Mitarbeiter

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Institut für Robotik und Mechatronik

 

Marco De Stefano received his  bachelor degree in aerospace engineering (2008), his master degree cum laude in astronautical engineering (2011)  and a professional qualification as industrial engineer (2012) from the University of Rome "La Sapienza". In 2019, He received his PhD (summa cum laude) from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. He conducted his Phd research on Energy-based Control for Simulation of Multibody Dynamics using Robotic Facilities at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR). His Ph.D. thesis has been selected as one of the four finalists of the 2020 Georges Giralt Award for the Best Ph.D. Thesis on Robotics in Europe. In 2023, He was selected as finalistis for the 2023 KUKA Innovation Awards with the SPIRIT team.

Since 2012 He is a researcher associated with the department for Analysis and Control of Advanced Robotic Systems of the DLR and since 2023 he is head of the Flying and Floating-base robot group  at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the DLR. His current research interests include dynamics and control of space robot, control theory, stability analysis and hardware-in-the-loop simulation using robotics facilities.

Fields of Interest:

• Space Robotics
• Multibody Dynamics
• Admittance and Impedance Control
• Control Theory
• Stability analysis

 

Main Projects:

• DEOS: On-Orbit-Servicing Mission: Development of the tools for the capture, stabilization and de-orbiting of a non co-operative target by means of a free-flying robot.                                                 

• OOS-SIM: Simulation facility for On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) missions.  video link:https://vimeo.com/97510451

     

DEOS Scenario                                               OOS-SIM facility

• ARCAS (EU): European project on Aerial Robotics Cooperative Assembly System.                     

• AEROARMS (EU): European project on  Aerial Robotics http://aeroarms-project.eu/

• e.Deorbit (ESA): European Space Agency (ESA) mission. Project on space debris removal (ENVISAT satellite) using robotic technologies.

• COMRADE (ESA): European Space Agency (ESA) project. COntrol and Management of Robotics Active DEbris removal.

• MIRROR (ESA): European Space Agency (ESA) project. Reconfigurable Multi-Arm Robot for In-Orbit Assembly.

• EROSS+ (EU): European project on space robotics and debris removal.

• EROSS IOD (EU): In-orbit Demonstration of robotics missions (Phase B2/C)

• ORU-BOAS (EU): Orbital Replacement Unit - Based on Building Blocks for Advanced Assembly of Space Systems.

• ADRIOS / RISE: Orbital Robotic Mission

 

 

 

Publications*:

[BC58]   M. De Stefano, M. A. Roa, R. Balachandran, A. M. Giordano, H. Mishra, N. Oumer, B. Brunner, M. Lingenauber, M. Stelzer, and R. Lampariello, book chapter on Design and validation of orbital robotic missions", Xiu  Yan and G. Visentin editors, Space Robotics: The State of the Art and Future Trends,  Springer, December 2024

[C57] H. Mishra, T. Vicariotto, M. De Stefano, Dynamics, Simulation & Control of Orbital Modules for On-orbit Assembly, accepted to Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2024

[C56]  F. Elhard, A. Stemmer, A. Shu, M. De Stefano, M. Schedl, M.A. Roa, T. Bruckmann, Experiment-based Performance Analysis of the Motion Suspension System For Space Robot Testing, 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Milan, Italy,   October 2024

[C55] A. Ruiz, I. Prieto, M. Diaz-Carrascob, A. Lázaroa, A. Rozasb, J. Viñalsa, M. Ruizb, J. Galab, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra., R. Lampariello, Validation and testing of a European versatile ORU for In-Orbit Servicing missions: ORU-BOAS project, 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Milan, Italy,   October 2024

[C54] M. Deremetz, R. Boitte, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, B. Brunner. G. Grunwald, M.A. Roa, M. Reiner, M. Zavodnik, M. Komarek, J. D'Amico, F. Cavenago, P. Letier, J. Gancet, M. Ilzkovitz, M. Vilella. Preliminary Tests Results of a Relocatable Robotic Demonstrator for In-Space Telescope Servicing Assembly,  75th Int. Astronautical Congress  (IAC), Milan, Italy, Oct. 2024.

