In memoriam Antal K. Bejczy

Professor Dr. Antal K. Bejczy the Hungarian-born scientist, received his master´s and doctorate in applied physics in 1963 at the University of Oslo in Norway. After teaching, he began working at the California Institute of Technology in 1966. From 1969 he was working for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where he developed the first dynamic model of robotic manipulators based on the Lagrangian formulation. In the field of teleoperation he developed, and sponsored through NASA Telerobotics program, a number of prototypes aimed at achieving full Telepresence in space as well as undersea. He pioneered the development of innovative robot components such as smart hands with smart sensors and a novel telerobotic system using a general-purpose force-reflecting hand controller for remote robot arm control, which contributed to the birth of haptic research. Professor Bejczy was awarded 43 NASA innovation awards, 7 US patents, published more than 160 technical papers, and 11 book chapters. He was president of the IEEE Council on Robotics and Automation in 1987. He received several IEEE awards, including the Pioneer in Robotics and Automation (2004), the Distinguished Service (2007), and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award (2009) awards, and many NASA awards, including the Exceptional Service Medal and Group Achievement Award (1994). He retired as IEEE Life Fellow and senior research scientist at JPL. The Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotics was inaugurated at the Óbuda University in 2013, Budapest.