IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2015 - 180

In Memoriam

The Achievements of Antal
By George Bekey and Paolo Fiorini

ntal K. (Tony) Bejczy, a giant
in the field of space robotics
and a founder of the IEEE
Robotics and Automation
Society (RAS), died on 25 June 2015,
following a long illness. Tony made
numerous and fundamental contributions to human-machine interfaces, teleoperation, end effectors for
space operations, and other areas. He
was born in Ercsi, a town in central
Hungary, approximately 35 km south
of Budapest. He studied at the Budapest University of Technology, left
Hungary in 1958 for Norway, where
he continued
his studies at
Tony's most
the University
of Oslo, and
important legacy
completed his
is his memory and
education at
the California
the inspiration that
Institute of
it brings to all his
Technology in
Pasadena. He
former colleagues
lived with his
and friends.
wife Margot in
Pasadena until
his final illness.
He was a senior research scientist at
the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) at his retirement.
He was intimately involved with the
birth of the IEEE RAS. The RAS was
preceded by the Robotics and Automation Council (RAC), founded in 1983
by George Saridis. Councils have no

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2015.2453692
Date of publication: 11 September 2015

180

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

Antal K. (Tony) Bejczy, 1930-2015.

individual members. Rather, they are
formed by other IEEE Societies and
nurtured until they are ready to become
Societies. In the case of the RAC, it was
founded by eight Societies with an
interest in robotics. Saridis was the first
president. In 1987, Tony was president
of the RAC, and, under his leadership,
the RAC began its transformation into
the RAS. The transformation was completed in 1989.
During his 32-year tenure at JPL,
Tony pioneered the development of
robot dynamics, on which he wrote
the first seminal paper, and of multifingered end effectors equipped with
sensors, which he termed smart hands.
He was the first to use force and rate
feedback in the control of space teleoperators, a technology that is now
being used not only in space robotics
but also in surgical robotics and in
many applications of haptics. He
was a principal investigator of a flight
experiment using a force-moment

September 2015

sensor enhanced hand on the remote
arm of the space shuttle Columbia in
1994. Tony received 43 NASA innovation awards.
Tony's most important legacy is his
memory and the inspiration that it
brings to all his former colleagues and
friends. He discovered and supported
young talents from the early days of
robotics until his last years. While
attending conferences, he was always
available to meet with students, and he
encouraged their research, often by
starting new collaborations with their
universities and research centers.
Through these contacts, he was able to
recruit a number of researchers to his
laboratory at JPL, going to great
lengths to overcome the obstacles of
hiring non-U.S. students. Unknown
students and researchers were welcome to discuss research projects and
employment possibilities with him.
Once hired, they had his full support
and guidance even in the most critical
research tasks. Tony was a truly passionate teacher in robotics research,
who could show his colleagues how
one could inspire many with exceptional understanding and with his
warm heart and friendliness.
This passion remained strong after
his retirement, and whenever he met
his former JPL colleagues, the first
topic was robotics research at JPL, to
which he often contributed new ideas
of his own. Tony regularly visited with
former colleagues who moved to different institutions, giving advice and
guidance on research directions, laboratory development, and personal

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