Dr. Schaub's research continues in the field of electrostatic actuation of space objects, attitude kinematics, momentum based attitude control, higher level spacecraft autonomy, as well as relative motion simulation, sensing and control. His AVS Lab obtained a vacuum chamber in 2016 for charging experiments. This was expanded with the help of a DURIP grant to become the current ECLIPS chamber for charged astrodynamics research. He researches autonomous spacecraft tasking with on-board shielded neural networks, constrained attitude control, the equations of motion of complex spacecraft dynamics with flexing, slosh and unbalanced wheels, as well as flight software architectures. A strong emphasis has become the electrostatic detumbling of passible space objects, as well as autonomous attitude control and momentum management. New recent research includes using shielded deep reinforcement learning techniques to create artificial neural networks that enable autonomous spacecraft flight mode targeting. He is also heavily engaged with the development of the Basilisk astrodynamics simulation framework. He is the lead developer and manages the code repo and continuous integration servers.
keywords
astrodynamics, spacecraft formation flying, spacecraft attitude dynamics and control, nonlinear dynamics and control, relative motion sensing, electrostatic actuation in a space environment, charged vacuum and plasma chamber experiments, astrodynamics software architecture, mission analysis and support, spacecraft autonomy, spacecraft simulation architectures, on-board spacecraft neural networks.
