A distinguished USC robotics expert passed the editorship baton this summer of one robotics’ most distinguished international journals to another USC Viterbi School faculty member.

On July 1, Gaurav Sukhatme, professor of computer science, took over as editor-in-chief of “Autonomous Robots,” a highly-regarded Springer journal that focuses on the theory and practice of autonomous robots operating in unstructured environments.

Sukhatme assumed the helm from George Bekey, professor emeritus who is a University Professor and who has received USC’s highest honor, the Presidential Medallion.  Bekey founded the robotics research and teaching program at USC and was one of the founders of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

Sukhatme has been a USC faculty member since 1998 and is currently the director of the USC Robotic Embedded Systems Laboratory  and co-director of the Robotics Research Laboratory.