My Journey into Robotics
I'm a robotics software engineer focused on the autonomy stack — the planning and decision-making that turns perception into safe, reliable motion in the real world.
My academic path began with a degree in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, India, where I first got pulled into the world of control systems. That curiosity gradually snowballed into a broader obsession with robotics, leading me to pursue a Master's in Robotic Systems Development at Carnegie Mellon University.
At CMU, I built a strong foundation across the robotics stack, working with hardware, perception, localization, planning, control, and systems integration. Along the way, I discovered a deep interest in motion planning and reinforcement learning, areas where I continue to build expertise.
I currently work as a Senior Software Engineer on the Autonomy team at Cyngn, where we build self-driving technology for industrial vehicles. I work across the behavior and planning sides of autonomy, building the decision engine and motion planners that let autonomous tuggers navigate real-world factory floors.
Robots, Code, and Everything Between
At Cyngn, I develop the Decision Engine for autonomous tuggers using C++, ROS 2, and BehaviorTree.CPP, and I've recently moved into motion planning as well. Think of the Decision Engine as the brain that sits between perception, planning, and control, figuring out what the vehicle should do next. I also help build WorldSim, Cyngn's simulation platform, keeping our virtual environments as close to the real world as possible.
Previously at HEBI Robotics, I developed a modular, multi-arm mobile robot with reconfigurable tooling for soil characteristic analysis, built a MuJoCo plugin that lets users run the exact same control code in simulation and on real hardware (demo video), and led the development of the open-source HEBI ROS 2 APIs with support for ROS 2 Control and MoveIt!.
During my time at CMU, I worked on several exciting projects including a lunar-terrain excavation robot as part of my year-long capstone. I also built an autonomy stack for Roboracer (formerly F1Tenth — small racecars, serious autonomy problems) and researched learning-based motion planning for off-road vehicles using self-supervised techniques.
Across all these projects, I've always been drawn to one thing: building autonomy stacks that leave the lab and survive (ideally, thrive) in the messy, unpredictable chaos of the real world. Whether it's behavior planning for industrial robots, data-driven autonomy, or classical motion planning, I enjoy building software that interacts meaningfully with the physical world.
Lately, I've been channeling that same energy into robotics competitions and hackathons, with a few wins along the way. If you want to dig into the technical side of my work, check out the Projects section; for what I'm building and competing in right now, see What I'm Into Lately.
Outside the Lab
Basketball has always been a huge part of my life, and I'm a lifelong Kobe Bryant fan. His work ethic and the way he approached the game still shape how I think about focus, calmness, and discipline, both on and off the court.
I grew up playing the piano and still sit down at the keys whenever I need to reset. Primavera by Ludovico Einaudi is my go-to, partly because it's beautiful and partly because it's the one piece I can still play from memory.
During the pandemic, I picked up chess and have been hooked on 3-minute blitz ever since. It's fast, competitive, and a good way to shift my brain into a different gear.
