Papers
24
Total Citations
551
H-Index
11
About
Marcello Romano is a prominent aerospace engineer whose research spans spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control, with particular emphasis on autonomous proximity operations, space robotics, and orbital debris removal. Based at the Naval Postgraduate School's Spacecraft Research and Design Center, Romano has made significant contributions to the field of on-orbit servicing and multi-spacecraft systems. Romano's most impactful work includes the development of LQR/APF-based guidance algorithms for autonomous spacecraft proximity maneuvers, which has garnered 87 citations, and pioneering convex-programming-based approaches for capturing tumbling resident space objects using robotic manipulators — a critical challenge in active debris removal. His laboratory experiments demonstrating real-world capture of tumbling objects have further validated these theoretical advances, accumulating over 60 citations. A recurring theme throughout his career is the translation of theory into hardware experimentation, including flexible manipulator control, automatic mass balancing of spacecraft simulators, and computer-vision-driven autonomous docking. His work on simultaneous capture and detumbling represents a particularly forward-looking contribution to space sustainability. With numerous heavily cited publications spanning two decades, Romano's research continues to shape how engineers approach the increasingly urgent problem of safe, autonomous operations in congested orbital environments.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 3Experiments on Command Shaping Control of a Manipulator with Flexible Links67 citations · 2002
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- 7A near-optimal guidance for cooperative docking maneuvers32 citations · 2014
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