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Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 82-105

Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

818.354.8402

Fax:

818.393.3254

Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Ph.D, CEng FIEE, SMIEE

Assistant Division Manager for Formulation

Biography

Dr. AshiteyTrebi-Ollennu, FIET, FRAeS, SMIEE,PMP, FGA, is the Product Delivery Manager, for the InSight Mars Mission Instrument Deployment System, Instrument Deployment System operations Team Chief and a technical group lead in the Robotic Manipulation & Sampling group at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, where he has been since 1999. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, U. K., and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, U.K. Senior Member IEEE RAS and IEEE SMC. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu is also a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current research at JPL focuses on Planetary Rovers, Manipulation, Multiple Mobile Robots (Planetary Outpost), Reconfigurable Robots and Man-machine Interaction. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu’s research has resulted in more than 95 publications.


Dr. Trebi-Ollennu received the 2008 NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal for his contributions to the Mars Exploration Rover mission, 2007 Outstanding Engineer Award from IEEE Region 6, 2007 Sir Monty Finniston Achievement Medal from Institution of Engineering and Technology, U.K., 2010 Specialist Silver Award from the Royal Aeronautical Society, U.K. and The 21st Century Trailblazer Award in Systems Engineering from the U.S.A. National Society of Black Engineers, at the 2012 NSBE Aerospace Systems Conference. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu is a recipient of over a dozen NASA Group Achievement Awards. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, U. K., and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, U.K. Senior Member IEEE RAS and IEEE SMC. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu is also a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has severed as a Guest Editor of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Magazine, Special Issue on Mars Exploration Rovers (June 2006). Dr. Trebi-Ollennu has been on PhD committees at the Robotic Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh USA. Dr Trebi-Ollennu is the founder of the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation (GRAF) that won the prestigious Google RISE Award 2013.



Media appearances: Dr. Trebi-Ollennu has appear on several BBC World Service Radio programs including, BBC World Service News, BBC Focus on Africa program, BBC U.K. Wellcome Trust Exchanges at the Frontier, BBC World Have Your Say, BBC Science Africa Festival 2013, Click on BBC World Service. In addition Dr. Trebi-Ollennu has been interviewed by several media outlets around the world including USA, Ghana, Uganda, Brunei, Malaysia, etc. Dr. Trebi-Ollennu also participated in IEEE Public Visibility as the spokesperson for Curiosity Mars Rover in 2013.

Education

Ph.D. in Control Systems Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied
Science, Royal Military College Science, Cranfield University, U.K., 1996. Thesis: Robust Non-linear Control Designs Using Adaptive Fuzzy Systems
B.Eng. in Avionics, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Queen Mary College,
University of London, 1991. Dissertation: Review of 4-D guidance techniques and the simulation of 4-D aircraft guidance.
Research Scholar, Institute for Complex Research Engineered, Carnegie Mellon University , were he helped develop a system of All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) for distributed tactical surveillance for DARPA.

Professional Experience

Multidisciplinary Engineer with a broad background and extensive hands-on experience in Space Robotics Systems, Flight Systems Integration & Test, Planetary Rover Operations, System of Systems Design, Distributed Mobile Robotics, System Architectures, Dynamic Modeling, Control Systems design for Aerospace and Mechatronics Systems and Contract Technical Management.
1. Flight Systems Engineering: Robotics Systems Engineer, Integration & Test Engineer, V&V Engineer and Mission Operations
2. Technical Management: Task and Project management
3. Technology Development: Manipulation, Sampling, Control, Autonomy and Mission Operations concept development for new missions and programs.
4. New Mission Initiatives: Provide technical support, concepts, cost estimate and reviews for new JPL mission proposals.
1999 to Present:
FIDO Rover
Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER)
Phoenix Mars Lander
Task Manager – Autonomy for unmanned Sea Surface Vehicles (sponsored by OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH)
Task Manager – Lunar Surface Operations Testbet (LSOT)
Task Manager - Planetary Surface Geophysical Exploration Testbed
Mars Science Laboratory
InSight Mission

Research Interests

Planetary Rovers
Adjustable Autonomy
Mechatronics
System of Systems
Manipulation
Planetary Rover Operations
Multiple Mobile Robots
Reconfigurable Robots
Man-machine Interaction

