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Jeffrey Edlund

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 82-105

Pasadena, CA 91101

Jeffrey A Edlund, PhD

Robotics Systems Engineer

Biography

Jeffrey joined the JPL robotics section in 2018 and left in Sept 2025. During that time, he played key roles in JPL's participation in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, DARPA RACER, DARPA LINC, and NAISR projects. He focused primarily on improving the development/integration/testing of new software/hardware for autonomous off-road vehicles. He was heavily involved in the development of simulation based testing tools. He also lead or participated in over 40 multi-day field test campaigns of autonomous robots in underground or off-road environments outside of Los Angeles county.

Jeffrey began his career working part-time at the Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) at Caltech, building and maintaining Beowulf supercomputing clusters. While studying Physics as an undergraduate at Caltech, he worked on data analysis algorithms for the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Observatory (LIGO). Upon completion of his undergraduate work, he joined JPL section 3266 to develop a simulation of the galactic gravitational background in Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) data. He then returned to Caltech to work with Dr. Adami and Dr. Burdick as a graduate student in the Computation and Neural Science (CNS) program. There he collaborated with JPL on the development of the Axel II and III rovers (leading to US Patent 8,496,077 B2) and DuAxel. He also studied evolving developmental neural networks, information integration in stochastic logic networks, EMG data analysis, and epidural electrostimulation of spinal cords. His Ph.D. thesis was titled: "Numerical investigation of spinal neuron facilitation with multi-electrode epidural stimulation."

Education

  • Ph.D. Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology (2019)
  • B.S. Physics, California Institute of Technology (2004)

Professional Experience

Research Interests

  • Efficient development, integration, and testing of software and hardware for robust autonomous robots
  • Use of simulation to:
    • Evaluate software and hardware changes.
    • Develop/train/evolve algorithms that are robust to sim-to-real gaps and environments.
  • Communication aware multi-agent autonomy when bandwidth is limited and variable

Flight Project and Research Task Involvement

Flight Projects
Robot Sequencing and Visualization Platform (RSVP)
Robotic Arm, Drill and ATLO Rover Integration
Research Tasks
Axel Rovers for Exploring Extreme Terrains
DARPA Subterranean Challenge
NeBula Autonomy
RACER

Publications

2024
  1. M. Nissov, S. Khattak, J. Edlund, C. Padgett, K. Alexis, P. Spieler, "ROAMER: Robust Offroad Autonomy using Multimodal State Estimation with Radar Velocity Integration," 2024 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA, 05 March 2024.
2023
  1. J. Bowkett, D. Kim, J. Nash, D. Moreno, M. Gildner, R. Thakker, K. Wehage, S. Kim, A. Brinkman, B. Emanuel, J. Edlund, B. Ridge, A. Jain, and P. Backes, "Demonstration of Autonomous Sampling Techniques in an Icy Moon Terrestrial Analog," 2023 IEEE Aerospace Conference, pp. 1-5, 04 March 2023.
2022
  1. K. Hand, C. Phillips, A. Murray, et al., "Science Goals and Mission Architecture of the Europa Lander Mission Concept," The Planetary Science Journal, vol. 3, iss. 1, 26 January 2022.
2021
  1. E. Schaler, J. Wisnowski, Y. Iwashita, J. Edlund, J. Sly, W. Raff, K. Kriechbaum, M. Frost, R. McCormick, and J. Townsend, "Two-Stage Calibration of a 6-Axis Force-Torque Sensor for Robust Operation in the Mars 2020 Robot Arm," Advanced Robotics 35, no. 21-22 (2021): 1347-1358, 31 May 2021.
  2. Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi, et al., "NeBula: Quest for Robotic Autonomy in Challenging Environments; TEAM CoSTAR at the DARPA Subterranean Challenge," Journal of Field Robotics, 21 March 2021.