Tarun's Portfolio
Tarun Prasad Senthilvel
Robotics Engineer
I am a robotics engineer deeply passionate about building robotics products. As a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University in robotics and an undergraduate from IIT Madras, I am looking forward to exciting opportunities to build my career.
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At my current role at Rainier Labs, I help build mobile and legged mobile welding platforms to increase the welding throughput of fabrication shops, construction sites, etc with robotic automation.
Strengths: Motion Planning, Controls, Mechanical Design, Sensors Reinforcement Learning and Deep Learning.
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Interests: Manipulators, Legged Robots, Mobile Robots and Surgical Robotics.
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I hope you’ll enjoy viewing my projects and experiences as much as I enjoyed working on them.
Skills
Experience
Founding Robotics Engineer - Rainier Labs
Sunnyvale
November 2024 - Present
Mobile Welding Robots
Implemented the ROS2 stack for the Terrier quadruped platform & the Zeus wheeled platform for semi-autonomous mobile welding using a 6 DOF robotic arm and a custom welding end-effector.
Worked on perception and planning for walking gait patterns, weld trajectory planning for the robotic arm, reconstruction of the weld scene for weld trajectory synthesis, localization & mapping using a RealSense camera & Unitree LiDAR.
Robotics Intern - Curve Assure
Baltimore
June 2024 - August 2024
Wearable Spine Monitor Device
Built an IMU characterization pipeline for an Extended Kalman Filter improving sensor fusion accuracy by 15% and enabling robust orientation tracking in a wearable spine device.
Course Assistant - Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore
January 2024 - May 2024
Algorithms for Sensor-Based Robotics
Provided instructional support to 50+ students in “Algorithms for Sensor-Based Robotics,” evaluating assignments on advanced sensor fusion, localization and perception and conducting weekly office hours to clarify student challenges.
Research Assistant: Terradynamics Lab - LCSR, Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore
August 2023 - December 2023
Quadruped Robot - Potential Energy Landscape Motion Planner
Developed and implemented a custom motion planner for a quadruped robot, reducing transition time by ∼20%.
Leveraged potential energy landscape analysis for discrete foothold planning, improving overall gait stability.
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
Developed a Smart Warehouse System in ROS2 (Gazebo) featuring a UR5 manipulator, RealSense camera, Robotiq gripper alongside a TurtleBot ground vehicle for autonomous transport of goods across a 10-meter warehouse.
Hockey Robot
Baltimore
2024
Prototyped 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.
Mars Rover Prototyping - University Rover Challenge - Team Anveshak, CFI, 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.
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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 a Lead of the team I managed a team of 20 people in project workflows & operations such as design, fabrication, integration & sponsorship. As a Robotics Engineer, I worked on the following:
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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 ( 45 degrees ).
• Fabricated the prototype of 150+ parts using CNC machining, laser cutting, 3D Printing, Carbon-Fiber Layup etc.
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Software Subsystem:
• Implemented L2 autonomy by fusing GPS and IMU data for real-time localization with vision-based perception for goal detection, enabling robust autonomous navigation over unstructured terrain.
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 - 2024
Master of Science in Engineering – Mechanical Engineering (Robotics Track)
Johns Hopkins University
Coursework:
Robot System Programming; Learning, Estimation & Control; Computer Vision; Algorithms for Sensor Based Robotics; Robot Devices, Kinematics, Dynamics & Control; Robot Motion Planning; Locomotion Mechanics; Mechatronics.
2017 - 2022
Integrated B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) and M.Tech (Robotics)
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Coursework:
Serial Robots; Reinforcement Learning; Deep Learning; Human Mechanics; Multibody Dynamics; Modern Control Theory.
