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Gabriel Udomkesmalee

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive
M/S 198-219

Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

818.393.4724

Fax:

818.354.9973

Dr. Gabriel Udomkesmalee

Biography

Gabriel Udomkesmalee has spent most of his career with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, leading many technically and programmatically challenging projects. He is currently the Deputy Manager for the Mobility and Robotic Systems Section (347) of the Autonomous Systems Division (34), and has been the manager of the Mars Science Laboratory Technology Program since 2003. Earlier in his career at JPL that began in 1990, Dr. Udomkesmalee was a major contributor to the successful creation of the NASA New Millennium program, having revolutionized the image-based target-relative spacecraft guidance and pointing feature with his innovative autonomous feature and star tracking (AFAST) work. He also managed the celestial sensors and tracking group that delivered celestial sensors to Cassini, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Pathfinder projects as well as introducing cutting-edge CMOS detector and processing technologies enabling miniaturization of GNC sensors and automation of spacecraft operations. Additionally, Dr. Udomkesmalee directed the BMDO project (called VIGILANTE) that demonstrated a complex flight experiment testbed involving helicopter, cruise missile, ground communication/control equipment, vibration-isolation system, gimbaled mirror, IR/visible/UV sensors, and design/development of a tera-operations/second sugar-cube-sized processor. Capping a decade at JPL, Dr. Udomkesmalee successfully revived the JPL autonomous rendezvous and sample capture (RSC) activity, unified the team that included many government agencies and industry partners, and supported the NASA/CNES orbiter study that resulted in the NASA/CNES collaboration for demonstration of the RSC technology in Mars orbit.

During 2001-2003, Gabriel Udomkesmalee was a program director and the vice president of the American GNC Corporation providing technical leadership for a variety of activities ranging from advanced estimation/control/AI research to hardware/software system development involving inertial sensors and GPS. Dr. Udomkesmalees additional years of industry experience include the development of hardware/software systems for both military and commercial applications. At Perkin-Elmer (1986-1989), he was a project engineer for the design and development of advanced optical correlator-based seeker systems capable of performing rotation/scale invariant recognition/tracking of military vehicles in addition to being the control system analyst responsible for deriving missile navigation/tracking algorithms and modeling the overall missile system dynamics and its guidance system. At AiResearch Manufacturing Company (1983-1986), he successfully led the design and development of a new ECU architecture for a turbofan engine using multiple processors and hybrid circuits that eliminated massive wiring and numerous circuit boards. During 1981-1983, Gabriel was involved in the design/development of a PC-based simulation software package for control systems and the introduction of modern optimal control theory to controlling and regulating energy management systems.

Widely recognized as an expert in his areas of expertise, Dr. Udomkesmalee has authored over 40 publications (including 2 patents) and holds several advanced degrees in a wide range of disciplines. He received his Ph.D. degree in Systems Science (1985) from University of California, San Diego, and has extensive experience in line management, project management, systems engineering, and control systems design/analysis. His technical areas of expertise include spacecraft and missile guidance, electro-optic and electronic systems, optical processing, image processing, automatic target recognition and control systems.

Education

Ph.D. in Systems Science (1985) from University of California, San Diego
M.S. in Engineering Sciences (1981) from University of California, San Diego
M.A. in Economics (1979) from North Carolina State University, Raleigh
B.A. in Chemistry (1978) from North Carolina State University, Raleigh
B.S. in Chemical Engineering (1978) from North Carolina State University, Raleigh
B.A. in Business Management (1978) from North Carolina State University, Raleigh

Professional Experience

Deputy Section Manager, JPL Mobility and Robotics Systems, (2005-present)
Program Manager, JPL Mars Science Laboratory Technology Program, (2003-present)
Vice President, American GNC Corporation, (2002-2003)
Program Director, American GNC Corporation, (2001-2002)
Project Manager, JPL Viewing Imager/Gimbaled Instrumentation Lab and Artificial Neural Three-dimensional Experiment: VIGILANTE, (1996-2001)
Group Supervisor, JPL Tracking Sensors Group, (1995-1997)
Task Manager, JPL CRAF/Cassini Target Tracking and RTOP Autonomous Feature and Star Tracking, (1991-1995)
Consultant, JPL Optical Sciences Group, (1990-1991)
Project Engineer, Perkin-Elmer Corporation, (1986-1989)
Systems Engineer, AiResearch Manufacturing Company, (1986-1989)

Research Interests

Robotic hardware/software systems, computer vision, mobility/manipulation, and advanced control

