Tarun's Portfolio
Tarun Prasad Senthilvel
Robotics Engineer
I am a robotics engineer hailing from India deeply passionate about building robotics products for a better tomorrow. As a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in robotics, I am looking forward to exciting opportunities to build my career.
Strengths: Motion Planning, Controls, Mechanical Design, Reinforcement Learning and Deep Learning.
Interests: Legged Robots, Manipulators, Mobile Robots and Surgical Robotics.
I hope you’ll enjoy viewing my projects and experiences as much as I enjoyed working on them.
Skills
Experience
Course Assistant - Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore
January 2024 - Present
Algorithms for Sensor-Based Robotics
Evaluating assignments, conducting office hours to resolve doubts, and assisting in teaching and designing the final project ROS package for a class of 50+ students
Research Assistant: Terradynamics Lab - LCSR, Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore
August 2023 - December 2023
Quadruped Robot - Potential Energy Landscape Motion Planner
Developed a motion planner for finding suitable transitions between potential energy landscapes for different climbing positions of a quadruped robot with virtual stiffness on 3 anchors.
Manufacturing Assembly Engineer: Ather Energy
Bangalore
July 2022 - October 2022
Automated Assembly Stations
Conceptualized automated assembly manufacturing stations such as a Battery Welding
Station, Weld-Strength Test Station, etc. for the Ather electric scooter assembly line.
Mechatronics Engineer - Mohan Foundation
Chennai
November 2021 - June 2022
Drone Delivery of Organs
Designed and fabricated a Crash-Resistant, Temperature Controlled Container for testing Drone Transport of Organs and conducted initial trials successfully using an animal’s heart.
Research Assistant: BIROMED Lab, University of Basel
Remote
May 2021 - August 2021
Path Planning for 2D Laser Osteotomy Endoscope
Developed a 2D motion planner for the narrow passage trajectory planning problem faced by hyper-redundant surgical endoscopes while performing the Laser Osteotomy surgical procedure.
Created a 2D abstraction of the knee environment to analyze problems with computing Joint Space Solutions using Inverse Kinematics from sampling-based collision-free Task Space Solutions generated using Rapidly Exploring Random Trees.
Research Assistant: R2D2 Lab, IIT Madras
Chennai
December 2019 - June 2021
Body Movement Wheelchair
Designed the Load Cell Equipped Chassis of a wheelchair equipped with DC Hub Motor Wheels, actuated by sensing body movements as an alternate control mechanism for individuals with spinal cord injuries
Product Design Intern
Chennai
March 2020 - April 2020
Thickness Inspection Drone
Designed a modular surface cleaning mechanism for an Aerial Industrial Surface Thickness Inspection Drone to remove the error in thickness inspection data due to the presence of dirt.
Projects
Smart Automated Warehouse
Baltimore
2024
Developing a Smart Warehouse System on ROS2 leveraging Gazebo with a UR5 as a pick and place robot and a Turtlebot as a ground vehicle for achieving reordering of warehouse goods in under a minute across 10 meters.
Hockey Robot
Baltimore
2024
Prototyping a Hockey Robot with a solenoid shooter mechanism, GPS with PID navigation, IMU, Pixy Camera, Ping, and IR Sensors, and a differential drive controlled by an Arduino Mega 2560 in an inter-college robotic competition.
University Rover Challenge - Team Anveshak, Centre for Innovation, IIT Madras
Chennai
2017 - 2020
Team Anveshak is IIT Madras's Mars Rover Prototyping team that competes in Rover Challenge Series Events such as the University Rover Challenge and Indian Rover Challenge.
During my time in the team, we won the Indian Rover Challenge and placed 12th among 84 teams at the University Rover Challenge in 2019. As the Mechanical Lead of the team and as a Design Engineer, I worked on the following:
Traversal Subsystem:
• Proposed a novel string rover differential concept with 30% lesser weight from a bar differential.
• Performed kinematic synthesis of a rocker-bogie capable of traversing rough terrain, steps & slopes.
• Implemented a PI control algorithm to autonomously correct the rover’s deviation from its set course.
• Fabricated the prototype of 150+ parts using CNC machining, laser cutting, 3D Printing, Carbon-Fiber Layup etc.
Manipulator Subsystem:
• Designed & fabricated a 5-DOF manipulator capable of lifting 5 Kg loads & servicing equipment panels.
• Developed an excavator to collect & transport soil for life analysis tests performed onboard the rover
Q-Learning Agent for 2D-Games
Chennai
2021
Trained a Q-Learning Agent for playing 2D games such as Catch, Cart-pole Balance, and Mountain Car by
selecting appropriate state space representations of the environment and learning parameters.
Modelling & Controlling of a Robotic Convoy
Chennai
2020
Simulated the effectiveness of different guidance laws such as Pure, Deviated & Proportional Navigation
Pursuit in making a convoy follow circular and sinusoidal trajectories.
Ball Balancing Seesaw Robot
Chennai
2019
Developed a PID-controlled dynamic set-point ball-balancing robot equipped with a proximity sensor and Bluetooth control using an Android device.
Education
2023 - 2025
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering - Robotics Track
Johns Hopkins University
Coursework:
Robot System Programming; Learning, Estimation & Control; Algorithms for Sensor Based Robotics; Robot Devices, Kinematics, Dynamics & Control; Locomotion Mechanics; Mechatronics.
2017 - 2022
Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering with Integrated Masters in Robotics
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Coursework:
Design & Control of Serial Robots, Field & Service Robots; Deep Learning; Reinforcement Learning; Mechanics of Human Movement; Multibody Dynamics; Modern Control Theory;