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Issa Nesnas

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 198-219

Pasadena, CA 91109

Member of:

3471 - Section Staff

Issa A.D. Nesnas

Principal Member of Technical Staff

Biography

Issa Nesnas is the Group Supervisor for the Robotic Software Systems group and the Principal Investigator of the multi-institutional robotic software architecture (CLARAty). He has over 15 years of experience in robotic system and software design, sensor-based robotic control, and vision-guided manipulation.

Issa joined JPL in 1997 where he worked on planetary dexterous manipulation for rovers and landers. He developed algorithms for vision-based manipulation, sample acquisition, and instrument placement from rover platforms. He was the Cognizant engineer on CLARAty from 1999 to 2001. More recently, Issa has led several research tasks including rover-based visual tracking and the development of the Rocky 8 and Axel rovers. He also worked on the entry, descent, and landing for the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Prior to joining JPL in 1997, Issa was a senior project engineer at Adept Technology, Inc. inventing and implementing several new technologies for high-speed vision-based robotic applications. He holds a patent for the Impulse-based flexible parts feeder. He also participated in the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences Consortium working with industry leaders in factory automation including Eastman Kodak, Ford, GM, Delco Electronics, and Cummins Engine, designing hardware and software standards for robotic assembly cells.

Issa received a B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College, NY, in 1991, and earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in robotics from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame, IN, in 1993 and 1995 respectively.

Issa Nesnas is a principal technologist and the supervisor of the Robotic Mobility group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with over two decades of experience in space robotics and industrial automation. He leads research in autonomy and mobility with a focus on extreme terrain access and microgravity mobility.  He recently served on NASA’s Capability Leadership Team for Autonomy and was the co-chair for NASA’s Technology Roadmaps for Robotics and Autonomous Systems.

Dr. Nesnas contributed to the development of autonomous rover navigation and visual target tracking and participated in the development of the Curiosity and Mars 2020 rovers.  He led the development of the CLARAty robotic autonomy architecture and the Athena, Rocky 8, Axel and Hedgehog rovers. His background and earlier research focused on dexterous mobile manipulation where he developed algorithms for vision-based manipulation and sample handling for rovers and industrial platforms. In the early phases, he also worked on the entry, descent, and landing for the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Dr. Nesnas received a B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College, NY, in 1991, and earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in robotics from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame, IN, in 1993 and 1995 respectively. His research interests are in autonomy, system and software architecture, and perception-based control under large uncertainties.

Education

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (1995) from the University of Notre Dame, IN

Research Area: Dexterous and force control for redundant manipulators


M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1993) from the University of Notre Dame, IN

Research Area: Vision-based manipulation and trajectory following


B.E. in Electrical Engineering (1991) from Manhattan College, NY

Ranked first in the School of Engineering and graduated Summa Cum Laude

Research Area: Microcontroller design for a robotic arm

Professional Experience

Principal Investigator and Task Manager for the CLARAty on-board robotic control software (2001 - present)



Cognizant Engineer for robotic software (CLARAty) (Feb 2000 - Aug 2001)



Principal Investigator for several robotic technologies (June 2000 - Sep 2004)



Cognizant Engineer for LIDAR Subsystem (Apr 2000 - Aug 2001)



Robotics Engineer for Autonomous Dexterous Manipulation (Dec 1997 - Nov 1999)



Senior Project Engineer at Adept Technology, Inc. (Aug 1995 - Dec 1997)



Invited Talks

  • Managing a multi-institutional software development project with a total budget of $8M and up to twenty team members at four institutions
  • Led the design and development of an integrated robotic software that captured technologies from multiple institutions
  • Set up a remotely accessible test bed facility
  • Deployed the software at several institutions and on multiple robots simultaneously
  • Demonstrated autonomous rough terrain navigation and single-cycle instrument placement
  • Led the development of a generic software architecture for robotic systems
  • Designed and implemented a reusable software system for various rovers
  • Established collaboration with other NASA centers and universities
  • Setup a multi-center software development infra-structure and process
  • Led the development of visual target tracking for rover platforms
  • Led the integration of artificial intelligence onto rover platforms
  • Led the hardware/software development of a re-configurable robot
  • Led the hardware development of the Rocky 8 research rover
  • Developed requirements for the LIDAR of the then 2007 Mars Smart Lander mission
  • Developed field-of-view analysis for a LIDAR guided robotic landing
  • Architected and developed software and algorithms for autonomous sample acquisition and single-cycle instrument placement from a rover platform
  • Designed, built, and demonstrated a manipulator platform (Dexter) with autonomous vision-guided sample acquisition
  • Consulted on the design and development of the robotics Matlab package
  • Invented and implemented several new technologies for high-speed vision-based robotic applications
  • Architected and designed real-time software, developed optimization strategies, and invented hardware for a novel vision based flexible parts feeder
  • Conceptualized, designed, and implemented hardware and software for standard robotic assembly cells as part of the Light Flexible Mechanical Assembly consortium
  • Participated in the NCMS Consortium working with industry leaders in factory automation such as Eastman Kodak, Ford, GM, Delco Electronics, and Cummins Engine, designing hardware and software standards for robotic assembly cells
  • Developed software for high-accuracy vision-based assembly of complex parts and real-time manipulation with vision tracking
  • Invited speaker at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain (2005)
  • Invited speaker at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2003) at Las Vegas, NV
  • Invited speaker at the International Robots & Vision Conference on computer vision for flexible feeding, Detroit, MI (1997)

