Robert C. Michelson (born 1951) is an American engineer and academic widely known for inventing the entomopter, a biologically inspired flapping-winged aerial robot, and for having established the International Aerial Robotics Competition. He has received degrees in electrical engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Michelson's professional career began at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory where he worked on radar-based ocean surveillance systems. He later became a member of the research faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology. At the Georgia Tech Research Institute he was involved in full-time research, directing over 30 major research programs.
He is the author of three U.S. patents and over 100 journal papers, book chapters and reports. Michelson also developed classes in avionics and taught in the School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology until his retirement from the University System of Georgia in 2004. Michelson is the recipient of the 1998 Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems, International Pioneer Award and the 2001 Pirelli Award for the diffusion of scientific culture as well as the first Top Pirelli Prize.
During the 1990s, he created a tax-exempt corporation to apply high tech solutions to modern archaeology and has organized a number of archaeological expeditions into eastern Anatolia. He now heads the engineering consulting company, Millennial Vision, LLC. Since the mid-1990s, Michelson's work has concentrated on biologically inspired micro air vehicle design. Michelson is certified in various fields including amateur radio, SCUBA diving, experimental aircraft design/mechanics, and general contracting for home building. [Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Michelson ]
