Thomas Stastny
Senior Researcher at ETH Zürich
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolThomas Stastny is a senior researcher and aerial-robotics engineer with 11 years of experience building autonomous systems for extreme environments, from the Arctic and Antarctic to the Amazon and Alpine ranges. He combines hands-on field deployments with deep technical expertise in guidance, navigation, and control, contributing to flagship open-source projects like PX4 and MAVROS—adding critical IMU, GPS, wind-estimation, and fixed-wing control improvements. At ETH Zürich he leads work integrating foundational vision models, mm-wave radar, and learned controllers for perceptive aerial manipulation, and previously managed GNC engineering at Auterion. His background spans system identification, near-stall and short-field flight strategies, and endurance UAV autonomy, including work on the AtlantikSolar record-setting platform. Known for turning research into practical, reliable autonomy in remote settings, he blends rigorous academic training (PhD ETH Zürich) with production-grade embedded and back-end contributions.
11 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
University of KansasDoctor of Philosophy - PhD, Robotics, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Robotics at ETH ZürichTU Delft
Github Skills (14)
navigationbar10
c-language10
fixed10
eigen10
sens10
cprogramming-language10
autopilot10
sensor10
ros10
navigationview10
mavlink10
navigation-drawer10
embedded8
sys8
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
PX4/PX4-Autopilot
Mar 2018 - Dec 2022
PX4 Autopilot Software
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:376 reviews, 128 commits, 60 PRs in 4 years 10 months
Contributions summary:Thomas's commits primarily focus on enhancements to the fixed-wing attitude and position control modules. Their contributions include moving angular rate limits, scheduling airspeed and flap deployment trims, and adding takeoff flaps settings. The user also addressed an issue related to mission feasibility and integrated optional NPFG library, adding further features to the autopilot system.
multicopteravoidancedroneuasraspberry-pi
mavlink/mavros
Apr 2018 - Apr 2018
MAVLink to ROS gateway with proxy for Ground Control Station
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:6 commits, 5 PRs, 18 comments in 11 days
Contributions summary:Thomas primarily contributed to the `imu` and `global position` plugins within the MAVROS framework. They made several modifications to the `imu` plugin, including publishing differential and static pressure sensor data, and fixing pressure units. Additionally, the user corrected the GPS velocity convention in the `global position` plugin. Further contributions include adding a wind estimation plugin and associated configurations.
proxyros2ground-control-stationros-nodemavros-msgs
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