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About

Tyler Stephans is a researcher at the intersection of construction automation and space robotics, whose work bridges terrestrial infrastructure challenges with extraterrestrial exploration. His primary research areas include automated construction progress monitoring, material selection for dynamic environments, and hazard detection systems for planetary landers. Stephans made a significant contribution to construction informatics by developing an automated material selection framework that leverages real-time construction progress data, enabling adaptive resource allocation and reducing waste on active job sites. This work, published in the 2022 ISARC proceedings, has garnered 6 citations and laid groundwork for integrating machine perception into construction logistics. In the aerospace domain, Stephans contributed to the development and flight testing of a hazard detection LiDAR system for robotic lunar landers, a critical technology for safe autonomous landing on the Moon. The 2025 study, resulting from field tests in Mojave Desert and lunar analog sites, demonstrated the sensor’s ability to identify terrain hazards in real time, advancing NASA’s precision landing capabilities. Co-authored with colleagues from Penn State and Astrobotic, this work reflects Stephans’ unique ability to apply robotic sensing across vastly different scales—from building sites to the lunar surface.