Papers
27
Total Citations
1,669
H-Index
12
About
Steve Ulrich is a prominent aerospace robotics researcher at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, whose work sits at the intersection of space robotics, autonomous control systems, and spacecraft proximity operations. He is perhaps best known as a co-author of the landmark 2014 review paper "A Review of Space Robotics Technologies for On-Orbit Servicing," which has accumulated an extraordinary 1,293 citations and remains a definitive reference in the field, underscoring his central role in shaping modern understanding of in-space servicing capabilities. Ulrich's research spans a remarkably cohesive arc: from adaptive control of flexible-joint space manipulators and Extended Kalman filtering for state estimation, to model predictive control for spacecraft rendezvous and docking, and deep reinforcement learning-based guidance for robotic capture. His work consistently bridges theory and experiment, with notable contributions including pseudospectral trajectory planning validated in laboratory settings and on-orbit robotic maneuver optimization. His 2023 collaboration on fast model predictive control with obstacle avoidance demonstrates continued relevance at the frontier of autonomous spacecraft systems. For students entering the field of space robotics and autonomous systems, Ulrich's body of work offers a rigorous and experimentally grounded roadmap — from foundational estimation and control theory through to cutting-edge machine learning applications for future on-orbit servicing missions.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1A review of space robotics technologies for on-orbit servicing1,293 citations · 2014
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- 5Extended Kalman filtering for flexible joint space robot control28 citations · 2011
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- 10Direct Model Reference Adaptive Control of a Flexible Joint Robot15 citations · 2010