Morokot Sakal
I’m a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology, supervised by Dr. Camilo A. Riano-Rios in the Space Vehicles and Robotics (SVR) Lab.
Previously, I earned my M.Eng. in Aerospace Engineering from Tohoku University in Japan, where I worked with Dr. -Ing. Toshinori Kuwahara in the Space Infrastructure Engineering Laboratory, formerly part of the Space Robotics Laboratory. I contributed to the development and testing of the 50 kg-class microsatellite RISESAT and the 3U CubeSat IHI-SAT.
I worked with Dr. Maximilien Berthet on the 1U CubeSat Apsara-1 project in Cambodia, a collaboration between the Dynamics and Control Laboratory at Institute of Technology of Cambodia and University of Tokyo. We submitted the design specification to the 6th-round KiboCUBE call.
I enjoy mentoring student teams in robotics competitions, including the World Robotics Olympiad and Cambodia Robotics Competition, as well as space competitions such as the International Space Challenge.
Google Scholar / LinkedIn / GitHub / YouTube
Research
I work on guidance, navigation, and control (GNC), adaptive/learning controllers, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbeds for small spacecraft. My previous work at Tohoku University included plug-and-play payload integration and fault detection and recovery software to support mission operations.
Adaptive Controller for Simultaneous Spacecraft Attitude Tracking and Reaction Wheel Fault Detection
George M. Nehma, Camilo Riano-Rios, Morokot Sakal, Madhur Tiwari
Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets (Accepted), 2026.
International Collaboration Towards Cambodia’s First Small Satellite Education Program: Lessons Learnt
Maximilien Berthet, Morokot Sakal, Penghuy Srean, Sotheara Oum, Polimey Im, Sokserey Srey, Ryohei Takahashi, Jorge Garcia, Nobuhiro Funabiki, Yoichi Suenaga, Rattana Chhin
35th AIAA/USU Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat), 2021 (SSC21-WKI-01).
Integration and Orbit Demonstration of Micro-Satellite Payload System Based on a Plug-and-Play On-Board Computer
Morokot Sakal, Toshinori Kuwahara, Hannah Tomio, Yu Murata, Kosuke Hanyu, Shinya Fujita, Yuji Sato, Yuji Sakamoto, Shinichi Kimura, Junichi Kurihara
TRANSACTIONS of the JASS, Aerospace Technology Japan, 19(5), 2021.
Ground Evaluation of the Attitude Control System of 3U-CubeSat IHI-SAT
Yu Murata, Yuji Sato, Morokot Sakal, Toshinori Kuwahara, Shinya Fujita, Yuko Kawasoe, Ryu Shinohara, Taku Izumiyama
IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration, 2020.