Projects

This page lists a selection of technical projects in academia and industry in which he is currently participating or has been involved. Please contact him if you need additional information about any of these projects.

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                    Project Title: National Engineering Robotics Contest (NERC, NUST)                             

                          My Role: Co-Lead (Teams from LUMS)

               Completion Year: 2023, 2024, 2025                             

                       Sponsor/s: Department of Electrical Engineering, LUMS                             

       Other Team Member/s: Dr. Mohammad Jahangir Ikram, Hasan Ashraf

Brief Description:

The National Engineering Robotics Contest (NERC) is a joint initiative of the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) and the Science, Technology, and STEM Careers Program by HEC, aimed at promoting research and innovation in robotics and related disciplines across Pakistan. This prestigious competition serves as a unified platform for the integration and evaluation of diverse electromechanical designs, control and path planning algorithms, and agent architectures. Over the years, NERC has gained widespread popularity among students and engineering departments nationwide. Engineering students from across Pakistan actively participate in the competition, with many choosing its theme as the basis for their Final Year Projects. This not only enhances the academic relevance of the contest but also helps cultivate the skilled human resources needed in the fields of robotics and automation. By presenting fresh and exciting challenges each year, NERC continues to play a pivotal role in advancing the robotics community on an ever-expanding scale. Today, robotics stands at the forefront of technological progress. Driven by exponential developments in high-performance computing, computer vision, networking, material sciences, and power electronics, the field has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years. Robotics uniquely enables precision and efficiency while replacing labor-intensive manual processes in modern industries. Consequently, there is a growing demand for versatile mobile manipulator robots capable of autonomously performing complex tasks such as grasping, navigating, and placing objects at designated locations. The future of Pakistan is closely tied to advancements in engineering and science. Competitions like NERC serve as powerful catalysts, motivating students to elevate their technical skills and innovation capacity. In recent years, themes have focused on designing autonomous robots for fruit box localization, identification, and sorting—tasks that require detecting, picking, and accurately placing color-coded boxes within a defined field.

The performance of the LUMS teams for the NERC from 2023 to 2025 reflect a trajectory of continuous growth and excellence, with each year’s team composed of new students building on the foundation laid by their predecessors and mentors. In 2023, the team entered a developmental phase focused on learning and skill-building. In 2024, the team made significant strides, earning the Best Engineering Design Award. Continuing this upward momentum, the 2025 team advanced even further, securing the prestigious Runner-up Award in the final competition. These achievements underscore not only the innovative mindset and technical expertise of LUMS teams but also the sustained commitment and guidance of their mentors who have played a crucial role in shaping the project's success in robotics.

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                    Project Title: Senior Project (EE 491/492) Quality Enhancement                             

                          My Role: Principal Investigator

               Completion Year: 2022                              

                       Sponsor/s: The LUMS Learning Institute (LLI)                             

       Other Team Member/s: Javeria Siddique

Brief Description:

Senior Project (EE 491/492) in the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE), Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE), LUMS is a two-semester, six-credit course. The students form teams of up to four members to work on a design project of their choice relevant to EE. The project is carried out under the supervision of a EE faculty member as its adviser. The project undertaken in this course covers suitable depth to provide an integrated assessment of the progress of the students toward a desired EE competency. It also allows students to focus on economics, management, safety, reliability, environment and social impact of the work done.

However, there were some aspects where there was room for quality improvement. Better learning experience for students in the EE department was the foremost goal during my project sponsored by LUMS Learning Institute (LLI).

To enhance quality focusing on better learning experience of the students, there were at least three groups of people who needed to be working coherently to achieve that greater goal of the project: (i) the EE senior students (ii) the EE faculty members (iii) the EE alumni.

During summers 2022, the specific goals for the project were:

(a) To create a bridge to streamline communication among all the three groups of relevant people (communication is the key to a healthy collaboration)

(b) To create an online repository to maintain understandable/comprehensible record of all the deliverables by the students in an easy to consult manner for future

(c) To propose and implement suggestions to help students navigate through the two semesters without it being overly bureaucratic and complex

(d) To propose and implement suggestions to reduce mental stress of students through counselling while they are working both the semesters

The central goal of the project was for our students to have better learning experience (simple, comfortable, focused and efficient) during their senior year. Most of the developments made during the project (which can be discussed in detail on request) were actually implemented for the batch of Fall 2022-Spring 2023. The key performance indicators of individual students of the Senior Project (which are confidential) show substantial improvement in the learning experience of most of the students of the mentioned batch. With further enhancements for the coming batches, the management of the department of Electrical Engineering plans to implement the developments for the future batches as well.