Flight Project and Research Task Involvement

Flight Projects
Phoenix Robotic Arm (RA)

Publications

2023
  1. Christian Krause, Khaled Ali, Elizabeth Barrett, Tilmann Denk, Cinzia Fantinati, Kathya Garcia, Matthias Grott, Troy Hudson, Sven Jansen, Judit Jänchen, Joerg Knollenberg, Oliver Kuechemann, Daniel May, Nils Mueller, Sue Smrekar, Cristina Sorice, Emily Stough, Tilman Spohn, Louise Thomas, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Jeffrey Umland, Markus Wiedemann, "HP3 - Experiment on InSight Mission Wrap-up Operations on Mars," 17th International Conference on Space Operations, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 06 May 2023.
  2. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Khaled Ali, Cristina Sorice, Won Kim, Steven Myint, Omair Khan, Philip Bailey, Hallie Abarca, Robert G. Deen, Jeng Yen, Justin N. Maki, Grace Lim, Nythi Udomkesmalee, and Jeffrey Umland, "Robotic Deployment and Installation of Payloads on Planetary Surface," Handbook of Space Resources, edited by Viorel Badescu, Kris Zacny, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Springer, pp. 721 – 762, 28 April 2023.
  3. M. Golombek, T. Hudson, P. Bailey, N. Balabanska, E. Marteau, C. Charalambous, M. Baker, M. Lemmon, B. White, R. D. Lorenz, T. Spohn, J. Maki, P. Kallemeyn, J. B. Garvin, C. Newman, K. Hurst, N. Murdoch, N. Williams, W. B. Banerdt, P. Lognonné, P. Delage, R. Lapeyre, E. Gaudin, C. Yana, N. Verdier, M. Panning, A. Trebi‐ Ollennu, K. Ali, A. Mittelholz, C. Johnson,B. Langlais, N. Warner, J. Grant, I. J. Daubar, V. Ansan, C. Vrettos, A. Spiga, D. Banfield, A. Gomez, P. Mishra, R. Dotson, C. Kraus, G. Sainton, T. Gabsi, "Results from InSight Robotic Arm Activities," 20 March 2023.
2022
  1. T. Spohn, T.L. Hudson, E. Marteau, M. Golombek, M. Grott, T. Wippermann, K.S. Ali, C. Schmelzbach, S. Kedar, K. Hurst, A. Trebi-Ollennu, V. Ansan, J. Garvin, J. Knollenberg, N. Mueller, S. Piqeux, R. Lichtenheldt, C. Krause, C. Fantinati, N. Brinkman, D. Sollberger, P. Delage, C. Vrettos, S. Reershemius, L. Wisniewski, J. Grygorczuk, J. Robertsson, P. Edme, F. Andersson, O. Kroemer, P. Lognonne, D. Giardini, S.E. Smrekar, W.B. Banerdt, "The InSight HP3 Penetrator (Mole) on Mars: Soil Properties Derived From the Penetration Attempts and Related Activities," Space Sci Rev 218, 72, 26 November 2022.
2021
  1. Christian Krause, Khaled Ali, Elizabeth Barret, Cinzia Fantinati, Matthias Grott, Troy Hudson, Pauline Hwang, Sven Jansen, Judit Jänchen, Joerg Knollenberg, Oliver Kuechemann, Daniel May, Tilmann Denk, Nils Mueller, Sue Smrekar, Cristina Sorice, Emily Stough, Tilman Spohn, Louise Thomas, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Jeffrey Umland, Markus Wiedemann, "HP3 - Experiment on InSight Mission - Operation on Mars," SpaceOps 2021 Conference Virtual, 04 May 2021.
  2. Sorice, C., Ali, K., Trebi-Ollennu, A., Mishra, P., Lim, G., Bailey, P., Hudson, T. L., Marteau, E., Kim, J., "InSight Robotic Arm Testing Activities for HP3 Mole Anomaly Recovery on Mars," IEEE Aerospace Conference, 06 March 2021.
2020
  1. Joel Krajewski, Kevin Burke, Chris Lewicki, Daniel Limonadi, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, and Chris Voorhees, "MER: From Landing to Six Wheels on Mars...Twice," 2005 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, October 10-12, 2005, Waikoloa Hilton Village, The Big Island, Hawaii, USA, 17 September 2020.
  2. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Hari Das Nayar, Antony Ganino, Terry Huntsberger, and Paul Schenker, "Robot Work Crew as Construction Precursors for a Manned Mans Habitat," Proceedings of Robosphere 2002 Workshop, Self sustaining Robotic Ecologies, NASA Ames Research Center, Nov. 14 '15 2002, 2002, 17 September 2020.
2005
