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Robert Hewitt

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4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 198-219

Pasadena, CA 91101

Robert Hewitt, PhD

Robotics Technologist

Biography

Robert Hewitt is a robotics technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was born on February 13th, 1985 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada and has been interested in space exploration from a young age, originally inspired by the Mars Pathfinder mission. Later, as part of his masters program, he had the opportunity to design the state estimation and mapping system for a Canadian Space Agency rover prototype named Kapvik. After this his PhD research was in collaboration with the European Space Agency where he had the opportunity to work in the Planetary Robotics Laboratory. There his research focused on improving LiDAR-based odometry and SLAM for rovers using LiDAR intensity measurements. Since joining JPL as a postdoc in 2018 he has continued his focus on new sensing modalities, designing state estimation solutions that use LiDAR, Ultra-wideband Radio, and thermal imagery on robotic platforms like micro-rovers, airships, and quadcopters.

Education

Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queens University, 2018
M.A.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, 2012
B.A.Sc. in Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan, 2009

Professional Experience

Robotics Technologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, (2019-Present)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, (2018-2019)

Research Interests

Generally interested in state estimation, computer vision and perception. More specifically in formulating new state estimation and perception problems that take advantage of different sensor modalities and their particular characteristics to allow exploration of environments where the use of passive, visible spectrum cameras is greatly hindered or impossible.

Publications

2023
  1. Pedro Proença, Patrick Spieler, Robert Hewitt, Jeff Delaune, "TRADE: Object Tracking with 3D Trajectory and Ground Depth Estimates for UAVs," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 3325-3331, 29 May 2023.
  2. Timothy Setterfield, Robert Hewitt, Antonio Teran Espinoza, Po-Ting Chen, "Feature-Based Scanning Lidar-Inertial Odometry using Factor Graph Optimization," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, pp. 3374-3381, 12 April 2023.
2022
  1. V. Polizzi, R. Hewitt, J. Hidalgo-Carrió, J. Delaune and D. Scaramuzza, "Data-Efficient Collaborative Decentralized Thermal-Inertial Odometry," EEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 10681-10688, 28 July 2022.
  2. T. Setterfield, R. Hewitt, P. Chen, C. Marcus, N. Trawny, "Real-World Testing of LiDAR-Inertial Based Navigation and Mapping for Precision Landing," 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), Big Sky, MT, USA, pp. 1-10, 05 May 2022.
  3. C. Marcus, T. Setterfield, R. Hewitt, P. Chen, "Landing Site Selection with a Variable-Resolution SLAM-Refined Map," 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), Big Sky, MT, USA, pp. 1-12, 05 March 2022.
  4. R. Castano, T. Vaquero, F. Rossi, V. Verma, E. Wyk, D. Allard, B. Huffmann, E, Murphy, N. Dhamani, R. Hewitt, S. Davidoff, R. Amini, A. Barrett, J. Castillo-Rogez, M. Choukroun, A. Dadaian, R. Francis, B. Gorr, M. Hofstadter, M. Ingham, C. Sorice, I. Tierney, "Operations for Autonomous Spacecraft," 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), Big Sky, MT, USA, pp. 1-20, 05 March 2022.
2021
  1. T. Setterfield, R. Hewitt, N. Trawny, "Fundamental Limits of Map Relative Localization During Spacecraft Descent and Landing," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, vol. 77, no. 7, pp. 1239-1252, 26 May 2021.
  2. R. Hewitt, T. Setterfield, N. Trawny, "LiDAR-Based Map Relative Localization Performance Analysis for Landing on Europa," 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100), Big Sky, MT, USA, pp. 1-13, 06 March 2021.
  3. T. Setterfield, R. Hewitt, P. Chen, A. Espinoza, N. Trawny, A. Katake, "LiDAR-Inertial Based Navigation and Mapping for Precision Landing," 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100), Big Sky, MT, USA, pp. 1-19, 06 March 2021.
2020
  1. E. Boroson, R. Hewitt, N. Ayanian, J. P. de la Croix, "Inter-Robot Range Measurements in Pose Graph Optimization," 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Las Vegas, NV, USA, pp. 4806-4813, 24 October 2020.
  2. Delaune, J., Brockers, R., Bayard, D.S., Dor, H., Hewitt, R., Sawoniewicz, J., Kubiak, G., Tzanetos, T., Matthies, L. and Balaram, J., "Extended Navigation Capabilities for a Future Mars Science Helicopter Concept," Accepted in IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, USA, pp. 1-10, 07 March 2020.
  3. A. Schutte, J. Delaune, E. Sklyanskiy, R. Hewitt, S. Daftry, M. Quadrelli, L. Matthies, "Integrated Simulation and State Estimation for Precision Landing on Titan," IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA, 05 February 2020.
  4. L. Matthies, S. Daftry, B. Rothrock, A. Davis, R. Hewitt, E. Sklyanskiy, J. Delaune, A. Schutte, M. Quadrelli, M. Malaska, "Terrain Relative Navigation for Guided Descent on Titan," IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA, 05 February 2020.