Space Autonomy Lab

Space for good

Developing intelligent, safe, and autonomous systems for space exploration, debris removal, and proximity operations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Lab focus areas: active debris removal, on-orbit servicing and space sustainability, driven by autonomy and AI for rendezvous and proximity operations

As of August 2024, an estimated

140 million+ pieces of debris smaller than 1 cm

1.2 million pieces of debris 1–10 cm

54,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 cm

orbit Earth. These populations are growing. — ESA Space Debris Report

Latest Updates

News

Nov 2026

Meta-RL Paper Accepted

Our paper on meta-reinforcement learning for robust, non-greedy control barrier functions in spacecraft proximity operations has been accepted for publication.

Publication

2026

GATE Grant Awarded

Minduli received a Grants for Advancement of Teaching in Engineering (GATE) award from The Grainger College of Engineering to build an AI-based self-assessment tool that shows students, before a course starts, whether they are prepared for it.

Award

Aug 2026

New Journal Paper: CORTEX: An autonomous, end-to-end, convex-based framework for close-range rendezvous trajectory design and guidance with hardware testbed validation

Convex-based trajectory design and testing for close-range rendezvous.

Journal Article

All news