Neil Palumbo

Neil Palumbo holds a Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering) from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He is a Principal Professional Staff Member (retired) of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) and has over 28 years of experience there. At JHU/APL, he performed and led applied missile guidance and control research and development and held several technical management positions over the years. Neil has an extensive technical background in the areas of classical control systems, optimal control and estimation, feedback design via eigenstructure assignment, optimization methods, swarming systems, fuzzy and expert systems, genetic algorithms, and modeling and simulation of dynamic systems. His applied technical experience includes the development, design, analysis, and simulation of advanced homing missile guidance and control algorithms spanning various Department of Defense (DoD) programs.

Dr. Palumbo is a Lecturer in the Johns Hopkins University Engineering for Professionals Program, and currently teaches two online courses; Continuous Control Systems (EN.525.609), and Intelligent Algorithms (EN.525.770). He has also taught graduate-level control systems and fuzzy systems courses at The Catholic University of America College of Engineering (from 1997-2004).

Education History

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Temple University

Work Experience

Principal Professional Staff, (Retired), JHU Applied Physics Laboratory

Publications

Palumbo, N.F. and B.P. Butz, “Considerations in the Development of a Knowledge-Based Control Systems Design Associate”, Proc. of the 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Arlington, VA, Aug. 1988, pp. 263-268.

Palumbo, N.F. and B.P. Butz, “Considerations in the Development of an Intelligent Design Associate”, Proc. of the 27th Conference on Decision and Control, Dec. 1988, pp. 2251-2252.

Butz, B.P., Palumbo, N.F. and D.G. Miller, “An Expert System for Flight Control System Design in Rotorcraft”, Proc. of the 4th IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Albany, NY, Sept. 1989, pp. 601-604.

Butz, B.P. and N.F. Palumbo, “Developing an Expert System for Control System Design”, International Journal on Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Vol. 2, Dec. 1989, pp. 277-295.

Unterberger, R.C., Butz, B.P., Palumbo, N.F. and D.G. Miller, “Control Laws Expert Assistant for Rotorcraft”, SPIE Volume 1293, Applications of Artificial Intelligence VIII, Apr. 1990, pp. 62-73.

Butz, B.P., Palumbo, N.F. and D.G. Miller, “An Expert System for Control System Design”, Proc. of the 5th IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Sept. 1990, pp. 1156-1162.

Palumbo, N.F., S.K. Biswas and B.P. Butz, “Recovery of Close-to-Nominal Pre-Fault Performance Using the Pseudo-Inverse/Eigenstructure Assignment Method”, Proc. of the 1992 Amer. Cont. Conf., June 1992.

B.P. Butz, N.F. Palumbo, R.C. Unterberger, D.G. Miller and G. L. Rushing, “Knowledge-Based Design of Rotorcraft Flight Control Systems”, Proc. of the 1992 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Oct. 1992, pp. 1706-1711.

Butz, B.P. and N.F. Palumbo, “Expert Systems for Control Systems Design”, Chapter 27 in Applied Control, S. Tzofestas, Editor, Marcel Dekker, Publishing Co., Apr. 1993, pp. 825-850.

Palumbo, N.F., and S.K. Biswas, “Output Feedback Eigenstructure Assignment by way of a Bilinear Transformation”, Proc. of the 8th IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Aug. 25-27, 1993.

Biswas, S.K., and N.F. Palumbo, “Generalized Eigenstructure Assignment via State Feedback”, To appear.

Palumbo, N.F., and T.D. Jackson, “A Fully Integrated Missile Guidance and Control System,” Proc. of the International Congress on Dynamics and Control Systems DYCONS9, Aug. 5-7, 1999.

Palumbo, N.F., and T.D. Jackson, “Integrated Missile Guidance and Control: A State-Dependent Riccati Differential Equation Approach,” Proc. of the 1999 IEEE International Conference on Control Applications, Aug 22-27, 1999.

Palumbo N.F., and S.G. Casper, “Integration of a Missile Autopilot, Guidance Filter and Guidance Law,” AIAA/BMDO Technology Conference, July 17-20, 2000.

