Hello! I am
Akhilrajan

A robotics engineering graduate, open to work as a full time employee in the field of robotics or automation.
A dedicated engineer who loves to solve complex problems through innovative feasible solutions.
I am currently working as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Maryland Robotics Center, CDCL Group.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Connect with me: @akhilrajan

About Me

Hello! I am Akhil, a robotics engineering graduate. I am actively seeking full-time opportunities in the field of robotics, path planning, perception, localization, ML/AI, and/or controls.
I am working as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) at the University of Maryland, College Park. My areas of research include path planning, SLAM, outdoor navigation, multi-robot collaborative decision making, ML, Deep Learning, and perception. I have extensive research and project experiences in the fields of Machine Learning, Planning and various Software package development (Autonomy Stack) such as navigation, perception based localization, swarm-robot interface and navigation stack.
Please feel free to connect with me on my socials.

Skills

  • Programming Languages: C, C++, C#, Python

  • Game Development: Unity , Unreal

  • Version Control: Git

  • Docker

  • VR - UI/UX Design

  • Robot Operating System (ROS/ROS2)

  • Operating Systems: Windows , Linux , Ubuntu

  • Android App Development

Education

SSN College of Engineering
Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering
2016 - 2020

University of Maryland
Master of Engineering, Robotics Engineering
2021 - 2023

Projects

Checkout My Projects!

Experience

Research Assistant, Robotics and Autonomy Lab - MRC (Mar 2022 – May 2023)

  • Developed an outdoor localization stack for a quadruped robot using EKF sensor fusion of GPS, Odom, IMU data.
  • Deployed a GPS target – trajectory planner with no a priori map knowledge.
  • Dynamic Window Approach (DWA) planner with obstacle avoidance using Lidar, to follow targets.
  • Research on a novel map integration algorithm generated by aerial drones and ground mobility robots, combined map contains ground perspective view for areas occluded from drones

    • Team Lead, ABU Robocon (Oct 2019 - Apr 2020)

  • Headed a 15-member team in developing a quadruped robot for the ABU Robocon competition 2019.
  • Modeled the quadruped robot using SolidWorks. Mechanical and electrical build of the robot.
  • Improved the SSD-mobilenet V2 object detection model using Transfer Learning to include detection of potholes and ropes. Achieved average accuracy of 85%.
  • Implemented the customized object detection model to detect dynamic obstacles and recompute trajectories using the local A* path planner
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    Research Intern, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore (May 2019 - Jun 2019)

  • Developed a PID controller for a Shape-Memory Alloy (SMA) Stewart platform using silver-copper metal interfaces based on the analysis of 10 research papers on the implementation of electrical actuation of SMA thin-films
  • Analyzed the actuation efficiency to be 25% higher than direct heat actuation using DAQ and LabVIEW software, reducing the size of the components by more than 70%.
  • Contributing to a research paper on implementing this actuation methodology in bio-inspired aviation robotics, currently in work.
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