Faculty
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras. Before starting my current position, I was a postdoctoral research associate in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech, USA. I obtained the B.E. degree in aeronautical engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai, in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech, USA, in 2019. The focus my Ph.D. dissertation was on developing novel methods and extending existing ones to improve the security and reliability of fixed-wing unmanned aircraft systems. Prior to starting my Ph.D., I worked as a scientist in the Integrated Flight Control Systems directorate at the Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru, between 2010 and 2014, where I worked on flight dynamic analysis, control law design, and analysis of high angle of attack phenomena for a high-performance fighter aircraft. My current research interests include security-aware design of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), UAS autonomy, and distributed control of multi-agent systems.
Students
Ph.D
Shriya Pandey
I am a Ph.D student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras. My current research is focused on developing defensive strategies against aerial swarm attacks.
Nithya Shankari N
I am doctoral student at IIT Madras in the department of aerospace engineering. My academic journey began with a B.E. degree in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, followed by M.E degree in control systems. I worked as a junior research fellow at IIT Kharagpur in the department of aerospace engineering. My current research interest is developing algorithms for distributed sensing using an autonomous network of unmanned aircraft systems.
Satya Marlapudi
I am a Ph.D student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras. My current research is to develop precise navigation algorithms in GNSS-denied environments with applications to spacecraft rendezvous.
M.S
Tenzing Thiley Bhutia
I graduated with a B.Tech degree in Aerospace Engineering from Lovely Professional University in 2021. I joined IIT Madras for my M.S in Aerospace Engineering in January 2022, where I am working at the RaSAS lab. My research interests include security of unmanned aerial systems including detection of "rogue" unmanned aerial vehicles. My current work involves developing an effecient approach based on multi-sensor data fusion that combines the benefits of active as well as passive UAS detection techniques.
Subash Kumaraguru
I am a graduate student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras. I earned my Electrical and Electronics Engineering undergraduate degree from SSN College of Engineering, Chennai in 2020. My current research is focused on designing and experimentally verifying algorithms to autonomously land an unmanned aircraft system on a moving ship deck. Before starting my M.S., I worked as a frontend web developer in Soliton Technologies Pvt Ltd from 2020 to 2023. My areas of interest include mathematical modeling, control system analysis and design.
Prasitha H
I am currently pursuing a M.S. degree in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras. I completed my Bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering from Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore. My current research interest is distributed sensing using a network of unmanned aircraft systems with applications to atmospheric sampling.
M.Tech/ Dual Degree
Kamalakcshy S S
I am an M.Tech. student in the Aerospace Engineering department of IIT Madras. I graduated with a Bachelor of Technology in Aerospace Engineering from SASTRA University, Thanjavur in 2022. I am currently working on designing an adaptive controller for a Wankel engine-integrated multi-copter unmanned aircraft system.
Undergraduate Researchers
I am a pre-final year B.Tech student of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras. I am interested in guidance, navigation, and control of autonomous systems. I am currently working on developing vision-based algorithms for navigation in GNSS-denied environments.