Rajko Tomović
Rajko Tomović was a Serbian electrical engineer who worked on computers and robotics in Belgrade, and his papers dealt with artificial intelligence and biotechnology. Born in Baja in 1919, he finished his studies at the University of Belgrade in 1946 after the war interrupted them and received a doctorate in technical sciences in 1952. He worked on analogue computers at the Vinča institute, moved to the Mihajlo Pupin Institute in 1960, founded its Laboratory for Robotics in the 1960s, and became a full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in 1964. With Miodrag Rakić he created the five-fingered Belgrade Hand in 1963, and in the 1980s he worked with George Bekey at the University of Southern California on the USC Belgrade hand. He published a 1995 monograph on non-analytical methods for motor control with Dejan Popović and Richard Stein, became a full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1991, and died in Belgrade in 2001.
Timeline
-
1938–1946
Studies interrupted by war
Born in Baja in 1919, he enrolls at the Technical Faculty of the University of Belgrade in 1938. The Second World War interrupts his studies, and after his arrest as an anti-fascist fighter he escapes and joins the partisans. He finishes his degree with honours in 1946.
-
1950–1960
Analog computers at Vinča
He works on analogue computer technology, first at the Ministry of Energy and then at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Vinča, and receives his doctorate in technical sciences from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1952. He is one of the main participants in building CER 10, the first Yugoslav digital computer, which is completed in 1960.
-
1960–1964
A robotics laboratory in Belgrade
He moves to the Mihajlo Pupin Institute in 1960 to pursue research in anthropomorphic robotics, and in the 1960s he founds its Laboratory for Robotics, one of the first in Europe. In 1962 he joins the Department of Automatic Control at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, where he is a full professor from 1964.
-
1963
The Belgrade Hand
In 1963 he and Miodrag Rakić create the Belgrade Hand at the Mihajlo Pupin Institute, a five-fingered prosthetic hand with myoelectric control and touch sensors. The hand feeds later robotics research that influences the development of robotic arms worldwide, and a model stands in the Museum of Science and Technology in Belgrade.
-
1972
A walking exoskeleton
In Belgrade in 1972 he makes an exoskeleton, a machine designed for people with a walking disability. It is now in the Museum of Robotics in Moscow.
-
1980s
The USC Belgrade hand
In the 1980s he works closely with roboticist George Bekey at the University of Southern California to improve the hand. Bekey's team adds sensors, motors and control systems and greatly improves the device's reliability, and the Bekey-Tomović version has an adaptable structure that lets it grasp and hold random objects.
-
1995
A motor-control monograph
In 1995 he publishes Non-analytical Methods for Motor Control with Dejan Popović and Richard Stein, the first monograph in the world on the subject. His papers deal with multidisciplinary research on artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
-
1981–2001
Member of two academies
He becomes a full member of the Vojvodina Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1981 and of the Department of Technical Sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1991. He dies in Belgrade in 2001.
Career
- 1964–2006University of BelgradeFull Professor
- Until 1960Institute for Nuclear Research in Vinča
- 1960–1964Mihajlo Pupin InstituteFounder
Education
- 1952Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsDoctorate in technical sciences
- 1946University of Belgrade
Most-cited works
Colleagues
Sources and credits
Photo: We have no published photo of Rajko Tomović yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.