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                    Project Title: Development Of Algorithm And Prototype Hardware For Estimation Of Crease Geometry Using Image Processing And Computer Vision Techniques                             

                          My Role: Consultant Engineer

               Completion Year: 2017                              

                       Sponsor/s: Tetra Pak Pakistan                             

       Other Team Member/s: Dr. Zubair Khalid, Hadia Hameed, Umair Ahmed

Brief Description:

In Tetra Pak production process, the creasing is applied to the paperboard to enable good and precise folding of the board. Creasing helps in getting precise, stronger and high-speed folding of the packaging material produced by Tetra Pak in the filling machine at the customer end. The process of creasing is embedded with the printing line, where the creasing is applied through male die pressing the paperboard into a female die after the printing on the paperboard. The creasing process is important in a sense that it produces permanent deformations in the board. These deformations weakens the board, and consequently make it easier to fold, resulting in a package with durable edges and high strength.

The properties (or quality parameters) of crease lines depend on the properties of paperboard (such as grammage, moisture, number of layers) and geometry of the creasing tool, that is, the diameter and the shape of the male die, the channel width and the indentation depth. The quality of the creasing is determined by measuring the so-called relative crease strength (RCS) defined as the ratio of the bending force required to fold the creased paperboard to the bending force needed to fold the un-creased paperboard. RCS is traditionally measured by sampling the packaging material and measuring in a lab setting. Since RCS depends on the geometry of the creasing tool, which, in turn, can be characterized by geometry of the crease lines, it is desirable to study the geometry of the crease lines to ensure the quality of the packaging material.

The developed project estimates with significant accuracy the crease geometry using advanced signal and image processing methods. A modified XY Gantry achieves the desired location of the paperboard where the RCS is required to be estimated. A laser scanner then scans the surface to estimate a depth profile and stores it subsequently in attached computer. The outcome is the depth profile of the crease on the paperboard. From the profile, it becomes straightforward to calculate RCS from almost any section of the paperboard. The project was handed over to the quality control section of Tetra Pak in a satisfactory manner with no significant complaint from the receiving team.

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                    Project Title: Real-Time Targeted Exploration For Robotic Systems Using Reinforcement Learning Algorithm                             

                          My Role: MSc Research Student

               Completion Year: 2016                             

                       Sponsor/s: Nil                             

       Other Team Member/s: Dr. Ali Raza

Brief Description:

Robots are promising to perform complex tasks of everyday life because of their ability to work in hazardous or otherwise intractable environments. TEXPLORE [1] is a reinforcement learning (RL) based algorithm which enhances the capabilities of robots by enabling them to learn directly from their environments in real-time rather than being pre-programmed by the designer alone. The project focuses on extending the capabilities of available TEXPLORE ROS package both in terms of diversity in domains as well as the visualizations of these domains. For diversity in learning domains, a new domain called maze and its variants have been implemented in already available ROS package. From visualization point of view, Gazebosim worlds have been implemented for already available two-rooms domain and the novel maze domain along with its variants. These Gazebosim worlds have also been interfaced directly with TEXPLORE ROS package. With the increased diversity and visualization capabilities, evaluation scenarios for original TEXPLORE have become more challenging and transitions of the agent from state to state while running the algorithm have become easy to comprehend and extend further. Finally, all these enhancements have been implemented on a simulated Husky robot in discrete-time with flexibility of introducing delays in transitions.

[1] Todd Andrew Hester. TEXPLORE: Temporal Difference Reinforcement Learning for Robots and Time-Constrained Domains. PhD Thesis, UT Austin, 2012. 

