Bennet Outland
Education
PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences
Current
University of Colorado Boulder
MS in Computer Science and Engineering
2025
South Dakota Mines
Autonomous Cislunar Rendezvous: Efficient Trajectory Generation and Computation. Advisors: Dr. Jeffery McGough and Dr. Alexander Soderlund.
BS in Mechanical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude
2024
South Dakota Mines
Capstone: Spacecraft Simulation via Omnicopter Dynamics.
Research Interests
My research interests are in differential game theory, POMDPs, amortized optimization, optimization under uncertainty, and astrodynamics. Due to the difficulty and computational limitations associated with operating in the space domain, guarantees for safety and optimality are needed for the advancement of multi-agent space systems. My work centers on developing computationally efficient numerical methods for multi-agent systems to provide aforementioned guarantees. This has lead into decomposing difficult autonomy challenges via task allocation, solving differential games, and amortized optimization to speed up computation.
Journal Publications
Orbital Stability of Closely-Spaced Four-planet Systems
Icarus
B Outland, G. Noble, A. Smith, J. Lissauer
- Four-planet system stability falls between three- and five-planet systems and is primarily driven by first- and second-order mean motion resonances, with a stability phase-shifting mechanism tied to initial longitudes.
Forthcoming Publications
A Composite Inverse Problem Approach for the On-Orbit Debris Detection and Orbital Determination Problems
Forthcoming
B Outland, J. Schwartz, A. Soderlund
- SENTINEL frames on-orbit debris detection and orbital determination as a composite inverse problem, extracting faint debris from noisy, corrupted imagery and recovering orbits from angles-only tracklets.
COLONY: Trust-Based Multi-Agent Task Allocation Under Fatigue
Forthcoming
E. Outland, B Outland, V. Arya
- COLONY decentrally allocates tasks across an STL-structured task graph by learning agents' uncertain, use-degrading capabilities through trust-based consensus, demonstrated on Mars rover, satellite repair, and lunar habitat problems.
Robust Game-theoretic Motion Planning over Extended Time Horizons
Forthcoming
B Outland, V Arya
- WOLF couples receding-horizon MPC with a sequential-convexification differential games solver, co-optimizing a dynamic robustness tube with the trajectory to guarantee feasibility under disturbances in adversarial orbital games.
A Fast, Convergent Algorithm for Solving Non-convex Partially-Decoupled Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problems
Forthcoming
B Outland, V Arya
- FALCON solves non-convex, partially-decoupled generalized Nash equilibrium problems via sequential convex programming and a potential-game reformulation, with global convergence guarantees to open-loop Nash equilibria.
Conference Presentations
UUV Self-Localization and Intelligent Mapping
2023
B Outland, J. McGough, R. Loveland
Naval Engineering Education Consortium, Naval Undersea Warfare Center
Starting Longitudes and the Lifetimes of Closely Spaced Four-Planet Systems
2021
G. Noble, B Outland, A. Smith, J. Lissauer
American Geophysical Union Fall Conference
Orbital Stability of Compact Four-Planet Systems
2021
B Outland, G. Noble, A. Smith, J. Lissauer
American Astronomical Society, Division of Planetary Sciences Meeting
Dependence of Lifetimes of Closely-Spaced Planetary Systems on Number of Planets
2021
J. Lissauer, S. Gavino, A. Smith, B Outland, G. Noble, P. Gratia
American Astronomical Society, Division of Planetary Sciences Meeting
Orbital Stability of Compact Four-Planet Systems
2020
B Outland, G. Noble, A. Smith, J. Lissauer
American Geophysical Union Fall Conference
Honors
Outstanding Senior Award
2024
Second Year Recipient
Outstanding Senior Award
2023
Recipient
Dean's List
2021–2023
All Pure Undergraduate Semesters
Tau Beta Pi
2023–Current
South Dakota Alpha Chapter Member
National Society of Leadership and Success
2022–Current
Member
Awards
DoD SMART Scholarship for Service
2025
≈ $430,000 Award for pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences
Senior Design CRADA
2023–2024
$5,000 for the development of a customizable omnicopter, report with theoretical underpinnings, and design of a novel control algorithm.
DoD SMART Scholarship for Service Award Extension
2022
≈ $45,000 Award Adjustment for pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering
DoD SMART Scholarship for Service
2022
≈ $98,000 Award for pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering