Robert C. Michelson, born in 1951, is a renowned American engineer and academic with a remarkable career spanning multiple fields. He is best known for inventing the entomopter, a biologically inspired flapping-winged aerial robot, and for establishing the International Aerial Robotics Competition.
Michelson holds degrees in electrical engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the Georgia Institute of Technology. His professional journey began at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, where he worked on radar-based ocean surveillance systems. He later became a research faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology and directed over 30 major research programs at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
Throughout his career, Michelson has authored three U.S. patents and over 100 journal papers, book chapters, and reports. He has also developed and taught classes in avionics at the School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology until his retirement from the University System of Georgia in 2004.
Michelson has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including the 1998 Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Pioneer Award, the 2001 Pirelli Award for the diffusion of scientific culture, and the first Top Pirelli Prize.
In the 1990s, Michelson created a tax-exempt corporation to apply high-tech solutions to modern archaeology, and he has organized several archaeological expeditions into eastern Anatolia. Currently, he heads the engineering consulting company, Millennial Vision, LLC.
Since the mid-1990s, Michelson's work has focused on biologically inspired micro air vehicle design. Additionally, he is certified in various fields, including amateur radio, SCUBA diving, experimental aircraft design/mechanics, and general contracting for home building.
