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renato@utexas.edu
Office Location: ASE 3.210
Renato Zanetti
Associate Professor
Department Research Areas:
Controls, Autonomy and Robotics
Orbital Mechanics
Education:
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
Research Interests:
- Model-based estimation of highly nonlinear/non-Gaussian systems (Sequential Monte Carlo Methods and Gaussian Mixture Models)
- Data-driven estimation (Statistical Learning)
- Hybrid methods (model+data; physics-aided machine learning)
- Autonomous GPS-denied onboard navigation (with particular emphases on optical navigation)
- Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (sparse optimization and filtering methods)
- Autonomous Spacecraft Rendezvous
- Orbital dynamics uncertainty propagation and orbit determination
- Guidance and path-planning of autonomous vehicles
- Sensor fusion, sensor technology, and sensor utilization planning
- Spacecraft attitude dynamics, determination, and control
Renato Zanetti specializes in estimation of complex dynamical systems and autonomous onboard navigation. He joined the UT faculty in 2017. Prior to joining UT he worked at the C.S. Draper Laboratory and at the NASA Johnson Space Center for more than nine years, where he contributed to the successful design and flight of numerous autonomous space navigation systems.
Zanetti's current research includes on-board image processing and optical navigation, estimation of non-Gaussian/non-linear systems, simultaneous localization and mapping, and autonomous spacecraft GN&C.
Zanetti is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society (AAS), an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics Astronautics (AIAA), and a Senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He is the chair of the AIAA Astrodynamics Technical Committee and a former chair of the AAS Space-Flight Mechanics Technical Committee. His work contributed to a successful EFT-1 flight and the selection of the Orion EFT-1 GN&C flight-software as the recipient of the 2015 NASA software of the year award. He also received a NASA Technical Excellence Award (2012), several NASA Group achievement awards and two NASA On The Spot Awards.
