Amit K. Sanyal

Associate Professor

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

216 Link Hall

aksanyal@syr.edu

315.443.0466

Personal Website

Degrees:

  • Ph.D. (Aerospace Engineering, U of Michigan)
  • MS (Mathematics, U of Michigan)
  • MS (Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M)
  • B. Tech. (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur)

Lab/Center Affiliation:

  • Autonomous Unmanned Systems Laboratory (AUSL) at the Syracuse Center of Excellence

Areas of Expertise:

  • Geometric mechanics and its applications to robotics and control 
  • Geometric control of nonlinear systems 
  • Geometric observer design for nonlinear systems 
  • Guidance, navigation and control of aerospace vehicles 
  • Dynamics and control of autonomous vehicles 

Current Research:

My research develops technologies that increase the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles and robots working alongside humans. As the roles and uses of robots and autonomous vehicles are growing and expected to grow over the next several years, we need to ensure that they are safe and reliable when deployed for tasks benefitting human society. This is accomplished through design of nonlinearly stable and robust onboard guidance, navigation and control schemes that can be implemented onboard resource-constrained robotic platforms, using commercially available sensors and onboard processors. Research investigations undertaken in my lab include: (1) motion and relative motion estimation of autonomous unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, (2) data-enabled robust and stable control of single and multiple autonomous unmanned vehicles, and (3) spacecraft guidance, navigation and control for Earth-orbiting and deep space missions. 

Courses Taught:

Courses taught at NMSU from fall 2013 till spring 2015 are:

  • AE 362 (Orbital Mechanics)
  • ME 452 (Control System Design)
  • AE 561/ME 405 (Spacecraft Dynamics and Control)
  • AE/ME 527 (Control of Mechanical Systems)
  • AE/ME 529 (Nonlinear and Optimal Control)
  • ME 580 (Numerical Analysis II)

Courses taught at Syracuse University from fall 2015 are:

  • AEE 577 (Introduction to Space Flight)
  • MEE 725 (Advanced Engineering Dynamics)
  • MAE 312 (Engineering Analysis)
  • MAE 675 (Methods of Analysis)
  • MAE 728 (Geometric and Optimal Control)
  • AEE 630 (Spacecraft Dynamics and Control)
  • MAE 628 (Linear Systems)

Honors and Awards: 

  • 2001 Distinguished Graduate Student Masters Research Award, Texas A & M University.  
  • 2002 College of Engineering Fellowship, University of Michigan. 
  • 2003 Engineering Academic Scholar Certificate, College of Engineering, University of Michigan. 
  • 2012 Summer Faculty Fellow, Air Force Research Laboratory. 
  • 2015 Senior Member, AIAA and IEEE. 
  • 2021 Associate Fellow, AIAA. 
  • 2024 Visiting Faculty Research Fellow, Air Force Research Laboratory. 

Recent Research Awards:

  • CPS: Small: NSF-DST: Autonomous Operations of Multi-UAV Uncrewed Aerial Systems using Onboard Sensing to Monitor and Track Natural Disaster Events, NSF, 3/1/2024 to 2/28/2027, PI, $453,372.
  • Collaborative Research: NRI: Integration of Autonomous UAS in Wildland Fire Management, NSF (with Ohio State), 1/1/2022 to 12/31/2025, PI at Syracuse University, $536,983.
  • A Platform-Independent Flight Management Unit for Small UAS, Akrobotix LLC (flow through from NSF SBIR Phase 1), 2/1/2020 to 04/30/2021, PI, $31,981.
  • Reliable Perception and Control for UAV Navigation in 3D Space, Semiconductor Research Corporation, 2/1/2019 to 1/31/2022, Co-PI, $299,638.
  • Enabling Multimodal Sensing, Real-time Onboard Detection and Adaptive Control for Fully Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems, NSF Cyber-Physical Systems, 8/15/2017 to 8/14/2020, Co-PI, $600,000.

Selected Publications:

