Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Robotics Technologist at California Institute of Technology

The potential threat of asteroid impacts on Earth has prompted significant research into methods for asteroid deflection such as kinetic impactor, gravity tractor, nuclear options and ion beam deflection (iBeam). Among these methods, iBeam is a promising technique as it can achieve significant deflection without the risk of unintended asteroid disr...

Modeling thermal states for complex space missions, such as the surface exploration of airless bodies, requires high computation, whether used in ground-based analysis for spacecraft design or during onboard reasoning for autonomous operations. For example, a finite-element thermal model with hundreds of elements can take significant time to simula...

The era following the separation of CMB photons from matter, until the emergence of the first stars and galaxies, is known as the Cosmic Dark Ages. Studying the electromagnetic radiation emitted by neutral hydrogen having the 21 cm rest wavelength is the only way to explore this significant phase in the Universe’s history, offering opportunities to...

Quantum computing and quantum information science is a burgeoning engineering field at the cusp of solving challenging robotic applications. This paper introduces a hybrid (gate-based) quantum computing and classical computing architecture to solve the motion propagation problem for a robotic system. This paper presents the quantum-classical archit...

The Cosmic Dark Ages represent the period in the early evolution of the Universe, starting immediately after the decoupling of CMB photons from matter, and ending with the formation of the first stars and galaxies. The HI signal from the neutral hydrogen atoms is the only mechanism for us to understand this crucial phase in the cosmological history...

An ultra-long-wavelength radio telescope on the far side of the Moon has significant advantages compared to Earth-based and Earth-orbiting telescopes, including: 1. Enabling observations of the Universe at wavelengths longer than 10 meters (i.e., frequencies below 30 MHz), wavelengths at which critical cosmological or extrasolar planetary signature...

The discrete-time Distributed Bayesian Filtering (DBF) algorithm is presented for the problem of tracking a target dynamic model using a time-varying network of heterogeneous sensing agents. In the DBF algorithm, the sensing agents combine their normalized likelihood functions in a distributed manner using the logarithmic opinion pool and the dynam...

This paper focuses on trajectory planning for spacecraft swarms in cluttered environments, like debris fields or the asteroid belt. Our objective is to reconfigure the spacecraft swarm to a desired formation in a distributed manner while minimizing fuel and avoiding collisions among themselves and with the obstacles. In our prior work we proposed a...

This paper presents a novel guidance algorithm for spacecraft swarms in an environment cluttered with many obstacles like a debris field or the asteroid belt. The objective of this algorithm is to reconfigure the swarm to a desired formation in a distributed manner while minimizing fuel and avoiding collisions among themselves and with the obstacle...

This paper presents a distributed collision avoidance algorithm for multiple dynamic vehicles moving in arbitrary dimensions. In our algorithm, each robot continually computes its buffered Voronoi cell (BVC) and plans its path within the BVC in a receding horizon fashion. We prove that our algorithm guarantees collision avoidance for robots with si...

We present a novel method for guiding a large-scale swarm of autonomous agents into a desired formation shape in a distributed and scalable manner. Our Probabilistic Swarm Guidance using Inhomogeneous Markov Chains (PSG-IMC) algorithm adopts an Eulerian framework, where the physical space is partitioned into bins and the swarm's density distributio...

In this paper, we develop a novel algorithm for spacecraft trajectory planning in an environment cluttered with many geometrically-fixed obstacles. The Spherical Expansion and Sequential Convex Programming (SE-SCP) algorithm first uses a spherical-expansion-based sampling algorithm to explore the workspace. Once a path is found from the start posit...

NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) aims to pick up a boulder from of a large asteroid and transport it to a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon for future exploration by a manned mission. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis for one of the main control challenges in ARRM, i.e., three-axis attitude control of the ARRM spac...

We present a novel method for guiding a large-scale swarm of autonomous agents into a desired formation shape in a distributed and scalable manner. Our Probabilistic Swarm Guidance using Inhomogeneous Markov Chains (PSG–IMC) algorithm adopts an Eulerian framework, where the physical space is partitioned into bins and the swarm’s density distributio...

Small satellites are enabling multisatellite missions that were not otherwise possible because of their small size and modular nature [1]. Multiple small satellites can be flown instead of a much bigger and costlier conventional satellite for distributed sensing applications such as atmospheric sampling, distributed antennas [2], and synthetic aper...

This paper presents an attitude control strategy and a new nonlinear tracking controller for a spacecraft carrying a large object, such as an asteroid or a boulder. If the captured object is larger or comparable in size to the spacecraft and has significant modeling uncertainties, conventional nonlinear control laws that use exact feedforward cance...

