Rajko Tomović

Tomović authored more than 150 scientific papers; most of those in peer-reviewed journals. He was and is frequently cited, and some of his works opened important technical developments. Together with Dr. Dejan B. Popović and Richard B. Stein, he published the first monograph in the world about non-analytical methods for motor control in 1995. He wrote many invited encyclopedia chapters and authored other books dealing with robotics, biomedical engineering, and automation.

Tomović supervised many masters and doctoral students. The students of Rajko Tomović became world renowned experts in their fields. In 1984, Dr. Norman Kaplan, Director of the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., gave an interesting, very valid depiction of Rajko Tomović's personality, stating that he was a renaissance scientist.

He authored the first monograph dealing with sensitivity theory of dynamical systems together with Dr. Miomir Vukobratović. Tomović was the author of the textbook Nonlinear Systems (1983) with Prof. Srdjan Stanković and the book Limitations of the Formal System Theory (1979) with Walter J. Karplus.

One his best-known results was the multifunctional hand prosthesis, developed in collaboration with Prof. Miodrag Rakić that is now exhibited in the Museum of Robotics in Boston. In the 1980s, together with colleagues from the Universities of Novi Sad and Belgrade, Tomović promoted the Belgrade NSC robotic hand, which was at the time one of the most powerful robotic grasping devices. In the early eighties, Tomović was leading a project for Veterans Administration Center, New York City, that resulted in the only powered and externally controlled self-contained transfemoral prosthesis that reached the world market. It was a type of artificial leg. Tomović participated in and contributed to many designs and development projects including the first analog and digital computers for the Yugoslav army and defense systems. As a world-recognized expert and leader in the field, Tomović was frequently invited to teach and consult in other ways at various universities, international meetings, specialized workshop, and major funding agencies.

In 1960 he moved to the Institute "Mihajlo Pupin" to pursue research in the field of anthropomorphic robotics and water engineering. In 1962, Rajko Tomović joined the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade at the Department for Automatic Control. While at the University, Tomović started programs in robotics, information technologies in medicine, bio-medical engineering, rehabilitation engineering, artificial organs, and many other important disciplines that are reaching maturity today. The first artificial hand with five fingers in the world was made in 1963 in Belgrade by academician Tomović and his associates. These so-called "Belgrade hands" are now in the Museum of Robotics in Boston. In Belgrade, 1972, Tomović an exoskeleton which was the first machine designed for walking disability. This machine is now in the Museum of Robotics in Moscow. Tomović was also assisted by Miomir Vukobratović and his team. Tomović retired from official duties at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, yet he never stopped being engaged in various projects, or student supervision, at both the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and in the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia (SANU) where he developed new initiatives, and continued to educate young researchers.

Rajko Tomović spent time in the U.S. contributing greatly to the development of new views and methods in robotics, biomedical engineering, and computer sciences. During this period he built a lifelong cooperation with scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and many other research institutions. His contacts and communication spread over Canada, the U.S., the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and many other countries. He was a chief of project CER-10, the first Yugoslav digital computer from 1960.

During the period 1955 to 1990 he worked on several pioneering scientific and technological developments. Many of these activities received global attention. His book about High-speed Analog Computers (with Walter J. Karplus) published in 1962 introduced the concept of electronic device systems for a repetitive (analog) computer facility. It was published in French, English, and Russian.

In 1950, Tomović started scientific work in the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences. His main interests during the "Vinča period" were analog computers, and he greatly contributed to first analog, digital and hybrid computers ever built in Vinča.

World War II dramatically changed his life, but he persisted in studies and graduated in 1946 with excellence. After graduation he started his highly productive career, characterised by scientific and cultural collaboration. With his extraordinary language skills, and excellent overall education, he communicated at the highest scientific level with colleagues from the Soviet Union, European countries, and North America. In 1952, Tomović received a doctorate in Technical Sciences from the Academy of Sciences of Serbia.

Rajko Tomović (1919–2001) was a Serbian and Yugoslav scientist, who developed research programs in robotics, medical information technology, biomedical engineering, rehabilitation engineering, artificial organs, and other disciplines. He is officially credited for creation of the first artificial hand with five fingers in 1963 in Belgrade. He was a member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU).

Rajko Tomović was born in Baja, Hungary, in 1919. In 1938, he commenced his undergraduate education at the Department for Electro-Mechanical Engineering of the Technical University of Belgrade in 1938.