[C53] F. Elhard, M. De Stefano, et al. "The influence of Sensor Errors on the Performance of Space tobot Suspention System," accepted to the International Conference of Space Robotic (iSparo 2024),  Luxembourg, June 2024

[C52] Roa, Máximo A., Beyer, Alexander, Rodríguez Ismael, Stelzer Martin,  De Stefano, Marco et al. EROSS: In-Orbit Demonstration of European Robotic Orbital Support Services," 2024 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA, 2024, pp. 1-9, 2024

[C51] F. Elhard, M. De Stefano, et al. "The Motion Suspension System for On-Ground Tests of Space Robots: Demonstration and Results," 2024 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA, 2024, pp. 1-9, doi: 10.1109/AERO58975.2024.1052120, 2024

[C50]  M. Deremetz, M. Debroise, R. Boitte, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, B. Brunner, G. Grunwald, M. A. Roa, M. Reiner, M. Závodník, M. Komarek, J. D’Amico, F. Cavenago, J. Gancet, P. Letier, M. Ilzkovitz, L. Gerdes, Martin Zwick, A Modular and Relocatable Multi-arm Robot Demonstrator for On-orbit Large Telescope Assembly, Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation  (ASTRA), ESA-ESTEC, 2023

[C49] F. Elhardt, R. Boumann, M. De Stefano, et. al. '' System Requirements Elicitation and Conceptualization for a Novel Space Robot Suspension System'', Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation  (ASTRA), ESA-ESTEC, 2023

[C48] A. Ruiz, M. Diaz-Carrasco, J. Viñals, I. Prieto, A. Rozas, S. García, A. Lázaro, M. Ruiz Jose Gala, I. Soto, S. Behar-Lafenetre, G. Musso, F. Massobrio, S. Ferraris, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, R. Lampariello, "ORU-BOAS: Developing Reusable Building Blocks For Satellite Modularisation", 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Baku, Azerbaijan, 2-6 October 2023.

[C47] F. Elhardt, R. Boumann, M. De Stefano, et. al. '' The Motion Supsended System - MSS: A Cable -Driven System for On-Ground Tests of Space Robots'',  2023 iFToMM World Congress, Japan, 2023

[C46] M. De Stefano, R. Vijayan, A. Stemmer, F. Elhardt and C. Ott '' A Gravity Compensation Strategy for On-ground Validation of Orbital Manipulators'', accepted to 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp - , London, 2023

[J45] R. Balachandran, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, C. Secchi, C. Ott, A. Albu-Schäffer, Passive Arbitration in Adaptive Shared Control of Robots with Variable Force and Stiffness Scaling, accepted to Mechatronics 2023

[J44] J. Lee, R. Balachandran, K. Kondak, A. Coelho, M. De Stefano, M. Humt, J. Feng, T. Asfour, R.Triebel, '' Virtual reality via object pose estimation and active learning: Realizing telepresence robots with aerial manipulation capabilities '' accepted to Field Robotics, 2023

[C43] R. Vijayan, M. De Stefano and C.Ott, ''Control of an Orbital Manipulator with Reaction Wheels for On-orbit Servicing'',  accepted to IFAC Symposium on Robot Control SYROCO 2022, vol.- pp. -, 2022.

[C42] M. Deremetz, M. Debroise, S. Govindaraj, A. But, I. Sanz Nieto, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, B. Brunner, G. Grunwald, M. A. Roa, M. Reiner, M. Závodník, M. Komarek, J. D’Amico, F. Cavenago, J. Gancet, P. Letier, M.  Ilzkovitz, L. Gerdes, M. Zwick, '' Design and Integration of a Multi-arm Installation Robot Demonstrator for orbital large Assembly'', International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Paris, September 2022.

[J41] H. Mishra, G. Garofalo, A. M. Giordano, M. De Stefano, C. Ott, A. Kugi, ''Reduced Euler-Lagrange Equations of Floating-base Robots: Computation, Properties & Applications'', accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO),  2022

[C40] M. Deremetz, M. Debroise, S. Govindaraj, A. But, I. Sanz Nieto, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, B. Brunner, G. Grunwald, M.A. Roa, M. Reiner, M. Závodník, M. Komarek, J. D’Amico, F. Cavenago, J. Gancet, P. Letier, M. Ilzkovitz, L. Gerdes, M. Zwick, ' Demonstrator Design of a Modular Multi-arm Robot For on-Orbit Large Telescope Assembly ', Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA), ESA/ESTEC Noordwijk, Netherlands, June 2022

