We provide a stimulating environment for students who want to be involved in control, decision-making, and planning of autonomous dynamical systems.

About DCSL

The Dynamics and Control Systems Laboratory (DCSL) at Georgia Tech's School of Aerospace Engineering conducts theoretical and experimental investigation of highly complex and uncertain aerospace and mechanical systems.

Our research focuses on AI, machine learning, decision-making, optimal control, and information theory with applications in robotics and autonomous systems. We address computational challenges in motion planning and decision-making for resource-constrained autonomous vehicles operating in dynamic environments.

Latest Updates

Derek Pan wins Best Paper at the Game Theory and AI for Security Conference

The award recognizes "Asymmetric-Information Resource Allocation Games: An LP Approach to Purposeful Deception," written with Yue Guan, Daigo Shishika of George Mason University, and Panagiotis Tsiotras, and presented in Ann Arbor, MI. The paper introduces the Deceptive Resource Allocation Game, in which a defender spreads resources across the true asset and several decoys to divert an attacker, and characterizes purposeful deception: deceiving only when doing so improves performance.

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Prof. Tsiotras delivers the Plenary talk at the 2026 American Control Conference (ACC)

During the 2026 American Control Conference, Prof. Tsiotras delivered the talk "From Covariance Control to Covariance Steering: The First 40 Years". The talk summarized covariance control and covariance steering as a way to mitigate uncertainty in stochastic systems and reviewed some recent results on covariance and distribution control for stochastic systems subject to probabilistic (chance) constraints, robust and data-driven distributional control, and will demonstrate the application of the theory to solve problems on control, robotics, and generative AI applications.

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Story on Penumbra Autonomy: New Space Startups Take Off at Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech’s faculty startup engine Quadrant-i (Q-i), together with the Space Research Institute, launched the first cohort of the CreationsVC Space Fellows Program. Penumbra Autonomy, a startup founded by Prof. Panagiotis Tsiotras, Juan Diego Florez-Castillo, and Iason Velentzas from the DCSL, is part of this cohort. The company aims to commercialize algorithms that help spacecraft maneuver when they have limited information on their environment.

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Prof. Tsiotras speaks at the National Academies webinar "Mathematics in Flight"

Prof. Panagiotis Tsiotras joined Karen Marais (Purdue University) for "Mathematics in Flight: Innovation by the Numbers," a National Academies webinar moderated by Jordan Ellenberg (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Aimed at policymakers and a general audience, the panel discussed the foundational role mathematics plays in allowing aircraft to take off, navigate, and arrive safely, drawing on flight mechanics, control, and decision-making.

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Travis Driver wins the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Best Paper Award

The paper "Keypoint-based Stereophotoclinometry for Characterizing and Navigating Small Bodies: A Factor Graph Approach," by Travis Driver, Andrew Vaughan, Yang Cheng, Adnan Ansar, John Christian, and Panagiotis Tsiotras, received the 2024 AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Best Paper Award. The work was carried out with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.

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Prof. Tsiotras explains Hubble's shift to one-gyro mode in The Conversation

Writing for The Conversation, Prof. Panagiotis Tsiotras explained how the Hubble Space Telescope keeps its precise pointing after moving to one-gyro operations. The article describes how spacecraft attitude control systems work and how NASA compensates for failed gyroscopes using star trackers, sun sensors, and magnetometers. It was republished by phys.org, Discover Magazine, and other outlets.

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