Research Interests


  • Software and hardware architectures for robotic systems
  • Autonomous sensor- and vision-based manipulation
  • Robotic mobility and control
  • High-speed vision-guided robotic operations
  • Object-oriented design and artificial intelligence

Flight Project and Research Task Involvement

Research Tasks
A Plug-and-play Architecture for Real-time Intelligent Avionics

Publications

2023
  1. I. Nesnas, L. Kerber, G. Sellar, T. Balint, B. Denevi, A. Parness, R. Kornfeld, M. Smith, P. McGarey, T. Brown, E. Sunada, K. Gonter, B. Hockman, P. Hayne, T. Horvath, J. Hopkins, A. Johnson, R. Wagner, Y. Cheng, A. Curtis, K. Zacny, M. Paton, K. Sherrill, "Moon Diver: Exploring a pit's exposed strata to understand lunar volcanism," Acta Astronautica, Volume 211, pp. 163-176, 28 May 2023.
  2. A. Elhafsi, R. Sinha, C. Agia, E. Schmerling, I. Nesnas, M. Pavone, "Semantic Anomaly Detection with Large Language Models," arXiv:2305.11307, 18 May 2023.
  3. J. Villa, J. Mcmahon, and I. Nesnas, "Image Rendering and Terrain Generation of Planetary Surfaces Using Source-Available Tools," Conference: 2023 AAS Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, 03 February 2023.
  4. I. Nesnas, A. Johnson, T. Tzanetos, M. Maimone, M. McHenry, H. Ono, S. Chien, and B. Kennedy, "Robotics and Autonomy for Space Applications," Invited seminar by the Engineering Department at Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 01 January 2023.
2022
  1. P. McGarey and I. Nesnas, "Four-Wheeled Articulated Steering Vehicle System," United States Patent, pp. 1-15, 06 September 2022.
  2. A. Goel, S. Bandyopadhyay, J. Lazio, P. Goldsmith, D. Bacon, A. Amara, S. Furnaletto, P. McGarey, R. Rafizadeh, M. Delapierre, M. Arya, D. Pisanti, G. Gupta, N. Chahat, A. Stoica, I. Nesnas, B. M. Quadrelli, G. Hallinan, K. Jenks, and R. Wilson, "Probing the Cosmic Dark Ages with the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope," arXiv (Cornell University), 02 June 2022.
  3. P. McGarey, I. Nesnas, A. Rajguru, M. Bezkronvy, V. Jamnejad, J. Lux, E. Sunada, L. Teitelbaum, A. Miller, S. Squyres, G. Hallinan, A. Hegedeus, J. Burns, "How to Deploy a 10-km Interferometric Radio Telescope on the Moon with Just Four Tethered Robots," 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO), Big Sky, MT, USA, pp. 1-8, 05 March 2022.
  4. J. Villa, J. McMahon, B. Hockman, I. Nesnas, "Autonomous Navigation and Dense Shape Reconstruction Using Stereophotogrammetry at Small Celestial Bodies," 2022 AAS Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, Breckenridge, CO, USA, 08 February 2022.
  5. J. Day, R. Rasmussen, I. Nesnas, "Principles for Architecting Autonomous Systems," NASA Technical Reports Server, 03 February 2022.
2021
  1. C. Norton, F. Hadaegh, R. Castano, S. Y. Kim-Castet, S. Chung, E. McLarney, L. Deutsch, A. Mishkin, T. Fong, L. Fesq, F. Figueroa, I. Nesnas, J. Sotudeh, K. Hambuchen, "Operating Autonomous Space Missions: NASA Study Outcomes," AGU Fall Meeting 2021, New Orleans, LA, pp. 13-17, 13 December 2021.
  2. I. Nesnas, B. Hockman, S. Bandopadhyay, B. Morrell, D. Lubey, J. Villa, D. Bayard, A. Osmundson, B. Jarvis, M. Bersani, S. Bhaskaran, "Autonomous Exploration of Small Bodies Toward Greater Autonomy for Deep Space Missions," Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Volume 8, 650885, 01 November 2021.
  3. H. Nayar and I. Nesnas, "Ocean Worlds Lander Autonomy Testbed," Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 27 September 2021.
  4. B. Jarvis, G. Choi, B. Hockman, B. Morrell, S. Bandopadhyay, D. Lubey, J. Villa, S. Bhaskaran, B. Bayard, I. Nesnas, "3D Shape Reconstruction of Small Bodies From Sparse Features," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Volume 6, No. 4, pp. 7089-7096, 14 July 2021.
