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renato@utexas.edu
Office Location: ASE 3.210
Renato Zanetti
Associate Professor
Cockrell Family Fellowship #4
Department Research Areas:
Controls, Autonomy and Robotics
Orbital Mechanics
Education:
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
Research Interests:
- State estimation of highly nonlinear and non-Gaussian dynamic systems, with applications in orbit determination, space situational awareness, and chaotic systems
- Autonomous spacecraft navigation, including terrain-relative navigation, hazard-relative navigation, and optical navigation
- Astrodynamics: spacecraft rendezvous, attitude dynamics, determination and control (ADCS), guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C), and orbital uncertainty quantification
Renato Zanetti specializes in the estimation of complex dynamical systems and autonomous onboard navigation. He began his career at C.S. Draper Laboratory and later worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he contributed to the design and flight of advanced space navigation systems. In 2017, he joined the University of Texas faculty, and after several years in academia, he continued his industry involvement at Blue Origin, where he supported the development of autonomous spacecraft navigation systems.
Zanetti’s current research focuses on onboard navigation, estimation for nonlinear and non-Gaussian systems, and autonomous spacecraft GN&C. He is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society (AAS), an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He previously chaired both the AIAA Astrodynamics Technical Committee and the AAS Space-Flight Mechanics Technical Committee.
His contributions have been recognized through multiple awards, including the 2015 NASA Software of the Year Award for the Orion EFT-1 GN&C flight software, a NASA Technical Excellence Award (2012), several NASA Group Achievement Awards, and two NASA On-the-Spot Awards.
