Ranjan Mukherjee, professor of mechanical engineering, is an expert in robotics

and control. He has made significant theoretical and experimental contributions to

the design of a broad range of systems including space and mobile robotic systems,

medical telerobotic systems for surgery and diagnosis, nonholonomic systems, rotor

systems with magnetic bearings, and flexible structures. His research captures the

imagination of experts and novices alike by producing elegant, modern solutions to

classical engineering problems.

Dr. Mukherjee has a long track record of producing seminal results at early stages

of research that serve as a foundation for future generations of researchers. For

example, his early work in the 1990s using Stokes theorem for motion planning in

space robots is a basis for recent work at Carnegie Mellon in the development of

generic algorithms for producing kinematic, dynamic, and kinodynamic gaits in

robots. As a result, decades of research dealing with motion planning ranging from

snake-boards to mobile robots have been united.

His solution of the stabilization problem of the rolling sphere led to the design of a

unique spherical robot platform that attracted world-wide attention in the popular

press. His designs of haptic devices for remote medical diagnostics led the field and

have also been covered widely in the scientific and popular press.

Because of his accomplishments and his excellent reputation among his peers as an

outstanding researcher, Dr. Mukherjee is actively pursued for participation in many

international collaborative and multidisciplinary efforts. He has been elected to

provide leadership to his profession, taking up various important positions such as

journal associate editor and conference program co-chair. One colleague says, “I have

interacted with Ranjan through some of these activities and have found him to be

a responsible, energetic, and fair individual with good people skills. Through these

professional activities, Ranjan has utilized his technical ability and vision to help

shape the future direction of the field, and by doing so, he has further broadened his

contribution to the discipline of mechanical engineering.”

Dr. Mukherjee, who joined MSU in 1996, is a caring mentor to many graduate

students whose careers have been inspired by his work. In addition to college

students, Professor Mukherjee often mentors high school students, sponsoring their

work in his robotics lab. Since 2004, he has participated in MSU’s High School

Honors Science Program. Several of these high school students have later joined

MSU as freshmen.

He has been awarded several U.S. patents—evidence of the novelty of his work.

He was recently named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

based on his distinguished scholarship in the fields of robotics and control and is a

recent recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue robotics research in Japan. The

National Science Foundation has also supported his efforts to carry out collaborative

research on humanoid robotics with researchers in Japan. He is well placed to

continue his pioneering work in robotics, in particular, in areas like surgical

robotics, where there is considerable interest from agencies like NIH.