Nils Nilsson joined the recently formed Learning Machines Group of the SRI Applied Physics Lab under Charlie Rosen in August 1961. This group was then engaged in pioneering R&D in the field of perceptrons—the forerunner of present-day parallel-processing neural networks that can be programmed to "learn by example," aimed at simulating biological learning processes. Nils soon established himself as a major contributor and theoretician of the group and shortly became the head of the Learning Machine Group. His first book, Learning Machines, published by John Wiley in 1965, established him as a major authority in this field and served as a first text for graduate students at leading universities.
In 1965, Nils, together with Milt Adams and Charles Rosen, submitted a comprehensive proposal to DARPA, which funded a multiyear program in Artificial Intelligence, leading to the development of a computer-controlled mobile robot, Shakey. This platform served as a test-bed for applied research in Machine Vision, pattern recognition, natural language understanding, problem-solving, planning, navigation, and obstacle avoidance—all major topics in AI. Nils was the project leader of this major program, which attained world-wide notice and acclaim. This work sparked the initiation of similar programs in many leading universities and industrial labs and produced important theoretical and empirical results and computer programs that are still in use today.
Nils's early seminal contributions to learning machine theory, his leadership and technical contributions to the Shakey robot program, and his directorship of the SRI Artificial Intelligence Center were major factors in establishing SRI as an internationally recognized center of research in AI—a reputation that persists to this day.
After many years of outstanding leadership at SRI, Nils was recruited by Stanford University and became Chairman of the Department of Computer Sciences. Nils has just completed a major new book on artificial intelligence and is now Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, at Stanford University. He left behind a vigorous and thriving AI Center at SRI.