Matthew Johnson-Roberson is an American roboticist, researcher, entrepreneur, and educator. He is the dean of Vanderbilt University’s College of Connected Computing, and previously was director of the

Robotics Institute The Robotics Institute (RI) is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. A June 2014 article in ''Robotics Business Review'' magazine calls it "the world's best robo ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

and a professor at the

University of Michigan College of Engineering The University of Michigan College of Engineering (branded as Michigan Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. History The college was founded in 1854, with co ...

, where he co-directed the UM Ford Center for Autonomous Vehicles (FCAV) with Ram Vasudevan. His research focuses on

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, with the specific applications of

autonomous underwater vehicle An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring continuous input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification tha ...

s and

self-driving car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. They are sometimes called robotaxis, though this term refers specifica ...

s. He is also the co-founder and CTO of Refraction AI, a company focused on providing autonomous last mile delivery.

Education

Johnson-Roberson received his Bachelor's degree in computer science from

in 2005 and his doctorate in robotics from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

in 2010.

Career and research

After completing his PhD, Johnson-Roberson held

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

appointments at both the Australian Centre for Field Robotics and the Centre for Autonomous Systems (CAS) at

KTH Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a Public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in Institute of technology, engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest te ...

. Following his postdoctoral positions, he joined the

in 2013 as a professor in the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering department with a joint appointment in Computer Science and Engineering. From January 2022 through April 2025 he served as the sixth director of the

. On 1 May 2025 he became the inaugural Dean of the College of Connected Computing at Vanderbilt University. Johnson-Roberson's research interests center around autonomous vehicles, including both underwater and ground vehicles. This focus leads to publications in

Computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

Control theory Control theory is a field of control engineering and applied mathematics that deals with the control system, control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the applic ...

and

Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. At Michigan, Johnson-Roberson founded th
DROP (Deep Robot Optical Perception) Lab
which conducts research to advance perception capabilities for autonomous systems operating in dynamic environments, especially in the areas of

3D reconstruction In computer vision and computer graphics, 3D reconstruction is the process of capturing the shape and appearance of real objects. This process can be accomplished either by active or passive methods. If the model is allowed to change its shape i ...

, segmentation,

data mining Data mining is the process of extracting and finding patterns in massive data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. Data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and ...

, and visualization. This research aims to enable scientists to remotely access scientific sites through abstractions and reconstructions. Johnson-Roberson also co-directs the UM Ford Center for Autonomous Vehicles (FCAV), which researches technologies for

autonomous driving Vehicular automation is using technology to assist or replace the operator of a vehicle such as a car, truck, aircraft, rocket, military vehicle, or boat. Assisted vehicles are ''semi-autonomous'', whereas vehicles that can travel without a ...

. In addition to his academic work, Johnson-Roberson also co-founded and serves as the CTO of Refraction AI, a start-up focused on providing autonomous last-mile delivery. Refraction began a pilot delivery program with their REV-1 autonomous vehicle in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

in 2020 to deliver takeout and groceries.

Awards and honors

Johnson-Roberson was a recipient of the

NSF CAREER The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through rese ...

award in 2015 for work in 3D reconstruction in underwater environments with AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles).

Selected publications

* W. Zhi, H. Tang, T. Zhang and M. Johnson-Roberson, "Unifying Representation and Calibration With 3D Foundation Models," in ''IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters'', vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 8953-8960, Oct. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2024.3451396 * J. Zhang, M. S. Ramanagopal, R. Vasudevan and M. Johnson-Roberson, "LiStereo: Generate Dense Depth Maps from LIDAR and Stereo Imagery," ''2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)'', Paris, France, 2020, pp. 7829-7836. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9196628 * M. Yu, R. Vasudevan and M. Johnson-Roberson, "Occlusion-Aware Risk Assessment for Autonomous Driving in Urban Environments," in ''IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters'', vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 2235-2241, April 2019. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2019.2900453 * M. S. Ramanagopal, C. Anderson, R. Vasudevan and M. Johnson-Roberson, "Failing to Learn: Autonomously Identifying Perception Failures for Self-Driving Cars," in ''IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters'', vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 3860-3867, Oct. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2018.2857402

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson-Roberson, Matthew American roboticists Year of birth missing (living people) University of Michigan faculty Carnegie Mellon University faculty Living people