  1. Tunstel, Maimone, Trebi-Ollennu, Yen, Petras, and Willson, "Mars Exploration Rover Mobility and Robotic Arm Operational Performance," October 2005 IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics conference proceedings, Hawaii, USA., 10 October 2005.
  2. P. Chris Leger, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, John R. Wright, Scott A. Maxwell, Robert G. Bonitz, Jeffrey J. Biesiadecki, Frank R. Hartman, Brian K. Cooper, Eric T. Baumgartner, and Mark W. Maimone, "Mars Exploration Rover Surface Operations: Driving Spirit at Gusev Crater," October 2005 IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics conference proceedings, Hawaii, USA., 10 October 2005.
  3. A. Trebi-Ollennu, E. Baumgartner, C. Leger, and R. Bonitz., "Robotic Arm In-Situ Operations for the Mars Exploration Rovers Surface Mission," In Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics., 01 October 2005.
  4. S. Stancliff, J. Dolan, and A. Trebi-Ollennu, "Mission Reliability Estimation for Repairable Robot Teams," in Proc. 1st Int'l Workshop on Multi-Agent Robotic Systems - MARS 2005, Peter Sapaty and Joaquim Filipe, eds., INSTICC Press, Portugal, 144-151, 01 January 2005.
  5. 3. Jeffrey J. Biesiadecki, Eric T. Baumgartner, Robert G. Bonitz, Brian K. Cooper, Frank R. Hartman, P. Christopher Leger, Mark W. Maimone, Scott A. Maxwell, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Edward W. Tunstel, John R. Wright, "Mars Exploration Rover Surface Operations: Driving Opportunity at at Meridiani Planum," 2005 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, October 10-12, 2005, Waikoloa Hilton Village, The Big Island, Hawaii, USA, 01 January 2005.
  6. John Wright, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Frank Hartman, Brian Cooper, Scott Maxwell, Jeng Yen, Jack Morrison, "Terrain Modelling for In-situ Activity Planning and Rehearsal for the Mars Exploration Rovers," 2005 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, October 10-12, 2005, Waikoloa Hilton Village, The Big Island, Hawaii, USA, 01 January 2005.
  7. E. Tunstel, A. Howard, M. Maimone and A. Trebi-Ollennu, "Mars Exploration Rover Baseline for Flight Rover Autonomy Technology Assessment," 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space, Munich, Germany, 01 January 2005.
  8. E. Tunstel, A. Howard, M. Maimone, A. Trebi-Ollenu, "Mars exploration rover performance as a baseline for flight Rover autonomy technology assessment," 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics And Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS), 01 January 2005.
  9. J. Wright, A. Trebi-Ollennu, F. Hartman, B. Cooper, S. Maxwell, J. Yen, J. Morrison, "Driving a Rover on Mars Using the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program," International Conference on Instrumentation, Control and Information Technology, August 8-10, 2005, Okayama University, Okayama, JAPAN, 01 January 2005.
  10. S. Stancliff, J. Dolan, and A. Trebi-Ollennu, "Planning to Fail: Mission Design for Modular Repairable Robot Teams," in Proc. 8th Int'l Symp. Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (ISAIRAS-05), B. Battrick, ed., ESA SP-603, 01 January 2005.
  11. Sanjay S. Joshi, Diana M. Acosta, Jeffrey Payne, Shivanjli Sharma, Alberto Elfes, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, and Jeffrey L. Hall, "Dynamics and Control Study of a Titan Aerobot from a System Design Perspective," AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) Conference 15 - 18 Aug 2005 Hyatt Regency San Francisco at Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, California, 01 January 2005.
2004
  1. T. Huntsberger, A. Trebi-Ollennu, H. Aghazarian, P. S. Schenker, , P. Pirjanian, H. D. Nayar, "Distributed Control of Multi-Robot Systems Engaged in Tightly Coupled Tasks," Autonomous Robots, 15,1-13, 01 January 2004.
2003
