Miomir Vukobratović


Miomir Vukobratović was a Serbian mechanical engineer and pioneer in humanoid robots. His major interest were in the development of efficient modeling and control of robot dynamics. He was born in Botoš, near Zrenjanin, Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Education

Vukobratović received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Belgrade in 1957 and 1964, respectively, and the D.Sc. degree from the Institute Mashinovedeniya, Soviet Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1972.
From 1968 he was head of the Biodynamics Department, director of the Laboratory for Robotics and Flexible Automation and director of Robotics Laboratory at the Mihailo Pupin Institute in Belgrade.

Research

Most of Vukobratović’s research work was related with robot dynamics. He contributed to manipulators’ dynamics in adaptive and non-adaptive control for contact and non-contact tasks. He also studied dynamic modeling and control in locomotion robots. In 1970 Vukobratović proposed a theoretical model to explain and control biped locomotion. The fundamental concept of his model is called the Zero Moment Point. He died in 2012 in Belgrade.

Awards and honors