People
David Rubenstein has over twenty years of industrial and research experience in aerospace guidance, navigation and control system design and dynamic modeling and simulation development. He has worked for a variety of major defense and aerospace contractors including Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin), Raytheon Space and Missile Systems Design Laboratory and Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA.
Dr. Rubenstein received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and the M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. After several years of industrial experience, he returned to Penn State and received his Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. in 1995 in the area of spacecraft dynamics and control. His general areas of expertise include:
- Analytical models for simulation, parameter estimation and system
identification - Guidance and control system design and analysis
- Navigation, estimation and Kalman filtering algorithms
- Optimization techniques including nonlinear programming applications
During his years in industry, Dr. Rubenstein provided algorithms and models for a wide variety of aerospace systems including satellites, unmanned aerial (UAV) and unmanned underwater (UUV) vehicles, guided parachutes and parafoils, missiles, projectiles, and even a flying saucer. He designed the control system software for the reentry, return, and landing phases of (Kistler Aerospace) an unmanned reusable launch vehicle. Also, Dr. Rubenstein has built math models and developed simulations for the Wide Area Surveillance Projectile (WASP), a gun-launched vehicle that deploys wings after launch and subsequently flies autonomously, and for a ducted fan-based hovercraft UAV.
Since founding Maine Aerospace Consulting in 2003, Dr. Rubenstein has participated in several SBIR/STTR related programs including guidance law development for a small autonomous helicopter and a Phase I SBIR involving optimization of Tomahawk missile loiter patterns with Nascent Technology Corporation (NTC, Lexington, MA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Rubenstein recently completed the development of an Extended Kalman Estimator to reconstruct the deployment phase trajectory of a parachute airdrop for the Army’s Yuma Proving Grounds (YPG). He is currently designing a navigation algorithm to optimally combine eLORAN generated range measurements with GPS position and velocity measurements for CrossRate Technology, LLC in Portland, Maine. The algorithm includes a multi-state discrete Kalman Filter for incorporation of GPS observations (when available) with nominal range estimates generated by eLORAN.
In 2009, Dr. Rubenstein became Adjunct Faculty of Aerospace Engineering within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maine. In this capacity, he is tasked with developing an Aerospace Engineering minor at the University through the creation and teaching of three Aerospace courses beginning in the Fall semester of 2009. The courses include Astronautics, Aeronautics, and Spacecraft Orbit and Attitude Dynamics and Control.
Additionally, Dr. Rubenstein has supported (with Ship Motion Associates/Small Craft Engineering, Portland, ME) a successful proposal for a Maine Technology Institute (MTI) SBIR Seed Grant for a gyroscopic stabilization system for small boats and yachts, contributing control, dynamics and modeling components. He has published in numerous technical areas including optimal control applications, trajectory optimization and Dynamic Programming.
Dr. Rubenstein is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a former member of the AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Technical Committee and the American Astronautical Society (AAS) Spaceflight Mechanics Technical Committee. He also currently serves on the Maine Technology Institute's Information Technology (IT) Review Board and a steering committee tasked with guiding the effort to develop an aerospace/defense business cluster in Maine.
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