CV

Experience

  • Director of Robotics Research, Autodesk (2021-Present)

  • Managing Director, Boston Dynamics (2019-2020)

  • Founder & CEO, Kinema Systems, San Francisco Bay Area (2015-2019)

  • Associate Director, Robotics Systems and Software, Robotics Program, SRI International (September 2013-June 2015)

  • Manager, Autonomous Mobile Manipulation Group, Willow Garage (April 2012-August 2013)

  • Research Scientist, Willow Garage (October 2007-March 2012)

  • Post-doctoral Researcher, GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania (2005-2007)

Education

  • PhD, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, May 2005

  • B.Tech, IIT Bombay, 1999

Awards

  • 2018 Nvidia Inception Competition Best AI Startup (Autonomous Systems), Nvidia GTC 2018

  • 2012 OSS World Challenge Grand Prize, Open Motion Planning Library (OMPL), with Mark Moll, Ioan Sucan and Lydia Kavraki

  • Radu Bogdan Rusu, Wim Meeussen, Sachin Chitta and Michael Beetz, “Laser-based perception for door and handle identification”, (Best Paper Award): Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Advanced Robotics, Munich, Germany, 2009 [PDF]

  • Subhrajit Bhattacharya, Sachin Chitta, Vijay Kumar, Daniel Lee, “Optimization of a Planar Quadruped Dynamic Leap”, (MSC Simulation Software Best Paper Award) in Proceedings of 2008 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC). New York City, NY, August, 2008 [PDF]

Talks

  • From Open-Source to Startup, A Founder’s Journey, KumarLab, University of Pennsylvania, 2021 (Invited Talk)

  • Future of Robotics, IIT Bombay Innovation Cell, 2020 (Invited Talk)

  • ICRA Workshop on Motion Planning for Industrial Robots, Hong Kong, 2014 (Invited Talk) [Slides]

  • World Technology Network Awards, Time Life Building, New York, 2013 (Invited Talk)

  • ROS-Industrial Kickoff Meeting, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, 2013 (Invited Talk)

  • RSS 2013 Workshop on Common Platforms in Robotic Manipulation, Berlin, Germany, 2013 (Invited Talk)

  • ROSCON 2013, Stuttgart Germany, 2013 (Keynote Talk) [Video][PDF]

  • ICRA Industrial Mobile Assistance Robots Workshop, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2013 (Invited Talk)

  • IROS Workshop on Robot Motion Planning: Online, Reactive and in Real-Time, Vilamoura, Portugal, 2012 (Invited Talk)

  • IROS Workshop on Handling ROS, Vilamoura, Portugal, 2012 (Invited Talk)

  • RSS Workshop on Mobile Manipulation with Contact, Sydney, Australia, 2012 (Invited Talk)

  • RSS Workshop on Mobile Manipulation in Cluttered Environments, Sydney, Australia, 2012

  • ROSCON 2012, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2012

  • Department of Computer Science, Freiburg University, Freiburg, Germany, 2012 (Invited Talk)

  • KUKA Robotics, Germany 2011, (Invited Talk)

  • CoTeSys, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany, 2011 (Invited Talk)

  • Institute for Robotics and Mechatronics, DLR, Munich, Germany, 2011 (Invited Talk)

  • International Conference on Advanced Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS), Freiburg, Germany, 2011 (Invited Talk)

  • IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Shanghai, 2011

  • Healthcare Robotics Lab, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, 2010 (Invited Talk)

  • The Twenty-Fourth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Workshop on Bridging The Gap Between Task And Motion Planning (BTAMP), Atlanta, Georgia, 2010 (Invited Talk)

  • IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Anchorage, Alaska, 2010

  • Workshop on Mobile Manipulation in Human Environments, Robotics, Science and Systems (RSS), Seattle, Washington, 2009 (Invited Talk)

  • Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, Center for Safety, Security, and Rescue Research Fall Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2008 (Invited Talk)

  • International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Rome, Italy, 2007

  • Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai, India, 2006

  • Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, 2006

  • ASME International Conference on Multibody Systems, Nonlinear Dynamics and Control, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2006

  • ASME International Conference on Multibody Systems, Nonlinear Dynamics and Control, Long Beach, California, 2005

  • ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC), Salt Lake City, Utah, 2004

  • IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, 2004

  • IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Las Vegas, 2003

  • IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Washington DC, 2002

  • IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Maui, Hawaii, 2001

Professional Experience

  • Organizer, First MoveIt! Community Meeting, Online, 2015

  • Session Organizer, Transforming Logistics with Mobile Robots, RoboBusiness 2015, San Jose

  • Session Organizer, State of the Art Flexible Software Solutions, RoboBusiness 2015, San Jose

  • Advisory Committee, Amazon Picking Challenge, International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle, Washington, 2015

  • Organizer, Next-Generation Robotics: Academia, Startups and Industry, Robotics Science and Systems, Berkeley, 2014

  • Representative for Willow Garage on the ROS-Industrial Consortium, 2013

  • Organizer, ICRA Tutorial on Motion Planning for Mobile Manipulation: State of the art Methods and Tool, Berlin, Germany, 2013

  • Program Committee, Robotics Science and Systems, Berlin, Germany, 2013

  • Organizer, Workshop on Human Robot Collaboration, Robotics Science and Systems, Berlin, Germany, 2013

  • Guest Editor, Special Issue on Open Source Software-Supported Robotics Research, Autonomous Robots, 2012

  • Organizer, IEEE ICRA Mobile Manipulation Challenge, Minneapolis, 2012

  • Program Committee, ROSCON 2012

  • Program Committee, ECAI 2012

  • Associate Editor, IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, 2011

  • Program Committee, IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts, Half-Moon Bay, 2011

  • Organizing Committee, IEEE/RSJ IROS The PR2 Workshop, San Francisco, 2011

  • Organizing Committee, IEEE/RSJ IROS Tutorial on Motion Planning for Real Robots, San Francisco, 2011

  • Organizing Committee, IEEE ICRA Workshop on Mobile Manipulation: Integrating Perception and Manipulation, Shanghai, 2011

  • Program Committee, Robotics Science and Systems, Workshop on Strategies and Evaluation for Mobile Manipulation in Household Environments, 2010

  • Organizing Committee, IEEE ICRA Workshop on Mobile Manipulation, Anchorage, Alaska, 2010

  • Program Committee, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2009

  • Program Committee, International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, Workshop on Bridging The Gap Between Task And Motion Planning, 2009

  • Program Committee, Robotics Science and Systems, Workshop on Mobile Manipulation in Human Environments, 2009

  • Reviewer, International Journal of Robotics Research

  • Reviewer, Autonomous Robots

  • Reviewer, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science

  • Reviewer, International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

  • Reviewer, International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

  • Reviewer, Robotics Science and Systems (RSS)

  • Reviewer, ASME International Conference on Multibody Systems

  • Reviewer, ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC)

  • Reviewer, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI)

  • Hiring Committee, Willow Garage

  • Program Committee, PR2 Beta Program, Willow Garage


Publications

My publications including papers and patents are listed on the Publications page.

Open-Source Software

More details about my involvement with open-source software is listed on the Open-source Software page.

Collaborators

A list of some of the external groups and people I collaborated with at Willow Garage is on the Collaborators page.