Robots

The robot platforms I have worked with: mobile robots I have made autonomous, robotic arms I have programmed, and the robots I built for ABU Robocon.

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Autonomous Mobile Robots

I have implemented autonomous navigation on a wide range of drive configurations, from quadrupeds to skid-steer and holonomic bases, in both indoor and outdoor environments. The work covers localization, mapping, path planning and control across the whole range of stacks: custom navigation stacks written from scratch, fully autonomous execution running entirely on microcontrollers, and Nav2. I have plenty of experience with ROS. That is not the same as liking it.

3D LiDAR2D LiDARWheel EncodersPassive EncodersIMU

Unitree Go2

QuadrupedIndoor · Outdoor

A legged platform that can handle terrain wheeled robots can't.

Outdoor 4WD Skid-Steer

Skid-SteerOutdoor

A rugged all-terrain base for navigating unstructured outdoor spaces such as a campus.

eBot

4WD DifferentialIndoor

A warehouse robot used in e-Yantra's logistics themes, working alongside a robotic arm to move payloads.

Modular Skid-Steer Base

Skid-SteerIndoor

A custom-built base with a 20 kg payload capacity and a universal mounting plate, running Nav2. Built with my interns.

3 & 4-Wheel Holonomic Drives

Omni-WheelIndoor

Omni-wheel bases that can move in any direction. I did the kinematic modelling, PID-based odometry and path correction.

F1TENTH Race Car

AckermannIndoor

A 1/10-scale autonomous race car that follows an optimized raceline. Read more

Robotic Arms

Universal Robots · 6-DoF

UR5

The UR5 is the collaborative arm at the centre of the e-Yantra Robotics Competition themes I developed, Cosmo Logistic and Logistic coBot. In these themes, students program it through ROS 2 to pick and place payloads, working together with the eBot mobile robot in a warehouse setting. Read more

Kinova · 6-DoF

Kinova Gen3 Lite

A drawing robot: the arm holds a pen and sketches images on paper.

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AgileX · 6-DoF

AgileX PiPER

A chess-playing robot that moves pieces on a physical board to play a game against a human.

ABU Robocon

The robots I built with Team Rudra for ABU Robocon, the Asia-Pacific robotics contest where each year’s game sets a new challenge.

2023: Supervising the team

I supervised the electronics and programming of both robots. Each was semi-automatic, a fully closed-loop system with a Teensy 4.1 as the main controller. Their task was to pick up rings and throw them onto targets to score as many points as possible.

Rabbit Robot

Picks up the placed rings and throws them onto the targets.

Elephant Robot

Picks up the placed rings and throws them onto the targets.

2022: Electronics, programming and operating

I was responsible for the electronics and programming of both robots. Each was semi-automatic with a fully automatic mode, and each was a closed-loop system with active feedback on every mechanism, built around an ARM Cortex-M7 Teensy 4.1. I also operated Robot 1 at the official competition.

Robot 1

Throws balls to knock down the lagori (the stack of stones) and to hit the ball on the opposing robot's head.

Robot 2

Rebuilds the knocked-down lagori pile while balancing a ball on its head.

2021: My first robots

Both robots were semi-automatic with a fully automatic mode, and each was a closed-loop system with an ATmega2560 as the main controller. I was responsible for their programming and automation.

Defense Robot

Picks up, passes, deflects and throws arrows.

Throwing Robot

Picks up arrows and throws them.

Image credits: UR5, “Cobot.jpg” by GrowSkills Robotics, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons. Unitree Go2, “Unitree Go2 of Salvamont front view” by HotNews Romania (Adi Iacob, Ovidiu Popica), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.