Publications

2005
  1. C.-C. Chu, S. A. Hayati, and S. Udomkesmalee, "Mars Base Technology Program Overview," AIAA Space 2005 Conference, Long Beach, California, 01 August 2005.
  2. S. Udomkesmalee and S. A. Hayati, "Mars Science Laboratory Focused Technology Program Overview," IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 01 March 2005.
  3. R. Mattingly, S. Hayati, and G. Udomkesmalee, "Technology Development Plans for the Mars Sample Return Mission," IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 01 March 2005.
2004
  1. R. T. Caffrey, G. Udomkesmalee, and S. Hayati, "Initiating the 2002 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Focused Technology Program," IEEE Conference, Big Sky, Montana, 01 March 2004.
2003
  1. S. Udomkesmalee, C.-F. Lin, G. Hu, and T. Huntsberger, "Autonomous Target Tracking for Asteroid Landing," 4th International Conference on Control and Automation, Montreal, Canada, 01 June 2003.
  2. S. Udomkesmalee, C.-F.-Lin, N. Coleman, R. May, M. Neelakandan, and G. Papanagopoulos, "Fire Control Solution using Robust MET Data Extraction and Impact Point Prediction," 4th International Conference on Control and Automation, Montreal, Canada, 01 June 2003.
  3. N. Coleman, Y. K. Lam, J. Willis, S. Udomkesmalee, C.-F. Lin, and A. Politopoulos, "Image-Based Vision Processing for the Smart Crane Ammunition Transfer System," 4th International Conference on Control and Automation, Montreal, Canada, 01 June 2003.
2000
  1. C. Padgett, A. Howard, and S. Udomkesmalee, "Shape Based Object Recognition Using a Fast Analog Convolution Processor," NASA/DoD Second Biomorphic Explorers Workshop, Pasadena, California, 01 December 2000.
  2. S. Udomkesmalee, C. Padgett, D. Zhu, G. Lung, A. Howard, D. Ludwig, and G. Moretti, "Tera-OPS Processing for ATR," 9th Annual AIAA/BMDO Technology Conference, San Diego, California, 01 July 2000.
1998
  1. S. Udomkesmalee, "Smart Optoelectronic Sensor System for Recognizing Targets," NASA Tech Briefs, 01 August 1998.
  2. S. C. Suddarth, N. Alhambra, and S. Udomkesmalee, "VIGILANTE Data Handling System: ASIM for Automatic Target Recognition," GOMAC Conference, Arlington, Virginia, 01 March 1998.
  3. S. C. Suddarth and S. Udomkesmalee, "VIGILANTE: Multiple Sensors and Neural Network Hardware Based Automatic Target Recognition Experiment," GOMAC Conference, Arlington, Virginia, 01 March 1998.
1997
  1. S. Udomkesmalee, D. Q. Zhu, and C.-C. Chu, "Image Processing for Planetary Limb/Terminator Extraction," Vision and Image Understanding, 67(3), 01 September 1997.
  2. S. Udomkesmalee and S. C. Suddarth, "VIGILANTE: Ultrafast Smart Sensor for Target Recognition and Precision Tracking in a Simulated CMD Scen," AIAA/BMDO Technology Readiness Conference, San Diego, California,, 01 August 1997.
  3. S. Udomkesmalee, A. Thakoor, C. Padgett, T. Daud, W.-C. Fang, and S. C. Suddarth, "VIGILANTE: An Advanced Sensing/Processing Testbed for ATR Applications," SPIE Conference on Automatic Object Recognition VII, Orlando, Florida, 01 April 1997.
  4. W.-C. Fang, S. Udomkesmalee, and L. Alkalai, "A Compact VLSI Neural Computer Integrated with Active Pixel Sensor for Real-Time Machine Vision Applications," SPIE Conference on Applications and Science of Artificial Neural Networks, Orlando, Florida, 01 April 1997.
  5. C. Padgett, K. Kreutz-Delgado, and S. Udomkesmalee, "Evaluation of Star Identification Techniques," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 20(2), 01 March 1997.
1995
  1. G. Udomkesmalee, G. K. Man, B. A. Wilson, "Creating autonomous spacecraft with AFAST," SPIE Conference on Space Guidance, Control and Tracking II, Orlando, Florida, 01 April 1995.
  2. C. C. Clark, A. R. Eisenman, G. Udomkesmalee, and E. F. Tubbs, "Application of New Technologies to Future Celestial Trackers," SPIE Conference on Space Guidance, Control and Tracking II, Orlando, Florida, 01 April 1995.
1994
  1. S. Udomkesmalee, J. W. Alexander, and A. F. Tolivar, "Stochastic Star Identification," Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 17(6), 01 November 1994.