  5. Issa Nesnas, Lorraine Fesq, Richard Volpe, "Autonomy for Space Robots: Past, Present, and Future," Springer Current Robotics Reports, Volume 2, pp. 251-263, 19 June 2021.
2020
  1. H. Price, I. Nesnas, G. Carr, A. Barchowsky, P. McGarey, "A Tethered Architecture for Long-Distance Power and Communication Transmission to Support Lunar Operations," JPL Open Repository, 27 October 2020.
  2. A. Diaz-Calderon, I.A. Nesnas, W.S. Kim, and H. Nayar, "Towards a Unified Representation of Mechanisms for Robotic Control Software," International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 61-66, 2006., 17 September 2020.
  3. I.A. Nesnas, R. Simmons, D. Gaines, C. Kunz, A. Diaz-Calderon, T. Estlin, R. Madison, J. Guineau, M. McHenry, I. Shu, and D. Apfelbaum, "CLARAty: Challenges and Steps Toward Reusable Robotic Software," International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 023-030, 2006., 17 September 2020.
2019
  1. P. McGarey, W. Reid, I. Nesnas, "Towards Articulated Mobility and Efficient Docking for the DuAxel Tethered Robot System," 2019 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 05 March 2019.
2016
  1. D. Gaines, R. Anderson, G. Doran, W. Huffman, H. Justice, R. Mackey, G. Rabideau, A. Vasavada, V. Verma, T. Estlin, L. Fesq, M. Ingham, M. Maimone, and I. Nesnas, "Productivity Challenges for Mars Rover Operations," Proceedings of 4th Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob), London, UK, pp. 115-125, 14 June 2016.
2006
  1. I.A. Nesnas, "Coping with Hardware and Software Heterogeneity," book chapter to appear in the Software Engineering for Experimental Robotics, Springer Tracts on Advanced Robotics, edited by Davide Brugali, 01 January 2006.
2004
  1. A. Howard, I.A. Nesnas, B. Werger, D. Helmick, "A Reconfigurable Robotic Exploration Vehicle for Extreme Environments," 10th International Symposium on Robotics and Applications, Seville, Spain, 01 June 2004.
  2. M.G. Bualat, C.G. Kunz , A.R. Wright, I.A. Nesnas, "Developing An Autonomy Infusion Infrastructure for Robotic Exploration," Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 06 March 2004.
  3. I. Nesnas, M. Bajracharya, R. Madison, E. Bandari, C. Kunz, M. Deans, M. Bualat, "Visual Target Tracking for Rover-based Planetary Exploration," IEEE Aerospace Conference, 01 March 2004.
2003
  1. C. Urmson, R. Simmons, I. Nesnas, "A Generic Framework for Robotic Navigation," Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky Montana, 01 March 2003.
2002
  1. T. Estlin, F. Fisher, D. Gaines, C. Chouinard, S. Schaffer, I. Nesnas, "Continuous Planning and Execution for an Autonomous Rover," Proceedings of the Third International NASA Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space,Houston, TX, 01 October 2002.
2001
  1. I.A.D. Nesnas, R. Volpe, T. Estlin, H. Das, R. Petras D. Mutz, "Toward Developing Reusable Software Components for Robotic Applications," Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Maui Hawaii, 01 November 2001.
  2. R. Volpe, I.A.D. Nesnas, T. Estlin, D. Mutz, R. Petras, H. Das, "The CLARAty Architecture for Robotic Autonomy," Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 01 March 2001.
2000
  1. R. Volpe, I.A.D. Nesnas, T. Estlin, D. Mutz, R. Petras, H. Das, "CLARAty: Coupled Layer Architecture for Robotic Autonomy," Technical Report D-19975, 01 December 2000.
1999
  1. I. Nesnas, M. Maimone, H. Das, "Autonomous Vision-Based Manipulation from a Rover Platform," November 1999 CIRA conference proceedings, Monterey, California., 01 November 1999.
  2. I. Nesnas, M. Maimone, H. and Nayar, "Rover Maneuvering for Autonomous Vision-Based Dexterous Manipulation," International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), San Francisco, CA, USA, 01 April 1999.