Tristan Hasseler
Papers
6
Total Citations
94
H-Index
4
About
Tristan Hasseler is a robotics and space exploration researcher whose work sits at the compelling intersection of autonomous systems, extreme-terrain mobility, and planetary science. He is best known for his central contributions to the EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor) project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — a pioneering snake-like robot designed to explore ice worlds such as Saturn's moon Enceladus, where subsurface oceans and active vent systems make the search for life tantalisingly plausible. His most-cited work, "EELS: Autonomous snake-like robot with task and motion planning capabilities for ice world exploration" (2024, 62 citations), established foundational principles for navigating environments where terrain specifications are deeply uncertain and prior reconnaissance is impossible. Hasseler has also advanced simulation infrastructure through EELS-DARTS and the broader Dshell-DARTS toolkit, enabling high-fidelity autonomy development for complex multi-degree-of-freedom robots. His NEO autonomy framework further demonstrates his commitment to building robustly adaptive systems capable of one-shot exploration in genuinely unknown environments. Collectively, his research is reshaping what robotic space exploration can achieve in the most inaccessible corners of the solar system.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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