  1. James Randolph, Jeffrey Plescia, Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Paul Bartlett, Donald Bickler, Roger Carlson, Gregory Carr, Michael Fong, Henrik Gronroos, P.J. Guske, Mark Herring, Hamid Javadi, David W. Johnson, Timothy Larson, Kalana Malaviarachchi, Stewart Sherrit, Scot Stride, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Richard Warwick, "Urey: To Measure the Absolute Age of Mars," IEEE Aerospace Conference,2003, 2-723 ' 2-732, 01 January 2003.
  2. T. Huntsberger, P. Pirjanian, A. Trebi-Ollennu, H. D. Nayar, H. Aghazarian, A. Ganino, M. Garrett, S. S. Joshi, P. S. Schenker, "CAMPOUT: A Control Architecture for Tightly Coupled Coordination of Multi-Robot Systems for Planetary Surface Exploration," IEEE Trans. Systems, Man & Cybernetics, Special Issue on Collective Intelligence, 01 January 2003.
2002
  1. Mahesh Saptharishi, C. Spence Oliver, Christopher P. Diehl, Kiran S. Bhat, John M. Dolan, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu and Pradeep K. Khosla, "Distributed Surveillance and Reconnaissance Using Multiple Autonomous ATVs: CyberScout," IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Volume: 18 Issue: 5, Oct 2002, 826 -836, 01 January 2002.
  2. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Terry Huntsberger, Brett Kennedy, John M. Dolan and Pradeep K. Khosla, "Autonomous Repair for Distributed Space Robotics," Proceedings of Robosphere 2002 Workshop, Self sustaining Robotic Ecologies, NASA Ames Research Center, Nov. 14 '15 2002, 75 '80, 01 January 2002.
  3. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Hari Das, Hrand Aghazarian, Anthony Ganino, Paolo Pirjanian, Terry Huntsberger, and Paul Schenker, "Mars Rover Pair Cooperatively Transporting a Long Payload," Robotics and Automation Proceedings. ICRA 2002. IEEE International Conference on , Volume: 3 , 2002, 3136 '3141, 01 January 2002.
  4. S. Oliver, M. Saptharishi, J. Dolan, A. Trebi-Ollennu, and P. Khosla, "Multi-robot Path Planning by Predicting Structure in a Dynamic Environment," Proceedings of the First IFAC Conference on Mechatronic Systems, Vol. II, September, 2000, 593-598, 01 January 2002.
  5. E. Tunstel, T. Huntsberger, H. Aghazarian, P. Backes, E. Baumgartner, Y, Cheng, M. Garrett, B. Kennedy, C. Leger, L. Magnone, J. Norris, M. Powell, A. Trebi-Ollennu and P. Schenker, "FIDO Rover Field Trials as Rehearsal for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission," 9th Intl. Symp. on Robotics & Applications, 5th World Automation Congress, Orlando, FL, 01 January 2002.
  6. T. Huntsberger, H. Aghazarian, Y. Cheng, E.T. Baumgartner, E. Tunstel, C. Leger, A. Trebi-Ollennu and P.S. Schenker, "Rover Autonomy for Long Range Navigation and Science Data Acquisition on Planetary Surfaces," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Washington, DC, pp. 3161-3168, 01 January 2002.
  7. Tunstel, E., T. Huntsberger, A. Trebi-Ollennu, H. Aghazarian, M. Garrett, C. Leger, B. Kennedy, E. Baumgartner and P. Schenker, "FIDO Rover System Enhancements for High-Fidelity Mission Simulations," 7th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Marina del Rey, CA, March., 01 January 2002.
2001
  1. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Terry Huntsberger, Yang Cheng, E. T. Baumgartner, and Brett Kennedy, "Design and Analysis of a Sun Sensor for Planetary Rover Absolute Heading Detection," National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, NASA CR-2001-210800, 1-30, 01 January 2001.
  2. Ashitey. Trebi-Ollennu, John M. Dolan and Pradeep K. Khosla, "Adaptive Fuzzy Throttle Control for an All Terrain Vehicle," IMechE Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering,vol. 215, 189-198, 01 January 2001.
