Annika Thomas

About Me

Hey! My name is Annika Thomas and I work with Jonathan How in the Aerospace Controls Laboratory. My research interests include robotic perception in multi-agent localization and mapping, computer vision applications for intelligent systems, and autonomy in space.

Prior:

Graduate Research Assistant in the STAR Laboratory at MIT (2022-2023)
Intern at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the Control and Autonomous Systems Group (2022)
Graduate Research Assistant in the Precision Motion Control Laboratory at MIT (2021-2023)
Research at the Plasma Dynamics Modeling Laboratory at Stanford (2020-2021)

Google Scholar / Linkedin / CV / Twitter

Recent News

Robotics and Regolith: Building Habitats from Moon Dust: Presented at TEDxBoston, June 2024
SOS-Match: Segmentation for Open-Set Robust Correspondence Search and Robot Localization in Unstructured Environments: accepted to IROS 2024
Collaborative Vision Systems for Space Exploration: Presented at TEDxMIT Superpowers, April 2024
PUMA: Fully Decentralized Uncertainty-aware Multiagent Trajectory Planner with Real-time Image Segmentation-based Frame Alignment: Presented in Yokohama, Japan, at ICRA May 2024
Global Localization in Unstructured Environments using Semantic Object Maps Built from Various Viewpoints: finalist for Best Paper in Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics at IROS October 2023
Protecting Satellites in Low Earth Orbit: An Overview of Hazards and Policy Solutions published by MIT Science Policy Review August 2023

Select Projects

SOS-Match

Segmentation for Open-Set Robust Correspondence Search and Robot Localization in Unstructured Environments

BeaverCube2 CubeSat

Robust structural and mechanical design of an Earth-observing CubeSat planned to launch November 2023

Spherical Control Moment Gyroscope

Analytical design and simulation of inductive spin drive for spherical control moment gyroscope

Talks

Robotics and Regolith: Building Habitats from Moon Dust: Presented at TEDxBoston, June 2024
Vision in Space: Presented at MIT Media Lab for Roxbury Latin Class of 2025
Collaborative Vision Systems for Space Exploration: Presented at TEDxMIT Superpowers, April 2024
From Pathology to Path Planning: Exploring New Frontiers in Robotics: Presented at Women in Engineering 2024 from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, April 2024
Invited Panelist, MIT Mechanical Engineering Graduate Seminar, October 2023
Invited Speaker, MIT Women's Technology Program, August 2023
Invited Lecturer and Panelist, Beaver Works Summer Institute, MIT June 2023
Invited Speaker, Board of Directors End of Year Seminar, College of Idaho, May 2019