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About

Marco Pagnamenta is a robotics engineer whose work bridges the gap between terrestrial autonomy and extraterrestrial exploration. His research centers on autonomous navigation for aerial and planetary robots, with a particular focus on robust mobility in extreme, obstacle-dense environments. Pagnamenta’s most cited work, "Contact-based navigation for an autonomous flying robot" (43 citations), challenges conventional collision-avoidance paradigms by proposing that controlled physical contact can be a viable navigation strategy for indoor flying robots, a concept that has influenced resilient drone design. At the European Space Agency (ESA), he has been instrumental in developing and evolving planetary rover testbeds, including the Heavy Duty Planetary Rover (HDPR) and advanced laboratory platforms that serve as early prototypes for validating designs for future Mars missions. His forward-looking work includes the LunarLeaper mission concept, which proposes using a small-scale legged robot to explore lunar volcanic pits and subsurface lava tubes—potential shelters for future human explorers. Through these contributions, Pagnamenta is shaping the next generation of autonomous robots capable of navigating both our planet’s most challenging indoor spaces and the rugged terrains of the Moon and Mars.