[C39] H.Mishra, M. De Stefano and C.Ott, ''Design and Control of a Reconfigurable Multi-Arm Robot for In-Orbit Assembly'', accepted to the 2022 Vienna International Conference on Mathematical Modelling (MATHMOD), pp. -, Vienna, July 2022

[C38] R. Vijayan, M. De Stefano and C.Ott, ''A Detumbling Strategy for an Orbital Manipulator in the Post-Grasp Phase'',  2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 4080-4086, Philadelphia, May 2022

[C37] M. Deremetz, G. Grunwald, F. Cavenago, M. A. Roa, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, M. Reiner, S. Govindaraj, A. But, I. Sanz Nieto, J. Gancet, P. Letier, M. Ilzkovitz, L. Gerdes, M. Zwick '' Concept of Operations and Preliminary Design of a Modular Multi-Arm Robot using Standard Interconnects for On-Orbit Large Assembly'', International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2021.

[J36] H. Mishra, R. Balachandran, M. De Stefano and C. Ott, ”A Compliant Partitioned Shared Control Strategy for an Orbital Robot,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2021.3097509 , 2021,

[J35] A. M. Giordano, D. Calzolari, M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, C. Ott and A. Albu- Schaffer, ”Compliant Floating-Base Control of Space Robots,” in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters,  doi: 10.1109/LRA.2021.3097496 , 2021,

[C34] P. Colmenarejo, N. Santos, P. Serra, J. Telaar, H. Strauch, M. De Stefano, A. Giordano, H. Mishra, R. Lampariello, C. Ott, D. Henry, G. Visentin, '' Results of the COMRADE project: Combined Control for Robotic Spacecraft and Manipulator in Servicing Missions: Active Debris Removal and Re-fuelling '' 11th international ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems (GNC), Virtual, June 2021,

[J33] M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, A. M. Giordano, R. Lampariello and C. Ott, "A Relative Dynamics Formulation for Hardware- in-the-Loop Simulation of On-Orbit Robotic Missions," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 3569-3576, April 2021

[J32] R. Balachandran, M. Panzirsch, M. De Stefano, H. Singh, C. Ott and A. Albu-Schaeffer, "Stabilization of User-Defined Feedback Controllers in Teleoperation With Passive Coupling Reference," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 3513-3520, April 2021

[C31] H. Mishra, M. De Stefano, A. Giordano, C. Ott “Output Feedback Stabilization of Motion of an Orbital Robot”  IEEE 59th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pp. 1503-1501, Jeju Island, Dec 2020.

[C30] H. Mishra, A. Giordano, M. De Stefano, R. Lampariello, and C. Ott,  “Inertia-Decoupled Equations for Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation of an Orbital Robot with External Forces,”  2020 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 1879-1886, Las Vegas, Oct 2020.

[C29] H. Mishra, M. De Stefano, A. Giordano, R. Lampariello, C. Ott  “A Geometric Controller for Fully-Actuated Robotic Capture of a Tumbling Target” , 2020 American Control Conference (ACC), pp. 2150-2157, Denver, USA, July 2020,

[C28] J. Lee, R. Balachandran, Y. Sarkisov, M. De Stefano, A. Coelho, K. Shinde, M. J.Kim, R. Triebel, K. Kondak  “ Visual-Inertial Telepresence for Aerial Manipulation ”, 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1222-1229, Paris, May 2020

[J27]  M. De Stefano, R.Balachandran, C. Secchi  “A Passivity-based Approach for Simulating Satellite Dynamics with Robots: Discrete-Time Integration and Time-Delay Compensation”, IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 189-203, Feb. 2020

[C26]  M. De Stefano, L. Vezzadini, Cristian Secchi  “Time-delay Compensation Using Energy-tank for Satellite Dynamics Robotic Simulators”, 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and System (IROS), Macau, China, pp. 521-528 , Nov 2019