  1. N. Wang, R. Hamrah, A. K. Sanyal and M. Glauser, “Geometric Extended State Observer on TSE(3) with Fast Finite-Time Stability: Theory and Validation on a Rotorcraft Aerial Vehicle,” under revision for Aerospace Engineering Science and Technology.  
  2. N. Wang, R. Hamrah and A. K. Sanyal, “Robust and H¨older-continuous finite-time stabilization of rigid body attitude dynamics using rotation matrices,” American Control Conference, Toronto, Canada, July 2024.  
  3. A. Dongare, R. Hamrah, and A. K. Sanyal, “Finite-time Stable Pose Estimation on SE(3) using Onboard Optical Sensors,” AIAA SCITECH 2024 Forum, Orlando, FL, Jan 2024.  
  4. M. Bhatt, A. Sanyal, and S. Sukumar, “Asymptotically Stable Optimal Multi-rate Rigid Body Attitude Estimation based on Lagrange-d’Alembert Principle,” Journal of Geometric Mechanics, vol. 15(1), pp. 73-97, 2023.  
  5. H. Eslamiat, N. Wang, R. Hamrah, and A. K. Sanyal, “Geometric Integral Attitude Control on SO(3),” Electronics, vol. 11(18), pn. 2821, 2022.  
  6. P. Cruz, P. Batista, and A. Sanyal, “Design and analysis of attitude observers based on the Lagrange-d’Alembert principle applied to constrained three-vehicle formations,” Advances in Space Research, vol. 69 (11), pp. 4001-4012, 2022.  
  7. M. Bhatt, S. Sukumar, and A. K. Sanyal, “Discrete-Time Rigid Body Pose Estimation Based on Lagrange–d’Alembert Principle,” Journal of Nonlinear Science, vol. 32, pn. 86, 2022.  
  8. A. K. Sanyal, “Data-Driven Discrete-time Control with H¨older-Continuous Real-time Learning,” International Journal of Control, vol. 95(8), pp. 2175-2187, 2022, doi: 10.1080/00207179.2021.1901993; arXiv version available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.05288.  
  9. R. Hamrah and A. K. Sanyal, “Finite-time stable tracking control for an underactuated system in SE(3) in discrete time,” International Journal of Control, vol. 95 (4), pp. 1106-1121, 2022, doi: 10.1080/00207179.2020.1841299.  
  10. R. Hamrah, R. R. Warier, and A. K. Sanyal, “Finite-time stable estimator for attitude motion in the presence of bias in angular velocity measurements,” Automatica, vol. 132(10), 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.automatica.2021.109815.  
  11. X. Li, R. R. Warier, A. K. Sanyal, and D. Qiao, “Trajectory Tracking Near Small Bodies Using Only Attitude Control and Orbit-Attitude Coupling,” AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, vol. 42(1), 2019, doi: 10.2514/1.G003653.  
  12. S. P. Viswanathan and A. K. Sanyal, “Adaptive Singularity-Free Control Moment Gyroscopes,” AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, vol. 41(11), 2018, doi: 10.2514/1.G003545.  
  13. S. P. Viswanathan, A. K. Sanyal and E. Samiei, “Integrated Guidance and Feedback Control of Underactuated Robotics System in SE(3),” Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 89, pp. 251-263, 2018, doi: 10.1007/s10846-017-0547-0.  
  14. A. K. Sanyal and M. Izadi, “Stable Estimation of Rigid Body Motion Based on the Lagrange-d’Alembert Principle,” in Multisensor Attitude Estimation: Fundamental Concepts and Applications, pp. 57-76, 2016, ed.: H. Fourati, CRC Press (Taylor and Francis), FL.  
  15. M. Izadi and A. K. Sanyal, “Rigid Body Pose Estimation based on the Lagrange-d’Alembert Principle,” Automatica, vol. 71(9), pp. 78-88, 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.automatica.2016.04.028. 
  16. S. P. Viswanathan, A. K. Sanyal, F. Leve and N. H. McClamroch, “Dynamics and Control of Spacecraft with a Generalized Model of Variable Speed Control Moment Gyroscopes,” ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, vol. 137(7), paper 071003, 2015, doi: 10.1115/1.4029626.  
  17. A. K. Sanyal and J. Bohn, “Finite Time Stabilization of Simple Mechanical Systems using Continuous Feedback,” International Journal of Control, vol. 88(4), pp. 783-791, 2015.  
  18. D. Lee, A. Sanyal, E. Butcher and D. Scheeres, “Almost Global Asymptotic Tracking Control for Spacecraft Body-Fixed Hovering near an Asteroid,” Aerospace Science and Technology, vol. 38, pp. 105-115, 2014.  
  19. M. Izadi and A. K. Sanyal, “Rigid Body Attitude Estimation Based on the Lagrange-d’Alembert Principle,” Automatica, vol. 50(10), pp. 2570-2577, 2014.  
  20. A. K. Sanyal and A. Goswami, “Dynamics and Balance Control of the Reaction Mass Pendulum (RMP): A 3D Multibody Pendulum with Variable Body Inertia,” ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, vol. 136(2), paper 021002, 2014.  
  21. A. K. Sanyal and N. Nordkvist, “Attitude State Estimation with Multi-Rate Measurements for Almost Global Attitude Feedback Tracking,” AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, vol. 35(3), pp. 868-880, 2012.  
  22. A. M. Bloch, P. E. Crouch, N. Nordkvist and A. K. Sanyal, “Embedded geodesic problems and optimal control for matrix Lie groups,” Journal of Geometric Mechanics, vol. 3(2), pp. 197-223, 2011.  
  23. N. A. Chaturvedi, A. K. Sanyal, and N. H. McClamroch, “Rigid Body Attitude Control: Using rotation matrices for continuous, singularity-free control laws,” IEEE Control Systems Magazine, vol. 31(3), pp. 30-51, 2011.  
  24. A. K. Sanyal, N. Nordkvist and M. Chyba, “An Almost Global Tracking Control Scheme for Maneuverable Autonomous Vehicles and its Discretization,” IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 56(2), pp. 457-462, 2011.  
  25. A. K. Sanyal, A. M. Bloch, P. E. Crouch, and J. E. Marsden, “Optimal Control and Geodesics on Quadratic Matrix Lie Groups,” Foundations of Computational Mathematics, vol 8(4), pp. 469-500, 2008. 
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