IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2013 - 117

Events in the Life of M. Vukobratovic´
Stabilization of Motion For
Robotic Manipulators
Dev. of Active Anthropomorphic
Exoskeleton
Contribution to Synthesis of
Biped Gait
1969

1974

Dynamics of Contact
Tasks in Robotics

Open-Chain Linkages Utilizing
Newton-Euler Method

1979

1984

Control Artificial
Anthropomorphic System
Stability of Biped
Locomotion

1989

Control of Robotic
Manipulator
Trajectory Synthesis for
Redundant Manipulator

Stabilization of Robotic
Manipulators in Contact
Tasks
1994

1999

Intelligent Control
Techniques for
Humanoid Robot
2004

2009

Model of General Human and
Humanoid Motion
Mechanics of Turnin
Parallel Robot
New Approach to Control
of Robotics Manipulators
Robot Dynamics Learning by
Feedforward Control Structure

Figure 3. Fifteen of Vukobratovic´'s most cited papers, according to data obtained from ISI Webof Science, show the constancy of his
work throughout his long career.

Lagrangian methods, he came up with
a recursive Newton-Euler dynamics
formulation that still serves as the foundation for many real-time model-based
controls. Takeo Kanade (Carnegie Mellon University) describes this work as
the first association that comes to his
mind: "To me the name Vukobratović
immediately brings to mind the person
who introduced a Newton-Euler recursive formulation in the mid-1970s by
his papers on modeling human limb
dynamics. When I started studying
kinematics, dynamics, and control of
robotic manipulators, I had literally
conquered his important and tough
papers: the initial formulations were
intricate and complex. With later revisions by himself and other people, the
recursive Newton-Euler formulation
became the most intuitive and yet computationally efficient method of calculating manipulator dynamics." [3, p.
35-36]. Vukobratović focused his
research on the problems of robots
interacting with a dynamic environment long before anyone else. Gerd
Hirzinger, founder and former head of
the DLR Robotics and Mechatronics
Center, refers to Vukobratović as "one
of the first in the world to realize the
importance of dynamics, even at a time
where nobody working in robot industry could believe that robots might ever

be something else than purely positioncontrolled machines on joint levels. We
are now indeed entering an era where
industrial robots start to take into
account the dynamics-Professor
Vukobratović has predicted this many
years ago" [3, p. 60]. Vukobratović also
made pioneering efforts in the area of
computer-aided design of manipulator
mechanisms by creating the first software packages for robot development
and simulations.
Vukobratović shared the results of
his research in over 200 journal articles and 15 research monographs,
which gave an impetus for the

advancement of this new field of
research (see Figure 3). As Kenneth
Waldron from Stanford University
says "many ideas which were subsequently taken up by others have
appeared first in his work" [3, p. 42].
We can see this in the impressive
number and geographic spread of citations to his work (see Figure 4).
Bridging East and West
Vukobratović is an unusual example of
a post-WW2 researcher who cultivated
contacts with scientists across the
globe-in the United States, Western
Europe, Eastern Europe, the USSR,

Figure 4. Vukobratovic's work was widely cited all over the world in all the main centers
of robotics research in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

june 2013

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

117

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2013