[C25] J. Cieslak, D. Henry, P. Colmenarejo, J. Branco, N. Santos, P. Serra , J. Telaar, H. Strauch,
A.M. Giordano, M. De Stefano, C. Ott, M. Reiner, J. Jaworski, E. Papadopoulos, G. Visentin, F.
Ankersen, J.G. Fernandez  “Assessment of a Supervisory Fault-Hiding Scheme in a Classical Guidance, Navigation and Control Setup: the e.Deorbit mission”,  International Conference on Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (SYSTOL), pp. 7-12 , Sept. 2019

[C24]  H. Mishra, M. De Stefano, AM. Giordano, Christian Ott  “A nonlinear observer for free-floating target motion using only position measurements”, IEEE American Control Conference (ACC), Philadelphia, USA, pp. 1114 - 1121, July 2019

[C23] D. Henry, J. Cieslak, P. Colmenarejo, J. Branco, N. Santos, P. Serra, J. Telaard, H. Strauch, A. Giordano, M. De Stefano, C. Ott, M. J. Reiner, J. Jaworski, E. Papadopoulos, G. Visentin, F. Ankersen, J. Gil. “Model-based fault diagnosis and tolerant control: the ESA’s e.Deorbit mission”,  IEEE European Control Conference (ECC), pp.4356-4361, 2019

[J22]   M. De Stefano, H. Mishra, R. Balachandran, R. Lampariello, C. Ott, and C. Secchi.  “Multi-rate Tracking Control for a Space Robot on a Controlled Satellite: a Passivity-based Strategy”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), pp. 1319-1326, 10.1109/LRA.2019.2895420, 2019

[J21]  S. Jaeckel, R. Lampariello, W. Rackl, M. De Stefano, N. Oumer, AM. Giordano, O. Porges, M. Pietras, B. Brunner, J. Ratti, Q. Muehlbauer, M. Thiel, S. Estable, R. Biesbroek, A. Albu-Schaeffer  “Design and Operational Elements of the robotics subsystem for the e.deorbit debris removal mission”, Frontieres in Robotics and AI, 5:100, 2018

[J20]  R. Lampariello, H. Mishra, N. Oumer, P. Schmidt, M. De Stefano, A. Albu-Schaeffer  “Tracking control for the grasping of a tumbling satellite with a free-floating robot”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 3 (4):3638-3645, Oct. 2018

[C19]  P. Colmenarejo, J. Branco, N. Santos, P. Serra, J. Telaar, H. Strauch, AM. Giordano, M. De Stefano, C. Ott, M. Rainer, D. Henry, J. Jaworski, E. Papadopoulos, G. Visentin, F. Ankersen, and J. Gil-Fernandez   “Methods and outcomes of the comrade project - design of robust combined control for robotic spacecraft and manipulator in servicing missionss”, 69th International Astronautical Congress 2018, Sept 2018

[C18]  MJ. Kim, R. Balachandran, M. De Stefano, K. Kondak, C. Ott  “Passive compliant control for Aerial manipulation”, 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and System (IROS), Madrid, Spain, pp. 4177-4184, September 2018.

[C17]  H. Mishra, M. De Stefano, AM. Giordano, Christian Ott  “Tracking control with robotic system for a moving traget: A vector Lyapunov approach”, in Proc. of the 11th IFAC Symposium on Robot Control SYROCO 2018, Budapest, Hungary,  51(22):471-478, August 2018.

[C16]  Marco De Stefano, Ribin Balachandran, Alessandro Giordano, Cristian Secchi   " An energy-based Approach for the Multi-Rate Control of a Manipulator on an Actuated Base ",  2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, Australia pp.1072 -1077, May 2018.

[C15] Pedro Rodriguez Perez, Marco De Stefano, Roberto Lampariello  “Velocity Matching Compliat Control for a Space Robot during Capture of a Free-Floating Target”,  2018 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, USA, pp. 1-9, March 2018

[J14]  J. Telaar, I. Ahrns, S. Estable, W. Rackl, M. De Stefano, R. Lampariello, N. Santos, P. Serra, M. Canetri, F. Ankersen, J. Gil-Fernandez  "GNC architecture for the e.Deorbit mission ", Acta Astronautica (under review), 2018

[W13]  Marco De Stefano and Jordi Artigas," The DLR On-Orbit Servicing Simulator: Reproducing free-floating dynamics with Robotic Facilites", Workshop on  "Gravity offload testbed for space robotic mission simulation",  2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and System (IROS), Vancouver, Canada, September 2017.