Palumbo, N.F., “Integration of a Missile Autopilot, Guidance Filter, and Guidance Law,” Workshop on Advances in Navigation, Guidance and Control, Redstone Arsenal, Nov. 1-2, 2000.

Palumbo, N.F., and B.E. Reardon, “A High-Order Differential-Game Guidance Law Tuned Via Nonlinear Simulation,” 10th Annual AIAA/BMDO Technology Conference, July 23-27, 2001.

Palumbo, N.F., and M. Leal, “A Statistical Simulation Tool to Assess Kinetic Warhead Design and Hit Performance,” 2001 National Fire Control Symposium, Aug. 24-31, 2001.

Reardon, B.E., N.F. Palumbo and S.G. Casper, “Simulation-Based Performance Optimization of Missile Guidance and Control Algorithms,” AIAA/MDA 2002 Technology Conference, August 22-25, 2002.

Palumbo, N.F., “Boost-Augmented Proportional Navigation Guidance Policy,” Annotated Viewgraphs, 1st-Missile Defense Conference, March 3-7, 2003, Washington, D.C.

Bridges, M.M. and N.F. Palumbo, “A New Threat Identification and Intercept Point Prediction Strategy for Boost-Phase Engagements,” Annotated Viewgraphs, 1st Missile Defense Conference, March 3-7, 2003, Washington, D.C.

Blauwkamp, R.A. and N.F. Palumbo, “Discrimination-Sensitive Missile Guidance Policies,” Annotated Viewgraphs, 1st-Missile Defense Conference, March 3-7, 2003, Washington, D.C.

Bridges, M.M., N.F. Palumbo, “A Threat-Template Correlated Flyout Guidance Concept with Application to Boost-Phase Engagements,” AIAA 3rd-Biennial National Forum on Weapon System Effectiveness, November 18-20, 2003, Seal Beach, CA.

Blauwkamp, R.A. and N.F. Palumbo, “Constrained Discrimination-Sensitive Missile Guidance Techniques,” Annotated Viewgraphs, 2nd-Missile Defense Conference, March 22-26, 2004, Washington, D.C.

Bridges, M.M., N.F. Palumbo, “Intercept Point Prediction in Boost-Phase Engagements,” AIAA 2nd-Missile Defense Conference, March 22-26, 2004, Washington, D.C.

Palumbo, N.F., B.E. Reardon and R.A. Blauwkamp, “Integrated Guidance and Control for Homing Missiles,” Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest, April-June 2005, vol. 25, No. 2, pages 121-139.

Palumbo, N.F., U.J. Shankar, “Cooperative Multi-Interceptor Homing Guidance,” JHU/APL ADSD Newsletter Article, March, 2005.

Blauwkamp, R.A., U.J. Shankar and N.F. Palumbo, “Information-Sensitive Guidance and Control for Ballistic Missile Defense Applications,” Paper Presented at the 4th-Missile Defense Conference, March 21, 2006.

Harrison, G.A., and N.F. Palumbo, “Missile Guidance and Aimpoint Selection Algorithms for Swarm-on-Swarm Engagements,” 7th Annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference, 23-26 March 2009, Washington, DC.

Palumbo, N.F., “Homing Missile Guidance – Forward to the Issue,” APL Technical Digest, Volume 29, Number 1, pages 2-8, August 2010.

Palumbo, N.F., R.A. Blauwkamp, and J.M. Lloyd, “Principles of Homing Guidance,” APL Technical Digest, Volume 29, Number 1, pages 25-41, August 2010.

Palumbo, N.F., R.A. Blauwkamp, and J.M. Lloyd, “Modern Guidance Theory and Techniques,” APL Technical Digest, Volume 29, Number 1, pages 42-59, August 2010.

Palumbo, N.F., G.A. Harrison, R.A. Blauwkamp, and J.K. Marquart, “Guidance Filter Fundamentals,” APL Technical Digest, Volume 29, Number 1, pages 60-70, August 2010.

Honors and Awards

• Achievement in Sea-Based Terminal Engineering (2020)
• AEGIS BMD Technical Excellence Award (2012)

Professional Organizations

IEEE
AIAA