James S. Albus - Biography

Biography

Born in Louisville Ky., Albus received the B.S. degree in physics from Wheaton College, Illinois, in 1957 and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University, Columbus, in 1958. In 1972 he received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

From 1957 to 1973 Albus worked at NASA starting in 1957 as Physicist-Engineer on Project Vanguard at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC. From 1958 to 1969 he was Physicist-Engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and from 1963 Acting Head of the Video Techniques Section. From 1969 to March 1973 he was head of the Cybernetics and Subsystems Development Section. In the 1960s he was associated with the early Vanguard satellite program and responsible for the optical aspect sensors on seven Goddard satellites, more than ten sounding rockets, and over 15 NASA spacecraft.

From 1973 to 2008 Albus worked at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) which changed its name in 1980 to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). March 1973 to June 1980 he was Project Manager for Sensors and Computer Control Technology, NBS where he developed the Cerebellar Model Arithmetic Computer (CMAC) neural net model. From June 1980 to January 1981 he was leader of the Programmable Automation Group at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and developed the RCS reference model architecture for the Automated Manufacturing Research Facility. From 1981 to 1996 he was chief of the Robot Systems Division at NIST. Here he founded the Robot Systems Division, hired staff, acquired funding, developed the RoboCrane, and many applications of the RCS architecture for DARPA, NASA, ARL, U.S. Bureau of Mines, Ford, and General Motors. From 1995 to 1998 as Chief, Intelligent Systems Division, NIST he managed a Division of 35 professional scientists and engineers with an $8+ million per year budget. Developed the 4D/RCS architecture for the Army Research Lab (ARL) Demo III Experimental Unmanned Vehicle program. From 1998 to 2008 he was Senior NIST Fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Provided technical leadership to the Intelligent Systems Division and served as Principal Investigator for the implementation of intelligent ground vehicle projects funded by the Army and DARPA.

From June 2008 to 2009 he was Senior Fellow, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Provide technical leadership for programs that advance understanding of the computational and representational mechanisms of the human brain. From 2008 to 2011 he worked part-time at Robotic Technology Incorporated (RTI) and Robotic Research, LLC.

He was a member of the editorial board of the Wiley Series on Intelligent Systems serves on the editorial boards of six journals related to intelligent systems and robotics; "Autonomous Robots", "Robotics and Autonomous Systems", "Journal of Robotic Systems", "Intelligent Automation" and "Soft Computing".

In 1962 he received the highest NASA cash award granted to that time for the invention of the Digital Solar Aspect Sensor. In 1984 he was winner of the Joseph F. Engelberger Award for robotics technology. He received numerous other awards for his work in control theory including the NIST Applied Research Award, the Department of Commerce Gold and Silver Medals, the Industrial Research IR-100 award, the Presidential Rank Meritorious Executive, the Jacob Rabinow award, and the Japan Industrial Robot Association R&D Award.