M. Faragalli

McGill University, Shared Services Canada

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Michele Faragalli’s research lies at the intersection of planetary robotics, autonomous mobility, and onboard science autonomy, with a focus on enabling rovers to operate more intelligently in extreme extraterrestrial environments. His most influential work, “Wheeled robot with movable center of mass for traversing over rough terrain” (22 citations), introduced a novel design that shifts a rover’s center of mass to improve stability and traction on uneven planetary surfaces—a key challenge for missions on the Moon and Mars. This concept of “online” terrain adaptation has informed subsequent rover mobility systems. Faragalli also contributed to hybrid locomotion with the Platform for Ambulating Wheels (PAW), a quadrupedal wheeled-legged robot capable of bounding, galloping, and rolling at high speeds, as detailed in his 2008 paper on velocity control. More recently, he has advanced deep-learning-based terrain classification and novelty detection for lunar missions, developing the Autonomous Soil Assessment System (ASAS) to enable rovers to autonomously characterize rocks, anomalies, and terrains. This work, published in 2020, represents a significant step toward reducing reliance on ground control and increasing science return during time-critical planetary exploration.