Robert Carroll Michelson

Background

Michelson, Robert Carroll was born on April 24, 1951 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. Son of Carroll Edward and Evelyn Othea Michelson.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytech. University, 1973; Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1974.

Career

Research Engineer, United States Naval Research Laboratory, 1971-1973;

Research Engineer I, Radar/instrumentation Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology 1975-1977;

Research Engineer II, Radar/instrumentation Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology 1977-1981;

Senior Research Engineer, Georgia Technology Research Institute, 1981-1992;

Principal Research Engineer, Georgia Institute of Technology, since 1992;

Branch Head Instrumentation Technology Branch of the Aerospace, Transportation & Advanced Systems Laboratory Georgia Institute of Technology, 1985-1990;

Technical Area. Manager, Battlefield Robotics and Unmanned Systems, Georgia Institute of Technology, beginning in 1990;

Adj. Associate Professor School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Achievements

• Michelson is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),  He is a 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 International organization (AUVSI).  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".  In 2016, the International Aerial Robotics Competition and its creator, Michelson, were officially recognized during the Georgia legislative session in the form of "Senate Resolution 1255” which recognized his effort in the development of the longest running aerial robotics competition in the world and for having been responsible for moving forward the state of the art in aerial robotics on several occasions during the past quarter century. Robert Carroll Michelson has been listed as a noteworthy electronics engineer, educator by Marquis Who's Who.
  
  At the Georgia Tech Research Institute he attained the highest rank of Principal Research Engineer and was Adj. Associate Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Aerospace Engineering where he developed and taught classes in avionics until his retirement from the University System of Georgia in 2004.
  
  Michelson has been the U.S. representative and deputy chief referee to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China's UAV Grand Prix during its inaugural year (2011), and again in 2013 and 2015.  He was the section editor for "MAVs and Bio-Inspired UAVs" in Springer's Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (released in 2014).  Michelson was chosen by the Office of the U.S. Assistant Secretary for the Air Force to represent the United States on the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) to predict future (2020 timeframe) sensor technologies for unmanned aerial systems.  Michelson was the NATO/RTA (Research and Technology Agency) lecturer at the Turkish Air Force Academy (Hava Harp Okulu) in Istanbul in 2006, and invited lecturer on Micro Air Vehicle technology at both the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (1999 & 2003) and the Royal Military Academy (2001) in Brussels. He was the first "MITRE Technology Speaker"(1998) and has been a visiting technology professor in six nations: Australia (2002), Belgium (1999, 2003), Norway (2001), Sweden (2001), Türkiye (2001, 2006), and Mexico (2010). 
  
  Michelson was a consultant to the U.S. Army and the Indian Ministry of Defence in 2008, responsible for defining and organizing the 1st U.S.-Asian Micro Air Vehicle Demonstration in Agra India.  He performed similar duties for the U.S. Army in defining the 1st US-European Micro Air Vehicle Competition/Demonstration in Garmisch Germany in 2005.  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.
  
  Michelson has been widely interviewed and quoted in print (e.g., Business Week, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, Chronicle of Higher Education), radio (e.g., National Public Radio, Armed Forces Radio, American Association for the Advancement of Science radio syndicate), and on television (e.g., Scientific American Frontiers, Discovery Channel, CNN, BBC, and various ABC, CBS, NBC Fox affiliates).  Worldwide interest in robotics, and especially the robots of war, spawned a series of televised robotics programming about Michelson's work. A technical biography of Robert Michelson is the subject of episode 1008 of the television program ''Beyond Invention'', which chronicles a number of his research projects including unmanned aerial vehicle research, the International Aerial Robotics Competition, the Entomopter-based Mars surveyor, and his work with automated coral propagation.  Michelson is featured in various television programs focused specifically on the International Aerial Robotics Competition, including an hour-long Discovery Science Channel program entitled ''Airbots''. 
  
  Michelson has been often quoted in news programming with regard to the International Aerial Robotics Competition and the applications of the underlying technology to military and civilian spheres.  As the use of robotic drone aircraft increased during the Gulf Wars, public interest in the subject was peaked and Michelson began to be featured in series and specials such as the NOVA episode "Spies that Fly" and the BBC special ''Seven Ways to Topple Saddam''.
  
  Because of the notoriety of his aerial robotic research, Michelson even became the basis for the fictional character Michael C. Robertson in the novel "Drone Games" (2014) by Joel Narlock.[89]  In this work, Michael C. Robertson is the creator of the Entomopter at the Georgia Technology Research Institute. This fictitious character's name is an anagram of Robert C. Michelson, the actual inventor of the Entomopter at the Georgia ''Tech'' Research Institute. Michelson's Entomopter is also featured in another of Joel Narlock's novels, ''Target Acquired'' (2003).
  
  Michelson created the video series Planetary Catastrophe which is based on his various expeditions (under the auspices of his 501 c3 SEPDAC corporation) along the Iranian border in Eastern Anatolia to conduct research at the likely landing spot for the Ark of Noah. The series chronicles the archeological artifacts and scientific findings discovered by Michelson and his research team over an approximately 10 year period of investigation.

Works

• Over 100 Publications

  • (follow this link to see entire list)

    (Authored over 100 major publications)

    1973

• Patents, Publications

  • Author of three U.S. patents:

    ("US patent 6,082,671", Robert C. Michelson, "Entomopter a...)

    2000
  • Author of three U.S. patents:

    ("US patent 6,094,033", Robert C. Michelson, "Battery Stat...)

    2000
  • Author of three U.S. patents:

    ("US patent 6,446,909", Robert C. Michelson, "Reciprocatin...)

    2002

Membership

Member Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (senior member), Scientific Research Society of North America (Sigma Xi), Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (president Atlanta chapter, president, past member board directors of the AUVSI international organization), and Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Personality

Prof. Robert Michelson is related to Christian Michelsen, the first Prime Minister of Norway.

Interests

• Avocations: marine aquaria, scuba diving, experimental aircraft.

Connections

Married Denise Dodson, December 1973. Children: Christian, Stuart.

Father:

Carroll Edward Michelson

Mother:

Evelyn Othea Michelson

Spouse:

Denise Dodson

child:

Stuart Michelson

child:

Christian Michelson

References

• Robert C. Michelson Full Biographical Sketch (with references) Also see Wikipedia summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Michelson