Papers
8
Total Citations
1,018
H-Index
5
About
Scott Ploen is a leading figure in spacecraft formation flying and geometric robot dynamics, whose work bridges advanced control theory with practical aerospace and robotic systems. His most influential contribution is the comprehensive 2004 survey on spacecraft formation flying control (Part II), which has garnered over 528 citations and remains a foundational reference for designing coupled-state control laws for multi-spacecraft missions. Ploen also pioneered the use of Lie groups and Riemannian geometry to unify robot dynamics, most notably in his 1995 paper introducing a coordinate-invariant formulation that led to an O(n) recursive algorithm—a work cited over 346 times for its elegance and efficiency. His 2005 algorithm for Mars pinpoint landing, which reformulated a nonconvex trajectory optimization problem into a solvable finite form, has been critical for precision descent guidance. With additional contributions to cooperating robot systems and operational space control, Ploen’s research has shaped both theoretical frameworks and mission-critical applications, from lunar relay satellites to manipulator forward dynamics. His work is essential reading for students and researchers in aerospace control, robotics, and geometric mechanics.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1A survey of spacecraft formation flying guidance and control. Part II: control528 citations · 2004
- 2A Lie Group Formulation of Robot Dynamics346 citations · 1995
- 3Coordinate-invariant algorithms for robot dynamics55 citations · 1999
- 4A Powered Descent Guidance Algorithm for Mars Pinpoint Landing55 citations · 2005
- 5A Lie group formulation of the dynamics of cooperating robot systems24 citations · 1997
- 6An O(n) geometric algorithm for manipulator forward dynamics4 citations · 2002
- 7Small Satellite Implementation of a Lunar Relay Satellite4 citations · 2007
- 8Geometric algorithms for operational space dynamics and control2 citations · 2002