Andrea M. Tonello

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Andrea M. Tonello is a robotics researcher whose work focuses on the control and trajectory generation of complex, underactuated mechanical systems—systems with fewer actuators than degrees of freedom. His key contributions span three main areas: smooth trajectory planning for unmanned vehicles, novel mechanical design for robotics, and advanced nonlinear control theory. His most cited work, a 2021 paper on a Recursive Smooth Trajectory (RST) generation method for UAVs (28 citations), provides a closed-form polynomial solution that satisfies arbitrary dynamic limits, a significant practical advance for autonomous flight. Tonello also introduced the Swash Mass Pendulum (SMP), a novel robotic mechanism controlled via passivity-based methods (13 citations). His theoretical depth is showcased in a 2025 paper on energy shaping control for 6DOF underactuated systems with underactuation degree two (7 citations), tackling the challenging problem of stabilizing systems on SE(3) without a cascade structure. This work demonstrates his ability to push the boundaries of nonlinear control, making him a notable figure in the intersection of mechanism design and control theory for next-generation robotic systems.