Skip Navigation
Home > Who We Are > People > Robert Steele

People

Personal Page Publications
Robert Steele

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 198-219
Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

818.395 4657

Fax:

818.393.5007
FORMER MEMBER

Robert Steele

Member of Technical Staff

Biography

A software engineer specializing in real-time robotics applications with over 25 year of experience developing
applications for NASA/JPL and DoD.

Education

West Coast University

1987 M.S.
Computer Science



University of California, Lost Angeles

1980 B.S.
Mathematics/Computer Science



JPL Professional Courses

2005 Xilinx - Designing for Performance

2005 Xilinx - Fundamental of FPGA Design

2004 Medium Technology Proposal
Preparation

2003 PTC (Pro Engineering) CAD Training

2003 The JPL Task Manager

2003 PowerPoint 2000 Level 1

2002 Software Product Engineering

2001 I-Logix Effective Use Cases for
Real-Time
Design

2000 I-Logix Rhapsody Training

1999 Java Programming

1992 Real-Time Structured Analysis &
Design

1989 Software Management



University of California, Los Angelse Extension

1992 Orbital Mechanics

1990 Space Mission Design

1984 Short Course on Kalman
Filtering

1984 Digital Filtering

1981 Compiler Design



University of Southern California, Los Angeles

1988 Applied Kalman Filtering
style="">

Professional Experience

Jet Propulsion Laboratory June 1989 -
present

Member Technical Staff


  • Currently supporting the Instrument
    Placement Task validating vision based algorithms for completing a
    single sol placement of instruments.

  • Supported the Distributed Avionics
    Task with the focus of my effort on the brushless motor control
    software.

  • Supported a NASA funded research
    project developing robotic control technologies. Current assignments
    are the Rocky 8 research vehicle and an internally funded fuzzy logic
    control project.

  • Supported a real-time vxWorks based
    robotic system which was used for research in contact and visual
    inspection. This work was in support of Space Station Freedom.

  • Designed, coded and built the software
    for the remote portion of a local/remote robotic architecture. This
    research was in support of Space Station Freedom. The target language
    was Ada running on
    multiple 68020s in a VME chassis.

  • Implemented a costing model for Space
    Station Freedom. This software was delivered to the COSMIC repository.

  • Developed and taught courses in Ada and software design.


Magnavox Research Laboratory June 1987
- June 1989 and November 1981 - June 1985

Senior Scientific Programmer/Analyst



  • Group leader on a satellite navigation
    system project (GPS).

  • Software designer and implementer of a
    subsystem for the PINS project, an integrated navigation system built
    under contract for the U.S. Navy.

  • Responsible for the design and
    implementation of software tools for analysis of navigation
    performance.


TRW June 1985 - June 1987

Member Technical Staff



  • Software System Engineer on FAADS, an
    air defense system, built under contract for the U.S. Army.

  • Software Engineer on ROTHR, a RADAR
    system built under contract for the U.S. Navy.


Hughes Aircraft Company

Member Technical Staff



  • System programmer on a Siemens
    computer.

  • Assignments included implementation of
    new software, program maintenance, implementation of a simulator of the
    system.



West Coast University April
1987 - April 1994

Instructor



  • Member of the adjunct faculty,
    teaching software engineering courses emphasizing the programming
    languages Ada, Modula-2,
    and Pascal.


UCLA Extension

Instructor



  • Taught an intermediate Ada
    course emphasizing the methodologies for design and implementation of
    real-time systems.


Research Interests

Architectures for robotic systems.

Publications

2005
  1. W. S. Kim, A. I. Ansar, R.D. Steele, "Performance Analysis and Validation of a Stereo Vision System," IEEE SMC 2005, 01 October 2005.
  2. W. S. Kim, A. I. Ansar, R.D. Steele, "Rover Mast Calibration, Exact Camera Pointing, and Camera Handoff for Visual Target Tracking," IEEE 12th Int. Conf. on Advanced Robotics (ICAR'05), 01 July 2005.
  3. W. Kim A. Ansar R. Steele K. Ali I. Nesnas, "Rover-Based Visual Target Tracking Validation and Mission Infusion," American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Conference, 01 January 2005.
  4. W. S. Kim, R. C. Steinke, R. D. Steele, "2D Target Tracking Technology Validation Report," JPL D-27015, 01 January 2005.
2004
  1. W. S. Kim, R. C. Steinke, R. D. Steele, A. I. Ansar, "Camera Calibration and Stereo Vision Technology Validation Report," JPL D-27015, 01 January 2004.
2003
  1. A. Jain, J. Guineau, C. Lim, W. Lincoln, M. Pomerantz, G. Sohl, R. Steele, "Roams: Planetary Surface Rover Simulation Environment," International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS 2003), (Nara, Japan), May 19-23, 2003, 01 May 2003.
1998
  1. H. Seraji, R. Steele, "Nonlinear contact control for Space Station dexterous arms," Proc. IEEE Intern. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Leuven (Belgium), Vol. 1, pp. 899 -906, 01 January 1998.
1994
  1. H. Seraji, D. Lim, R.D. Steele, "Experiments in contact control," Journal of Robotic Systems, 01 August 1994.
  2. R.D. Steele, P.G Backes, "Ada and Real-Time Roboitcs: Lessons Learned," IEEE Computer, 01 April 1994.