Biography

I am a Graduate Student with Masters in Robotics and Mechatronics from New York University currently working as a Robotics Engineer at BotCrew LLC. My primary research interest lies in the intersection of Optimal Control and Perception. Recently I am exploring reinforcement learning for contact rich manipulation.

Previously I worked as a research associate at Professor Giuseppe Loianno’s Agile Robotics and Perception Laboratory. During my undergraduate studies I worked in Prof Shital Chiddarwar IvLabs building quadrotors and working on control architectures to fly them in wind. Before that I spent the summer of 2022 working at Center of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, DRDO under Dr. Murali Krishna P (Scientist F) working on Autonomous Driving in crowded urban intersections.

Beyond research I enjoy reading, playing cricket, video games, cooking and sketching.

Experience

Robotics Engineer — BotCrew LLC

Feb 2025 – Present | Austin, Texas

• Developed a Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) system for Reeds-Shepp trajectories with gradient-based smoothing for the company’s flagship Gravion Robot
• Improved inference speed and reliability for the YOLOv8-based object classification pipeline using TensorRT and C++ for deployment in embedded systems
• Implemented OpenVINS-based Visual-Inertial Odometry in a ROS-free manner for system reliability and deployment-friendly platform integration

Graduate Research Associate — Agile Robotics and Perception Laboratory

Sep 2023 – Jan 2025 | New York University

• Developed a novel reactive collision avoidance framework integrating perception, planning, and control, improving real-time obstacle detection and response time for quadrotors at speeds up to 7.2 m/s in diverse environments
• Collaborated with the design team to optimize quadrotor platform, increasing flight time by 26% through firmware improvements, resulting in greater crash resilience and extended mission duration
• Authored and presented research combining nonlinear model predictive control and adaptive control barrier functions, refining RGB-D data with neural networks to enhance depth accuracy and improve real-time obstacle avoidance

Undergraduate Research Intern — Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, DRDO

May 2022 - July 2022 | Bangalore, India

• Developed a navigation pipeline designed to handle urban landscape complexities, rigorously tested across 15 different weather conditions and various maps, significantly enhancing overall system reliability
• Implemented PID controller and A* navigation algorithms to enable precise control and navigation for autonomous vehicles
• Implemented YOLOv5 for pedestrian detection and achieved safe vehicle movement in 12 test cases of traffic situations, avoiding collisions with pedestrians and vehicles

News

• [Jan 2026] Our Company has shifted to Austin, Texas.
• [May 2025] Joined BotCrew LLC as a Robotics Engineer.
• [Feb 2025] Joined BotCrew LLC as a Robotics Engineering Intern.
• [Dec 2024] Our paper “Reactive Collision Avoidance for Safe Agile Navigation” accepted at International Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025.
• [Sep 2023] Joined Agile Robotics and Perception Laboratory (ARPL) under Prof. Giuseppe Loianno as a Graduate Research Assistant.
• [Sep 2023] Joined New York University as a Mechatronics and Robotics Graduate Student.
• [Apr 2023] Our Paper “From Concept to Reality: An In-Depth Review of Autonomous Driving Strategies and Their Implementation” got accepted in International Conference on Mechanical Design and Manufacturing (ICMDM) 2023