  3. 20. P. S. Schenker, E. T. Baumgartner, L. I. Dorsky, P. G. Backes, H. Aghazarian, J. S. Norris, T. L. Huntsberger, Y. Cheng, A. Trebi-Ollennu, M. S. Garrett, B. A. Kennedy and A. J. Ganino,R. E. Arvidson,S. W. Squyres, "FIDO: a Field Integrated Design & Operations rover for Mars surface exploration," Proc. 6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS-'01), Montreal, Canada, June 18-21,, 01 January 2001.
  4. E. Baumgartner, H. Aghazarian, and A. Trebi-Ollennu, "Rover Localization Results for the FIDO Rover," SPIE Photinics East Conference, October, 01 January 2001.
2000
  1. P.S. Schenker, T.L. Huntsberger, P. Pirjanian, A. Trebi-Ollennu, H. Das, S. Joshi, H. Aghazarian, A.J. Ganino, B.A. Kennedy, and M.S. Garrett, "Robot work crews for planetary outposts: Close cooperation and coordination of multiple robots," Proc. SPIE Symposium on Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III, Vol. 4196, Boston, MA, Nov. 5-8, 2000, 210-220, 01 January 2000.
  2. 25. P. S. Schenker, P. Pirjanian, B. Balaram, K. S. Ali, A. Trebi-Ollennu, T. L. Huntsberger, H. Aghazarian, B. A. Kennedy and E. T. Baumgartner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; K. Iagnemma, A. Rzepniewski, and S. Dubowsky, P. C. Leger and D. Apostolopoulos,G. T. McKee, "Reconfigurable robots for all terrain exploration," in Proc. SPIE Vol. 4196, Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III, Boston, MA, Nov. 5-8, 2000, 01 January 2000.
  3. E.T. Baumgartner, H. Aghazarian, A. Trebi-Ollennu, T.L. Huntsberger, and M.S. Garrett, "State estimation and vehicle localization for the FIDO rover," Proc. SPIE Symposium on Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III, Vol. 4196, Boston, MA, Nov., 329-336, 01 January 2000.
  4. P. Pirjanian, T.L. Huntsberger, A. Trebi-Ollennu, H. Aghazarian, H. Das, S. Joshi, and P.S. Schenker, "CAMPOUT: A control architecture for multi-robot planetary outposts," Proc. SPIE Symposium on Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III, Vol. 4196, Boston, MA, Nov. 2000, . 221-230, 01 January 2000.
1999
  1. John M. Dolan, A. Trebi-Ollennu, Alvaro Soto and Pradeep Khosla, "Distributed Tactical Surveillance with ATVs," Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 3693, AeroSense, Orlando, FL, 01 January 1999.
  2. A. Soto, M. Saptharishi, A. Trebi-Ollennu, J. Dolan, and P. Khosla, "Cyber-ATVs: Dynamic and Distributed Reconnaissance and Surveillance Using All-Terrain UGVs," Proceedings of the International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, August, 1999, 329-334, 01 January 1999.
1997
  1. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, B. A. Stacey, and B. A. White, "A Multivariable Decoupling Design of an ROV Depth Control System, A Direct Adaptive Fuzzy SMC Approach," Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, Vol. 119, No. 1 March, 89 -94, 01 January 1997.
  2. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu and B. A. White, "Multi-objective Fuzzy Genetic Algorithm Optimisation Approach to Non-linear Control System Design," IEE Proceedings, Control Theory and Applications, Vol.144 No. 2, 137 ' 142, 01 January 1997.
  3. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu and B. A. White, "A Robust Nonlinear Control Design for Remotely Operated Vehicle Depth Control Systems," Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control (UK), Vol. 19 No.3, 1997, 119-125, 01 January 1997.
  4. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu and B. A. White, "Robust Output Tracking for MIMO Nonlinear Systems: An Adaptive Fuzzy Systems Approach," IEE Proceedings, Control Theory and Applications, Vol.144, No.6, November 1997, 537-544, 01 January 1997.
1996
  1. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu and B. A. White, "Non-linear Robust Control Designs for a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle Depth Control System," IMechE Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering Volume 210, 201-214, 01 January 1996.