Multiple Openings for Autonomous Navigation in Robotics

Prof. Mohanty's Autonomous Navigation for Robotics Lab is seeking passionate students to work on cutting-edge projects related to increasing the deployment of autonomous vehicles in land, aerial and space terrains.

The lab has a wide variety of ongoing projects in the areas of sensor fusion, machine learning, state estimation, such as:

  1. Creating a distributed simulation platform for testing the use of ultra-wide band sensors for cooperative navigation in lunar terrains and validating initial results using real-world rovers such as Turtlebots.
  2. Improving GPS navigation in dense urban areas by learning context from vision language models.
  3. Creating a framework for optimizing 3D reconstruction (neural radiance fields) from 2D images from multiple drones and validating the framework with real-world experiments.
  4. Creating synthetic datasets for increasing reliability of AI algorithms for Mars rover by using diffusion models and game engine, such as Unreal Engine.

As a mentor, I believe in creating a collaborative and supportive environment for my students. I meet with each student 1-2 times a week to help address concern and set achievable milestones. Students are expected to maintain weekly meeting notes to track their progress. Beyond individual meetings, all students are expected to contribute to lab brainstorming sessions and be proactive problem solvers. My goal is to equip my students with a set of hard/soft skills that makes them best prepared for future careers and/or graduate school in broad areas of machine learning/robotics/aerospace systems.

Name of research group, project, or lab
Prof. Mohanty's Research Group
Why join this research group or lab?

 By joining this lab, you will have the opportunity to:

  1. Develop a deep understanding of autonomous systems, sensor fusion, and machine learning.
  2. Increase your expertise in commonly used hardware platforms, software frameworks, simulation platforms in robotics.
  3. Gain an in-depth understanding of setting up and managing physical testing facilities.
  4. Structuring real-world and simulated experiments for autonomous systems.
  5. Exposure to machine learning techniques, including neural networks, diffusion models, and Neural Radiance Fields.
  6. Collaborate on publications for leading conferences and journals.
Logistics Information:
Project categories
Computer Science
Engineering
Robotics
Student ranks applicable
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
Student qualifications

The student can be of any academic level but should be comfortable with a wide variety of hardware and software platforms. The exact project assignment will depend on the skillset of the student but some immediate tasks include:

  1. Setting up simulation platforms such as AirSim and CARLA on lab computers.
  2. Instrumenting a variety of ground and aerial robots with custom sensors and creating communication protocols for custom state estimation algorithms via ROS.
  3. Setting up rendering software such as NerfStudio on Linux machines and becoming familiar with parallel training/GPU training on supercomputing clusters.
  4. Helping Prof. Mohanty setup an indoor flight room with Vicon Optitrak camera system, extracting camera data and localizing different objects (including drones) in the room.
  5. Helping with outdoor flight tests and heterogeneous testing of ground and aerial platforms.

If you have any or all of the skills listed below, please do reach out!

  • Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or C++.
  • Familiarity with robotics platforms (e.g., Turtlebot, UAVs) and ROS (Robot Operating System).
  • Experience with simulation environments like AirSim, CARLA, or Gazebo is a plus.
  • Interest in working with sensor systems (e.g., UWB, GPS, cameras, Vicon systems).
  • Familiarity with machine learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) or computer vision libraries (e.g., OpenCV).
Time commitment
Spring - Part Time
Summer - Full Time
Compensation
Academic Credit
Paid Research
Number of openings
2
Project start
Spring 2025
Contact Information:
Mentor
admohanty@hmc.edu
Principal investigator
Name of project director or principal investigator
Prof. Adyasha Mohanty
Email address of project director or principal investigator
admohanty@g.hmc.edu
2 sp. | 12 appl.
Hours per week
Spring - Part Time (+1)
Spring - Part TimeSummer - Full Time
Project categories
Robotics (+2)
Computer ScienceEngineeringRobotics