[C12]  Marco De Stefano, Jordi Artigas, Cristian Secchi, " A passive Integration Strategy for Rendering Rotational Dynamics on a Robotic Simulator", 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and System (IROS), Vancouver, Canada, pp.2806 -2812, September 2017.

[C11]  J. Telaar, I. Ahrns, S. Estable, W. Rackl, Marco De Stefano, R. Lampariello, N. Santos, P. Serra, M. Canetri, F. Ankersen, J. Gil-Fernandez  "GNC architecture for the e.Deorbit mission ",  7th European Conference for Aeronautics and Space Science (EUCASS), Milan, Italy,  July 2017.

[C10]  Marco De Stefano, Ribin Balachandran, Jordi Artigas, Cristian Secchi   " Reproducing Physical Dynamics with Hardware-in-the-loop Simulators: A Passive and Explicit Discrete Integrator ", in Proc. of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Singapore, pp. 5899-5906, May 2017.

[C9]  Juergen Telaar, Stephane Estable, Marco De Stefano, Wolfgang Rackl, Roberto Lampariello, Finn Ankersen, Jesus Gil Fernandez  " Coupled control of chaser platform and robot arm for the e.deorbit mission", GNC 2017: 10th International ESA conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems, Salzburg, Austria, May 2017.

[C8]  Alessandro Giordano, Gianluca Garofalo, Marco De Stefano, Christian Ott, Alin Albu-Schaeffer, "Dynamics and control of a free-floating space robot in presence of nonzero linear and angular momenta", in Proc.of the 2016 IEEE  Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Las Vegas, USA, pp.7527-7534, December 2016.

[C7]  Marco De Stefano, Jordi Artigas, Cristian Secchi, " An optimized passivity-based method for simulating satellite dynamics on a position controlled robot in presence of latencies", in Proc.of the 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and System (IROS), Daejeon, Korea, pp.5419-5426, October 2016.

[C6] Jordi Artigas, Ribin Balachandran, Marco De Stefano, Michael Panzirsch, Jan Harder, Juergen Letschnik, Roberto Lampariello, Alin Albu-Schaeffer, “Teleoperation for On-Orbit Servicing Missions through the ASTRA Geostationary Satellite”, in Proc. of the 2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, USA, pp. 1-12, March 2016

[C5]  Phillip Schmidt, Jordi Artigas, Marco De Stefano, Ribin Balachandran, Christian Ott.
“Increasing the Performance of Torque-based Visual Servoing by applying Time Domain Passivity”, in Proc. of the 11th IFAC Symposium on Robot Control SYROCO 2015, Salvador, Brazil, vol.48 pp. 13-18, August 2015.

[C4]  Marco De Stefano, Jordi Artigas, Wolfgang Rackl and Alin Albu-Schäffer  " Passivity of Virtual Free-Floating Dynamics Rendered on Robotic Facilities", in Proc. of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, USA, pp.781-788,  May 2015.

[C3]  Jordi Artigas, Marco De Stefano, Wolfgang Rackl, Roberto Lampariello, Bernhard Brunner,  Wieland Bertleff, Robert Burger, Oliver Porges, Alessandro Giordano, Christoph Borst, and Alin Albu-Schäffer The OOS-SIM: An On-ground Simulation Facility For On-Orbit Servicing Robotic Operations. in Proc. of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, USA, pp.2854-2860,  May 2015.

[C2]  Marco De Stefano, Jordi Artigas, Alessandro Giordano, Roberto Lampariello and Alin Albu-Schäffer On- ground experimental verification of a torque controlled free-floating robot. 13th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation 2015 (ASTRA 2015), ESA/ESTEC Noordwijk, Netherlands, May 2015,

[C1]  Marco De Stefano,  Motion Analysis of a free-tumbling satellite and experimentation of the grasping task with two fixed-base LWR robots. DLR-Interner Bericht. DLR-IB 572-2012/05.

*C: peer-reviewed conference, J: Jounal

 

Patents:

[P3] Method for controlling a robot device, Europen patent, granted, 4467294 2024/48, November 2024

[P2] Verfahren zum Steuern einer Robotereinrichtung, German patent, granted, DE102023113815B3, May 2024

[P1] Robot System for relieving robot device by means of cable robot system, International patent granted, W0 2024/084066, April 2024