Small satellites are enabling multisatellite missions that were not otherwise possible because of their small size and modular nature [1]. Multiple small satellites can be flown instead of a much bigger and costlier conventional satellite for distributed sensing applications such as atmospheric sampling, distributed antennas [2], and synthetic aper...

This paper presents an attitude control strategy and a new nonlinear tracking controller for a spacecraft carrying a large object, such as an asteroid or a boulder. If the captured object is larger or comparable in size to the spacecraft and has significant modeling uncertainties, conventional nonlinear control laws that use exact feedforward cance...

This paper presents a novel and generic distributed swarm guidance algorithm using inhomogeneous Markov chains that guarantees superior performance over existing homogeneous Markov chain based algorithms, when the feedback of the current swarm distribution is available. The probabilistic swarm guidance using inhomogeneous Markov chain (PSG–IMC) alg...

One of the main control challenges of National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) is to stabilize and control the attitude of the spacecraft-asteroid combination in the presence of large uncertainty in the physical model of a captured asteroid. We present a new robust nonlinear tracking control law that...

Small satellites, like popular nanosatellite platforms called CubeSats, are suitable for formation flying missions because of their modular nature and low cost. This paper presents a review of thirty-nine missions, using multiple small satellites, in various stages of development. These missions are categorized based on their mission type, mission...

Small satellites are suitable for formation flying missions where a large number of spacecraft serve as distributed sensors for applications like synthetic aperture radar, interferometry, etc. A survey of existing or proposed small satellite missions concludes that there is a dearth of formation flying missions using four or more spacecraft that re...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) aims to capture a Near Earth Orbit (NEO) asteroid or a piece of a large asteroid and transport it to the Earth{Moon system. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of one of the main control challenges for the first ARM mission concept, namely despinning and three...

Probabilistic swarm guidance enables autonomous agents to generate their individual trajectories independently so that the entire swarm converges to the desired distribution shape. In contrast with previous homogeneous or inhomogeneous Markov chain based approaches [1], this paper presents an optimal transport based approach which guarantees faster...

In this paper, we integrate, implement, and validate formation flying algorithms for a large number of agents using probabilistic guidance of distributed systems with inhomogeneous Markov chains and model predictive control with sequential convex programming. Using an inhomogeneous Markov chain, each agent determines its target position during each...

Probabilistic swarm guidance enables autonomous agents to generate their individual trajectories independently so that the entire swarm converges to the desired distribution shape. In contrast with previous homogeneous or inhomogeneous Markov chain based approaches [1], this paper presents an optimal transport based approach which guarantees faster...

In this paper, we integrate, implement, and validate formation flying algorithms for a large number of agents using probabilistic guidance of distributed systems with inhomogeneous Markov chains and model predictive control with sequential convex programming. Using an inhomogeneous Markov chain, each agent determines its target position during each...

Probabilistic swarm guidance involves designing a Markov chain so that each autonomous agent or robot determines its own trajectory in a statistically independent manner. The swarm converges to the desired formation and the agents repair the formation even if it is externally damaged. In this paper, we present an inhomogeneous Markov chain approach...

We present the Bayesian consensus filter (BCF) for tracking a moving target using a networked group of sensing agents and achieving consensus on the best estimate of the probability distributions of the target's states. Our BCF framework can incorporate nonlinear target dynamic models, heterogeneous nonlinear measurement models, non-Gaussian uncert...

This paper presents a formation control and synchronization method that utilizes adaptive network topologies for a class of complex dynamical networks comprised of a large number of highly-nonlinear Euler–Lagrange (EL) systems. A time-varying and switching network topology, constructed by the adaptive graph Laplacian matrix, relaxes the standard re...

Close-proximity (10–150 m) formation flying using low cost, small satellites is an emerging field. In such missions, control of satellite formations is a challenging problem and requires robust on-board control systems. This paper describes a modified approach to designing Sliding Mode Control (SMC) for satellite formation and reconfiguration missi...

Students from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) are currently in the process of building a fully functional microsatellite named 'Pratham', which is slated for launch by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in the fourth quarter of 2010. The satellite being built is a 260 mm cube and weighs nearly 10kg. This landmark project has...

Recent advances in small, low cost satellite technology has generated a renewed interest in formation flying missions. One challenging aspect of satellite formation flying missions is collision free navigation and control. In this paper, novel robust control algorithm using Sliding Mode Control is presented for a three-dimensional, high Earth orbit...