Dr. Stroupe has been a Staff Engineer at JPL since December 2003. She works in flight operations for the Mars Exploration Rovers, building sequences for rover driving and operating the robotic arm as well as doing long-term planning for rover traverse. She is also working on the development of the flight mission Mars Science Laboratory, evaluating terrain near potential landign sites. Her research focuses on multi-robot teams in complex environments and behavior-based control, with applications to exploration and mapping, dynamic target observation, and cooperative manipulation. In addition to the research listed here, Dr. Stroupe participates broadly in community activities such as outreach and education and has published multiple conference papers, book chapters, and journal articles in robotics. She recently appeared on "Five Years on Mars" on the National Geographic Channel.
Ph.D. Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University
Advisor: Dr. Tucker Balch, Georgia Tech
August 2003
M.S. Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University
Advisor: Dr. Tucker Balch
December 2001
M.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering, George Mason University
Advisor: Dr. Gerald Cook
May 1998
B.S. Physics, Harvey Mudd College
Concentrations in Astrophysics and Anthropology
May 1990
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Science Laboratory Engineering Team 9/2008-Present. Landing Site Traversability assessment in support of final landing site selection.
2/2008-Present. Motor and Mobility software testing.
Mars Exploration Rovers Engineering Team
8/2005-Present. Rover Planning, development and delivery of sequences for rover mobility and robotic arm operations. Long-distance traverse planning.
10/2004-Present. Mobility / manipulation command sequences and performance analysis.
Arctic Mars Analgo Svalbard Expedition 2/2006-Present. Rover-based astrobiology. A three-robot cliff-climbing system for sample collection/return and in-situ astrobiology observations.
Wide Area Prospecting JPL Software Lead 2/2005 - Present.
Autonomous coordinated multi-robot teams for planetary exploration.
Single Command Approach and Instrument Placement 9/2004-Present.
Autonomous software for approach to a target and instrument placement at the target.
Robotic Construction Crew Project Technical Lead 12/2003-3/2005.
Autonomous software for multi-robot construction tasks including cooperative transport and cooperative precision manipulation.
Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Mobile Autonomous Robot Software Project 1/2000-8/2003.
Design, development, and testing of behavior-based execution for robot teams, using models of teammates and performance to improve teamwork, for cooperative mapping and tracking.
The Minnow Project 1/2000-8/2003.
Design, development, and testing of robot localization, multi-platform data fusion, and behaviors for dynamic environments for the robot soccer domain.
Lunar Ice Discovery Initiative 8/1998-12/1999.
Design of a scientific instrument package and mobile robot for Lunar water detection.
Planetary Rovers
Behavior-based autonomy
Collaborative multi-robot systems
Engineering and science education