Dr. Nicolas Keßler

About

My interests comprise optimal control of spacecraft or drones and I enjoy working on complex projects within interdisciplinary teams. My research is focused on stabilizing flight paths along a given reference and solving large scale optimal controller synthesis problems.

Education

I graduated from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2021 with a focus on software engineering and control theory, completing my studies in mechatronics. During my academic tenure, I was actively involved with Kamaro Engineering e. V., where I worked on developing modular field robots. My master's thesis centered on modeling space maneuvering and docking vehicles at the test facility at the University of Würzburg. From 2021 to 2024, I pursued my Ph.D. at Politecnico di Milano as part of the Marie-Skłodowska Curie Innovative Training Network ELO-X. Subsequently, I worked on drone defense research at Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg until 2025, after which I have joined the research group led by Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Matthias Gerdts.