Virginia Tech® home

Erik Komendera

Assistant Professor
Erik Komendera
413A Goodwin Hall (0238)
635 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Research Interests

  • Autonomous assembly and construction
  • Space robotics
  • Field robotics
  • Perception
  • Mapping and state estimation for precise and accurate robotic operations in large workspaces
  • Multi-agent motion planning and control
  • Collaborative manipulation
  • Machine learning for detection, classification, and correction of off-nominal events in field robotics applications
Loading player for https://video.vt.edu/id/1_gltlcfsk...

See Dr. Komendera's publications and research on Google Scholar.

  • 2018–Present, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech
  • 2014–2018, Research Aerospace Engineer, NASA Langley Research Center
  • 2011–2014, NASA Space Technology Research Fellow, Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • 2010–2011, Research Assistant, Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder 
  • 2007–2010, Engineer, FAAC Incorporated, Ann Arbor, Michigan
  • 2018 – NASA Early Career Achievement Medal
  • 2017 – Center Achievement Award, NASA Langley Research Center
  • 2014 – First NASA Space Technology Research Fellow to earn Ph.D.
  • 2014 – Outstanding Research Award, Computer Science, University of Colorado
  • 2012 – Harvard Visiting Fellow
  • 2012 – Second place, Mobile Manipulation Challenge, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics Automation
  • 2011-2014 – NASA Space Technology Research Fellow
  • 2011 – Ford Foundation Predoctoral Research Fellow
  • 2003-2007 – Ralph E. and Victoria L. Reins Full Tuition Scholarship
  • 2003-2007 – University of Michigan Engineering Dean’s List, seven times
  • 2006 – Edward A. Stalker Aerospace Research Fellow
  • Ph.D. - Computer Science, University of Colorado, 2014
  • M.S., Computer Science, University of Colorado, 2012
  • B.S.E., Aerospace Engineering, Uiversity of Michigan, 2007