alumnus Lead Rover Driver for Mars Pathfinder Brian Cooper
1996 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Galileo troubleshooting Greg Levanas
1994 Best Video Award, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Remote Surface Inspection Technology for the Space Station Samad Hayati, J. Balaram, Homayoun Seraji, Richard Volpe, et al.
1993 NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal Telerobotics Paul Backes
1992 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal For significant original contributions to robotic manipulator control technology Homayoun Seraji
1991 NASA Exceptional Service Medal Galileo, HGA Recovery Effort Greg Levanas