IEEE Robotics and Automation Society have awarded the 2011 Pioneer in Robotics and Automation Award to Dr. Mark W. Spong for his innovative contribution to the field of robotics.
Dr Mark W Spong
The Pioneer Award was aimed at honoring persons who have explored new areas of engineering, development or research that played a major role in the growth of robotics and automation. The society selected Spong for his original contributions in the field of robotic control and teleoperators. He has also made significant contributions in the field of robotics education.
Spong has authored and co- authored numerous research papers in the robotics field. California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and New Mexico’s Sandia National Labs have utilized systems based on the theoretical fundamentals of robot control established by Spong. The results of his work over the past 30 years have been applied in systems used by R&D facilities and companies worldwide.
He first demonstrated how a robot arm’s poor performance arising from joint elasticity and uncertainties could be reduced with superior nonlinear feedback control approaches. A realistic solution to the challenge of bilateral teleoperation’s time-delay compensation was given by him, which solved a major difficulty in the building of space robots and undersea robots.
Spong has also contributed to robotics education. He has co-authored a textbook on robot dynamics and control, which is being used by students for the past 20 years.