James Albus American engineer, former laboratory director at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Date of Birth: 04.05.1935 Country: USA

1. James Albus: American Engineer and Robotics Specialist
2. Early Life and Education
3. Career at NASA
4. Career at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
5. Contributions to Robotics
6. Later Career
7. Awards and Achievements

James Albus: American Engineer and Robotics Specialist

James Albus is an American engineer and former head of the National Institute of Standards and Technology laboratory. He is considered one of the leading researchers and engineers in the field of autonomous vehicles in the United States. Albus specializes in robotics and real-time systems.

Early Life and Education

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, James Albus obtained a Bachelor's degree in Physics from Whitten College in Illinois in 1957. He then went on to earn a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University in 1958. In 1972, Albus received his Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Career at NASA

From 1957 to 1973, Albus worked at NASA. He began his career in 1957 with the 'Vanguard' project at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. From 1958 to 1969, he served as a physicist-engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center, where he became the head of the video technology section in 1963. From 1969 to March 1973, Albus held the position of head of the subsystems development and cybernetics section. During the 1960s, he participated in the development of early variations of the Vanguard satellite program and was responsible for the optical position sensors on 7 Goddard satellites, over 10 geophysical rockets, and more than 15 NASA spacecraft.

Career at the National Institute of Standards and Technology

From 1973 to 2008, Albus worked at the National Bureau of Standards, which later became known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology. From March 1973 to June 1980, he served as a project manager in the computer control and sensors technology group. During this time, Albus worked on developing a neural network model for an arithmetic computer of cerebellar variation. From June 1980 to January 1981, he led the programmable automation group, where he worked on developing a reference model for the real-time control system architecture for the research group on automated manufacturing.

Contributions to Robotics

From 1981 to 1996, James Albus headed the Robotics Systems Division, which he founded. Here, he developed the 'RoboCrane' project and proposed a range of applications for the RCS architecture for organizations such as DARPA, NASA, ARL, the American Mining Bureau, Ford, and General Motors. In 1995, he became the head of the Institute's Intelligent Systems Group, leading a team of 35 scientists and engineers with a budget of 8 million dollars. Albus worked on the development of the 4D/RCS architecture for army research laboratories and their experimental unmanned transportation project. He continued to work on similar projects from 1998 to 2008, focusing on intelligent ground vehicles as the leader of the Intelligent Systems Group. His research was sponsored by the army and DARPA.

Later Career

In 2008, Albus shifted his focus to studying the human brain's structure at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. His research aimed to enhance the understanding of computational mechanisms and representation systems in the human brain. From 2008 to 2011, he also worked at Robotic Technology Incorporated and Robotic Research, LLC alongside his primary activities.

Awards and Achievements

In 1962, James Albus received the largest monetary award in NASA's history for his creation of a digital sun sensor. In 1984, he was awarded the Joseph Engelberger Robotics Award. Albus has also received numerous other awards for his contributions to control theory, such as the Japanese Industrial Robot Association Award, gold and silver medals from the Department of Commerce, and the NIST Applied Research Award.