Work Experience

Tiburon Subsea Inc.

Robotics Software Intern, March 2026 - Present

Developing navigation and control software for autonomous underwater vehicles and supporting subsea systems. 

Google Sumer of Code - Open Robotics

Open Source Mentor, May 2025 - August 2025

Advised an open-source contributor in migrating a physics-based sonar plugin to ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic. [blog] [docs] [code]

Google Sumer of Code - Open Robotics

Open Source Contributor, May 2024 - August 2024

Contributed to migrating Project DAVE, an underwater robotics simulator, to ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic, including launch files, robot models, sensor plugins, and documentation. [blog] [docs] [code]

Blue Robotics

Software Intern, April 2023 - July 2023

Developed extensions for autonomous ROV operations and improved ArduSub capabilities. Also worked on the integration of DVL, GPS, and an imaging sonar sensor.

Accio Robotics

ROS Developer, August 2020 - November 2020

Developed a navigation stack for multi-robot coordination in a kitchen environment. Designed and implemented a high-level finite state machine using ROS. Integrated RTAB-Map for localization and mapping of the environment.

Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Project Associate, November 2019 - November 2020

Worked on visual-servoing and trajectory optimization of a 2 DOF industrial robot manipulator. Implemented computed-torque control for smooth and precise control of the manipulator.

FlytBase

Robotics Software Engineer, June 2019 - October 2019

Worked on perception and motion planning of aerial robots for various applications, such as warehouse inventory management, drone show and wind turbine inspection.

Publications

Journal Papers

1. M. Chen, R. Vivekanandan, C. J. Rusch, D. Okushemiya, D. Manalang, B. Robertson, G. Hollinger, "A unified simulation framework for wave energy powered underwater vehicle docking and charging," Applied Energy, vol. 361, pp. 122877, February 2024.

2. V.G. Rajanbabu, R. Ramasubbu, P. Balaji, R. Vivekanandan, S. Srinivasan, “Improved grey wolf optimizer for an optimal tuning of PID controller in the quarter-car suspension system,” Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, special issue – 10, pp. 1123-1132, 2018.

Conference Papers

1. R. Vivekanandan, D. Chang, G. A. Hollinger, “Autonomous Underwater Docking using Flow State Estimation and Model Predictive Control,” in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1062-1068, London, United Kingdom, 2023.

Workshop Papers

1. G. Andres, R. Vivekanandan, and G. Hollinger, "Opti-acoustic SLAM for autonomous docking localization," in Proc. University Marine Energy Research Community (UMERC) Conference, Corvallis, OR, August 2025. Winner of Outstanding Student Poster Award.

2. R. Vivekandan and G. Hollinger, "Autonomous underwater docking and recharging," in Proc. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Workshop on Robotics for the Blue Economy and Climate Resiliency (IROS), Detroit, MI, October, 2023.

3. R. Vivekanandan, D. Chang, and G. A. Hollinger,“Flow state estimation and optimal control for autonomous underwater docking,” in Proc. University Marine Energy Research Community (UMERC) Conference, Portland, OR, September 2022 (Abstract and Poster).

4. M. Chen, R. Vivekanandan, C. Rusch, B. Robertson, G. A. Hollinger,“A framework for wave-to-wire simulation of wave energy converters for autonomous underwater vehicle recharging,” in Proc. University Marine Energy Research Community (UMERC) Conference, Portland, OR, September 2022 (Abstract).

5. R. Vivekanandan, D. Chang, G. A. Hollinger, “Model predictive control for underwater vehicle rendezvous and docking with a wave energy converter,” in Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Workshop on Reliable AI for Marine Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities (IROS), virtual, October, 2021 (Abstract).