• Panagiotis Tsiotras
  • Professor

Contact Information

Office: Knight 415-3
Phone: 404.894.9526
Fax: 404.894.2760

Education

  • Dipl.Eng., Mechanical Engineering, 1986, National Technical University of Athens
  • M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 1987, Virginia Tech
  • M.S., Mathematics, 1992, Purdue University
  • Ph.D., Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1993, Purdue University

Biography

Dr. Tsiotras joined the faculty of the School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1998 as an Associate Professor. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Dr. Tsiotras was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. From 1993 to 1994 he was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Purdue University and during 1989 he was affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Center of Applied Mathematics at Virginia Tech, where he worked on trajectory optimization for aerospace vehicles. He has also held visiting appointments with  INRIA, Rocquencourt, the Laboratoire d’ Automatique de Grenoble, and the Ecole des Mines de Paris in  France. He has published over 150 journal and conference papers in the area of dynamics and control of mechanical and aerospace systems. His current research interests include analysis and control of spacecraft, real-time optimal control, and control of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. Dr. Tsiotras is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the Sigma Xi President and Visitor’s Award for Excellence in Research as well as numerous fellowships and scholarships. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Control Systems Magazine, and a past Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and of Dynamics and Control. He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, and a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Research

Autonomous systems, nonlinear and optimal control, with emphasis on the following areas:
  • Multiresolution, intelligent path planning, with application to on-board guidance for aerial, space and ground vehicles
  • Hardware-driven control specifications and algorithms
  • Spacecraft attitude dynamics and control, autonomous rendezvous and docking of satellites in orbit
  • Ground vehicle control under extreme and abnormal driving conditions

Honors and Distinctions

  • Associate Fellow of the AIAA
  • NSF Career Award
  • Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau honor societies

Selected Publications

  • Shen H. and Tsiotras, P., “Peer-to-Peer Refueling for Circular Satellite Constellations,'' AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 28, No. 6, pp. 1220--1230, 2005.
  • Tsiotras, P. and Arcak, M., "Low-Bias Control of AMB Subject to Voltage Saturation: State-Feedback and Observer Designs," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 262-273, 2005.

    Tsiotras, P. and P.-A. Bliman, "An Exact Stability Analysis Test for Single-Parameter Polynomially-Dependent Linear Systems," IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 51, No. 7, pp. 1161-1164, 2006.

    Yoon, H., and Tsiotras, P., "Spacecraft  Line-of-Sight Control Using A Single-Gimbal Variable-Speed Control Moment Gyro," AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 1295-1308, 2006.

    Chaplais, F., Tsiotras, P. and Jung, D., "Redundant Wavelet Processing on the Half-Axis with Applications to Signal Denoising with Small Delays: Theory and Experiments," International Journal on Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, Vol. 20, No. 9, pp. 447-474, 2006.