Brandon D. NorthcuttBrandon D. Northcutt Ph.D.

Autonomous robotics · Sensory neuroscience

Brandon D.
Northcutt, Ph.D.

$ building as a Scientist

I build autonomous robots and study how brains and machines perceive the world — from perception research and hardware to founding a company. From Texas, now in New England.

View experience → Patents & papers

Brandon D. Northcutt CEO & Founder · A Priori Robotics

About

0U.S. patents granted
0Peer-reviewed publications
0Years in robotics & R&D
Ph.D.Electrical & Computer Eng.

A scientist, engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of robotics, computer vision, and the neuroscience of perception.

My work spans biologically-inspired perception, robot learning from human demonstration, and assistive autonomy — carried from doctoral research into Toyota, iRobot, and now my own company. I care about machines that perceive the world robustly and act to help people.

Autonomous roboticsComputer visionPerceptionRobot learningNeuromorphicEmbedded systems

Career

Experience

  1. CEO & FounderA Priori Robotics & Artificial Intelligence

    I worked at top robotics and autonomous vehicles companies for the ten years and during that time I saw a need for better spatial sensors. LIDAR is just too expensive for mass…

  2. Senior Principal Perception Research ScientistiRobot

    I joined iRobot in 2021 in order to develop prototypes for their future robot vacuum technologies. I worked both in the Pasadena California and Bedford Massachusetts locations. I…

  3. Research ScientistToyota Research Institute

    At Toyota Research Institute (TRI) I worked on a number of projects enabling Toyota's assistive robotics and autonomous vehicles technologies. I worked in the Los Altos,…

  4. Principal Research Scientist & Project ManagerToyota Partner Robot Group

    As part of the Toyota Partner Robot Group in San Jose, California, I worked on several projects relating to perception for autonomous mobile robots.

  5. Lead Electrical Engineer & Lead Software EngineerNeuZeo, LLC

    I was hired by my graduate advisor to develop a product prototype for his new company NeuZeo, LLC. The device was a smart sleep monitoring device intended to give the most…

Selected moments

Highlights

Toyota Magic commercialGlobal TV · 2018 Olympics

Toyota “Magic” commercial

Robotics performer for Toyota's worldwide spot during the Winter Olympics & Paralympics.

 CES 2025CES 2025 · Eureka Park

Exhibited at CES 2025

A Priori Robotics in the startup showcase at the Venetian Expo.

 Intellectual property

8+ U.S. patents

Perception, autonomy & assistive tech.

 Currently

apr.ai ↗

Building autonomous robots.

Intellectual property & research

Research

Filter and search across granted patents and peer-reviewed work.

01Object detection improvement based on autonomously selected training samplesPatentU.S. Patent 12483266B202Peering Sensors and MethodsPatentU.S. Patent Application (pending)03Autonomous rideshare rebalancingPatentU.S. Patent 12,055,93604Fall detection and assistancePatentU.S. Patent 11,919,16005Object location analysisPatentU.S. Patent 11,348,33206Systems and methods for training a vehicle to autonomously drive a routePatentU.S. Patent 11,294,38707Systems and methods for generating three dimensional skeleton representationsPatentU.S. Patent 10,607,07908System and method for providing guidance or feedback to a userPatentU.S. Patent 10,521,66909Wearable system for providing walking directionsPatentU.S. Patent 10,012,50501Deceleration assistance mitigated the trade-off between sense of agency and driving performancePublicationFrontiers in Psychology02The benefits of immersive demonstrations for teaching robotsPublicationIEEE Conference on Human-Robot Interaction03The Benefits of Teaching Robots using VR DemonstrationsPublicationACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction04An insect-inspired model for visual binding II: functional analysis and visual attentionPublicationBiological Cybernetics05An insect-inspired model for visual binding I: learning objects and their characteristicsPublicationBiological Cybernetics06Biologically Inspired Algorithms for Visual Navigation and Object Perception in Mobile RoboticsPublicationDoctoral Dissertation University of Arizona

01 Speaking

Robotics: Science and Systems
Invited speaker — “AI and Its Alternatives for Shared Autonomy in Assistive and Collaborative Robotics” workshop.
2019
Society for Neuroscience (SfN)
Presented a neural network for visual binding.
2010
Telluride Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop
Led a brain–machine interface group building an EEG-controlled autonomous ground vehicle.
2010

02 Education

Ph.D., Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Arizona — biologically-inspired algorithms for visual navigation and object perception.
2016
B.S., Electrical Engineering
University of Arizona.
2003

Let's talk

Building something
ambitious?

I'm always glad to connect on autonomous robotics, perception research, or what we're building at A Priori.

✦ Email Visit apr.ai ↗