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                    Project Title: Development Of An Efficient System For Vehicle Accident Warning                             

                          My Role: Principal Investigator

               Completion Year: 2013                             

                       Sponsor/s: Nil                             

       Other Team Member/s: Osama Rizwan, Hamza Rizwan

Brief Description:

Vehicle accidents are widespread these days. They cause loss of invaluable human lives as well as huge loss of property. An efficient accident avoidance system has been a great need since the invention of motor vehicles. The project focuses on developing a vehicle accident warning system based on image processing techniques. It uses two criteria for enabling accident warning. These are driver drowsiness and front vehicle distance from our vehicle. Drowsiness, especially in long distance journeys, is a key factor in traffic accidents. The developed system uses visually observable facial behaviors as indicators of driver drowsiness. For face tracking, the system uses Viola-Jones face detection algorithm. The eyes region is found using a novel approach to check whether they are close or open. Other image processing techniques are used to calculate distance of front vehicles. Along with this software design, an easy to build hardware is used to complete the said system to be used in real-time. To evaluate the effectiveness of proposed system, a number of drowsy persons are tested and evaluated. Experimental results show high accuracy in each section which makes the system efficient and reliable for accident warning.

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                    Project Title: Automated Storage And Retrieval System For Library: A Prototype                             

                          My Role: Principal Investigator

               Completion Year: 2013                             

                       Sponsor/s: Nil                             

       Other Team Member/s: Mian Ahmed Umer Aziz, Rameez Arsalan, Khalid Khurshid Tariq, Muhammad Bilal Hassan Khan

Brief Description: 

An automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS or AS/RS) consists of a variety of computer-controlled systems for automatically placing and retrieving loads from defined storage locations. Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) are typically used in applications where i) there is a very high volume of loads being moved into and out of storage. ii) Storage density is important because of space constraints. iii) No value is added in this process (no processing, only storage and transport). iv) Accuracy is critical because of potential expensive damages to the load. The aim of the project is to design and develop a representative prototype of such an automated storage and retrieval system for use in library. The prototype consists of a laptop with low cost PIC microcontrollers, stepper motors, power supply and custom-made structure for 3x3 book shelf. The shelf is separate from the motor-mounting structure. The whole set-up is suitable for people who use library but themselves are disabled (say in wheelchairs).

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                    Project Title: Mobile Robot Prototype                              

                          My Role: Principal Investigator

               Completion Year: 2012                              

                       Sponsor/s: National Grassroots ICT Research Initiative (NGIRI) Pakistan                              

       Other Team Member/s: Shujaat Ali, Shaheer Ahmad, Syed Hussain Raza

Brief Description: 

Mobile robots have capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location. Mobile robots can be "autonomous" (AMR - autonomous mobile robot) which means they are capable of navigating an uncontrolled environment without the need for physical or electromechanical guidance devices. Alternatively, mobile robots can rely on guidance devices that allow them to travel a pre-defined navigation route in relatively controlled space (AGV - autonomous guided vehicle). The aim of the project is to design and develop a mobile robot prototype which may be used as a test-bed for surveillance of remote areas for security purposes. The developed test-bed consists of an ATMEL microcontroller (AT89S52), mechanical relays, DC motors with gears, RF Transmitter-Receiver module and custom-made structure to support the whole setup. A simple robotic arm is also mounted on top of it which can be used for pick and place purposes. Overall, the developed system is representative prototype for robot enthusiasts to get hands-on experience in this field. The experienced gained is valuable for high-level developments in this arena in future. 

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                    Project Title: Mobile Autonomous Surveillance System Using A Quadcopter                              

                          My Role: Principal Investigator

               Completion Year: 2012                              

                       Sponsor/s: National Grassroots ICT Research Initiative (NGIRI) Pakistan                              

       Other Team Member/s: Muhammad Asif, Umar Farooq, Muhammad Saad Azhar

Brief Description: 

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS); which include a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. The flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator ("semi-autonomous mode") or via a pre-programmed flight path onboard without any human control ("fully autonomous mode"). The project is to design and develop a semi-autonomous UAV using a quadcopter which may be used as a testbed for surveillance of remote areas after a camera is installed on it. The quadcopter consists of an Arduino Mega (ATmega1280), an IMU sensor (Gyroscope: ITG-3200 and Accelerometer: ADXL-345), a SONAR sensor (HC-SR04), 4 Brushless DC Motors (CF2822) and Electronic Speed Controllers (EMAX 18A ESC), Transmitter and Receiver (T6A 2.4 GHz), ADC, 4 Propellers, 2 Lithium Polymer Batteries (Gens Ace 2200 mAh) and an Air Frame (made of fiberglass) to support the whole structure. The control scheme used for quadcopter stabilization is PID. The deliverable of the project is a mobile semi-autonomous surveillance testbed capable of stable flight in limited scenarios.

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For further information, please contact him.