OS Research Fellow - Cooperative Object Transportation

Manifold Research Group tackles ambitious, high-impact research problems that traditional institutions overlook—those too engineering-intensive for academia and too exploratory for industry. Inspired by coordinated research models like ARPAs and FROs, we assemble focused, cross-functional teams to systematically pursue and deliver paradigm-shifting science and technology.

Cooperative Object Transportation

Develop cooperative control strategies for spacecraft swarms that jointly transport rigid objects in orbit, enabling efficient, robust, and scalable on-orbit maneuvering. Your work will help pioneer decentralized, swarm-based architectures for future space logistics, debris removal, and in-orbit construction.

The Role

OS Team members form the core of Manifold Research Group. As an OS Research Fellow, you’ll actively drive our ambitious projects—from early-stage modeling and algorithm development to simulation, analysis, and publication.

In this project, you'll be working on:

• Developing cooperative control and guidance algorithms that coordinate thrust and torque across multiple spacecraft.
• Formulating and implementing optimization-based approaches for distributed, fuel-efficient orbital transportation.
• Investigating scalability and robustness under communication loss, partial failures, and dynamic constraints.
• Validating your methods through high-fidelity orbital simulations and theoretical analysis, with the goal of producing impactful research publications.

Qualifications

Outstanding research emerges from driven, talented minds. For this project, we are looking for the following attributes:

• Demonstrated prior research experience, evidenced by published work in peer-reviewed conferences, journals, or recognized preprint platforms.
• Strong proficiency in Python, particularly with optimization frameworks and solvers such as CasADi, CVXPY, or IPOPT.
• Basic knowledge of linear algebra, control theory, and optimization methods, with familiarity applying these to real-world systems.
• Fundamental understanding of orbital mechanics and astrodynamics, sufficient to model multi-body or relative motion problems. Specifically for this project, we're looking for familiarity with rigid body dynamics (rotation and torques along with translation and forces)
• Interest in swarm robotics, distributed optimization, or cooperative control for space applications.

Expectations

There are a few key expectations and clarifications we need to emphasize regarding the OS Research Team:

• Contribute approximately 10 hours per week to ensure meaningful progress and deep engagement with our projects. Flexibility around life commitments is understood; clear, proactive communication helps us support each other.
• Our working language is English, and strong proficiency is required to clearly communicate technical concepts without confusion or misunderstanding.
• This is a volunteer effort; none of us receive compensation of any kind—including monetary payment, academic credit, or other formal incentives. Our commitment is driven entirely by shared passion for impactful research.

More information on OS Research Team expectations is available here.

We look forward to seeing your application, and hopefully working together soon!