Papers
17
Total Citations
187
H-Index
9
About
Estrellina Pacis is a robotics researcher whose work spans two compelling frontiers: military unmanned ground vehicles and space exploration robotics. Her early contributions focused on advancing man-portable robotic systems for warfighters, addressing critical challenges in weight reduction, autonomous behavior, and intuitive human-robot interaction — including pioneering efforts to eliminate cumbersome operator control units in favor of more natural control paradigms. These foundational papers garnered over 45 combined citations and helped shape the direction of the U.S. Joint Robotics Program. From the mid-2000s onward, Pacis turned her expertise toward NASA's lunar exploration ambitions, contributing significantly to utility robotics for Moon surface operations, robotic scouting strategies, and real-time performance assessment frameworks for remote exploration missions. Her 2008 field testing work and subsequent investigations into crew-controlled telerobotics — including experiments aboard the International Space Station — demonstrate a rare ability to bridge theoretical research and operational deployment. With over 147 total citations across a decade of publication, Pacis has built a distinguished body of work that consistently addresses one of robotics' hardest problems: making autonomous systems genuinely useful to the humans who depend on them, whether on a battlefield or the lunar surface.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Field Testing of Utility Robots for Lunar Surface Operations24 citations · 2008
- 3Toward a warfighter’s associate: eliminating the operator control unit20 citations · 2004
- 4Robotic Scouting for Human Exploration15 citations · 2009
- 5
- 6Transitioning unmanned ground vehicle research technologies12 citations · 2005
- 7
- 8
- 9Sensor fusion for intelligent behavior on small unmanned ground vehicles9 citations · 2007
- 10