PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Mark W. Mueller

Also known as Mark Müller

Mark Mueller is a UC Berkeley robotics researcher whose work covers autonomous flying robots, motion planning, and learning-based flight control. He earned a B.Eng. in mechanical and aeronautical engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2008 and mechanical engineering degrees at ETH Zurich: an M.Sc. in 2011 and a Dr.Sc. in 2015. He received the 2016 Georges Giralt PhD Award and joined Berkeley’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in August 2016. His work includes RAPPIDS for drone navigation in 2020, a controller that combines imitation learning and reinforcement learning published in 2025, and the 2025 book Dynamics and Control of Autonomous Flight. As of October 2026, he is an associate professor of mechanical engineering, leads HiPeRLab, and serves as associate director of Berkeley’s aerospace engineering programs.

Works
103
Citations
3,484
h-index
26

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 28 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2008

    Engineering at Pretoria

    He earns a B.Eng. in mechanical and aeronautical engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2008.

  2. 2011

    A master’s at ETH Zurich

    In 2011, he earns an M.Sc. in mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich. His master’s thesis receives the 2011 Jacob Ackeret Prize from the Swiss Association of Aeronautical Sciences.

  3. 2014

    Flight after propeller loss

    In 2014, he coauthors “Stability and control of a quadrocopter despite the complete loss of one, two, or three propellers” with Raffaello D’Andrea for the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

  4. 2015

    A doctorate in flight control

    He completes a Dr.Sc. in mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich in 2015. At the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, he studies under Raffaello D’Andrea.

  5. 2016

    The Georges Giralt Award

    In 2016, he receives the Georges Giralt PhD Award for his thesis on quadcopter trajectory generation, fail-safe strategies, and state estimation.

  6. August 2016

    Joining Berkeley’s engineering department

    He joins UC Berkeley’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in August 2016. Before the move, he spends time at Verity Studios.

  7. 2020

    RAPPIDS for drone navigation

    In 2020, he coauthors RAPPIDS with Nathan Bucki and Junseok Lee. The algorithm finds paths that avoid collisions from a single depth image and evaluates thousands of candidate paths in milliseconds on computers with limited processing power.

  8. 2024–2025

    A controller with extreme adaptation

    In 2024, he coauthors the preprint A Learning-based Quadcopter Controller with Extreme Adaptation, published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics in 2025. The controller combines imitation learning and reinforcement learning to adapt to changes in a drone’s mass, size, and motors.

  9. 2025

    Dynamics and Control of Autonomous Flight

    He publishes Dynamics and Control of Autonomous Flight in Springer’s Mathematical Engineering series in 2025.

  10. As of October 2026

    Professor and HiPeRLab head

    As of October 2026, he is an associate professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and leads the High Performance Robotics Laboratory (HiPeRLab). He also serves as associate director of the College of Engineering’s Aerospace Engineering Programs and vice-chair for Master of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. HiPeRLab studies aircraft design, dynamics, control, perception, and data-driven methods for autonomous flight.

Career

  1. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyAssociate Professor
  2. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyHead of the High Performance Robotics Laboratory (HiPeRLab)
  3. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyAssociate Director of Aerospace Engineering Programs
  4. NowUniversity of California, BerkeleyVice-chair for Master of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
  5. From 2016University of California, Berkeley

Education

  1. 2015ETH ZurichDr.Sc.
  2. 2011ETH ZurichM.Sc.
  3. 2008University of PretoriaB.Eng.

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Mark W. Mueller - UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering me.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  2. Mark W. Mueller – HiPeRLab hiperlab.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  3. Publications – HiPeRLab hiperlab.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  4. Mark W. Mueller | Research UC Berkeley vcresearch.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.
  5. Georges Giralt PhD Award 2022 old.eu-robotics.net. Checked 28 October 2026.
  6. [2003.01245] Rectangular Pyramid Partitioning using Integrated Depth Sensors (RAPPIDS): A Fast Planner for Multicopter Navigation arxiv.org. Checked 28 October 2026.
  7. [2409.12949] A Learning-based Quadcopter Controller with Extreme Adaptation arxiv.org. Checked 28 October 2026.
  8. Leadership | Center for Applied Drone Research cadr.berkeley.edu. Checked 28 October 2026.