Kenn Sebesta
Executive Director Of RASTIC (Robotics And Autonomous Systems Technology Innovation Center)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolKenn Sebesta is an experienced robotics and autonomous systems leader with 14 years building flight control, motor-control firmware, and embedded systems for drones and electric propulsion. As Executive Director of RASTIC at Boston University and a PhD-trained controls specialist, he bridges academic rigor with product-focused engineering, teaching biomedical engineering while leading applied research. His hands-on contributions to influential open-source projects like dRonin and VESC demonstrate deep expertise in low-level FOC algorithms, actuator/mixer tuning, and robust watchdog/init sequences that improve real-world flight and motor reliability. Previously directing hardware and firmware at Soofa and shaping advanced concepts at CyPhy Works, he’s known for turning control theory into deployable avionics and propulsion software. Colleagues rely on him for clear communication across teams and for pragmatic solutions that marry control systems, embedded C/C++, and user-facing Qt interfaces.
13 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
Master's degree Controls, Master's degree Controls at Université Bourgogne EuropePhD Controls, PhD Controls at University of Luxembourg
English, French, Romanian, German, Luxembourgish
Github Skills (31)
c-language10
autopilot10
controller10
drones10
c1110
c1710
controls10
sys10
pwm10
embedded10
cprogramming-language10
qt9
rotor9
sensor-fusion9
system-integration9
Programming languages (18)
Github contributions (5)
TauLabs/TauLabs
Jun 2012 - Mar 2016
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:1012 commits, 198 PRs, 83 pushes in 3 years 9 months
Contributions summary:Kenn's contributions focus on enhancing the flight controller configuration. The user implemented a dialog to request altitude when setting the home location via the map, which improved the user experience. The user fixed a bug in setHomeLocation() and made changes in the code base that allows the flight controller to work better as well as removed some of the comments.
vedderb/bldc
Oct 2021 - Apr 2022
The VESC motor control firmware
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:44 reviews, 97 commits, 39 PRs in 6 months
Contributions summary:Kenn contributed significantly to the VESC motor control firmware, focusing on low-level hardware interactions and control algorithms. Their work involved modifying and optimizing code for Field-Oriented Control (FOC), including adjustments to voltage calculations, sensor integration (encoder, hall sensors, and HFI), and PWM control. The user's commits demonstrate a strong understanding of embedded systems development, particularly in the context of motor control and related sensor technologies.
vescfirmwaremotormotor-control
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