Robert C. Michelson is an American engineer and academic. He is widely known for inventing the Entomopter at GTRI and for establishing the International Aerial Robotics Competition.

Biography

He was born in Washington D.C. (1951) and is a descendant of Christian Michelsen, the first Prime Minister of Norway. He is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1973) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (1974) with degrees in Electrical Engineering. From 1971 - 1973 he was a research engineer working on aerospace radar systems at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. Michelson spent the next 30 years in various engineering and management capacities within the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. From 1997 through 2004 Michelson was Adj. Associate Professor to the School of Aerospace Engineering teaching classes in avionics for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Micro/Mini Air Vehicle (MAV) design. Michelson retired from GTRI in September 2004 and currently holds the title of Principal Research Engineer Emeritus with the Institute. In 2004 he created Millennial Vision, LLC to continue research into biologically inspired aerial robots and remote sensing. He is the President of SEPDAC (Scientific Enterprise in Pursuit and Discovery of Ancient Cultures), a nonprofit educational and scientific organization. He currently sits on the Board of The Sharp Mountain Preserve.

Professional Activities

Michelson has been NATO/RTA lecturer at the Turkish Air Force Academy (Hava Harp Okulu) in Istanbul (’06), and invited lecturer on Micro Air Vehicle technology at both the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (’99 & ’03) and the Royal Military Academy (’01) in Brussels. He was the fisrt "MITRE Technology Speaker "(’98). He has been a visiting technology professor in five nations: Australia, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, and Turkey. Most recently Michelson has been the consultant to the U.S. Army and the Indian Ministry of Defence, responsible for defining and organizing the 1st U.S.-Asian Micro Air Vehicle Demonstration in Agra India ('08). He performed similar duties for the U.S. Army in defining the 1st US-European Micro Air Vehicle Competition/Demonstration in Garmisch Germany (‘05). He created the short course, “21st Century Aerial Robotics” and the digital signal processing lecture/demonstrations in “Principals of Modern Radar” at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also creator and organizer of the annual International Aerial Robotics Competition which is now in its 19th year. Prior to joining GTRI staff, he participated in design and endo-atmospheric flight testing of computer-controlled space-based radar ocean surveillance systems while employed by the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

He is the author of over 78 major reports and publications. Michelson is listed in various editions of "Who’s Who in Engineering," "Who’s Who in America," and the 23rd edition of "Who’s Who in the World."

Patents

• “Entomopter and Method for Using Same”, U.S. Patent No. 6,082,671, July 4, 2000
• “Battery State of Charge Detector with Rapid Charging Capability and Method”, U.S. Patent No. 6,094,033, July 25, 2000
• “Reciprocating Chemical Muscle (RCM) and Method for Using Same”, U.S. Patent No. 6,446,909, September 10, 2002

Honors and Awards

Prof. Michelson is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a Full Member of the Scientific Research Society of North America, Sigma Xi. During the 1990s he served as President and member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVSI) International organization. In 1998 Michelson received the AUVSI Pioneer Award which is the highest level of recognition within the unmanned systems industry for technical contributions. Michelson is the recipient of the 2001 Pirelli Award for the diffusion of scientific culture given by an international Jury for the "best multimedia project coming from any educational institution in the world". For endeavors related to the Entomopter, he was also awarded the first €25,000 Top Pirelli Prize.

References

External links

• Biography of Robert C. Michelson