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Please check out my new website here:

vib2810.github.io

A LITTLE ABOUT MYSELF!

My fascination for the field of robotics stems from a deep-seated desire to use my skills for the betterment of the world we live in. I have a unique research background, with a master's in mechanical systems design, a minor in computer science, and research experience in deep learning, perception, and control systems. I earnestly wish to use my algorithmic research background, with a coherent understanding of the physical world, to solve the complex problems that exist in the fields of public health, agriculture, and education.

RECENT UPDATES

Nov 2022: Our novel design for an autonomous terrace farming robot was accepted at IEEE/ASME 18th International Conference on Mechatronic, Embedded Systems and Applications
May 2022: I was awarded the Institute Order of Merit for outstanding contributions in Technology at IIT Kharagpur.
Feb 2022: I was invited to attend the Research Week with Google 2022 in Computer Vision.
Sept 2021: My work "Collision Avoidance with Optimal Path Replanning for Mobile Robots" got published in the Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems Conference (TAROS), Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems, United Kingdom
Jan 2021: Our team Intelligent Pickers from IIT Kharagpur secured the national runner-up position in the Flipkart Grid 2.0 Robotics challenge for the design of a novel cost-effective gripper-manipulator system.
Dec 2019: I represented IIT Kharagpur at the 8th Inter IIT Tech Meet IIT Roorkee in the event "DIC's Terrace farming robot". We bagged gold in our event, and the contingent came 2nd among 20+ other IITs
August 2019: I got to present my paper on "Lane Detection" at the International Conference of Image, Video Processing and Artificial Intelligence (IVPAI), Shanghai
June 2019: Team Eklavya secures 2nd position among 40+ other International teams at the 27th International Ground Vehicle Competition, Rochester, USA.

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Author and Presenter: V Mohta, et al. (2021). "Collision Avoidance with Optimal Path Replanning for Mobile Robots" in Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems Conference (TAROS), Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems, United Kingdom (LINK)
Author and Co-Presenter: V Mohta, A Singhal et al. (2019). ”Real-time Lane Detection, Fitting and Navigation for Unstructured Environments” in International Conference of Image, Video Processing and Artificial Intelligence (IVPAI), Shanghai (LINK)
Author: V Mohta, et al. (2019).”A Prototype of an Intelligent Ground Vehicle for constrained environment: Design and Development” IEEE International conference on control and robots, South Korea (LINK)
Author: V Mohta, M Patel, A Patnaik, H Shah, S Agrawal, et al. (2020).”Design and Implementation of Path Trackers for Ackermann Drive based Vehicles” in ArXiV: (Pre-Print)

PROJECTS
Last updated till third year undergrad. Please see my resume for an updated list of projects

EKLAVYA- SELF FABRICATED AUTONOMOUS ROBOT

I was part of the team competing in the International Ground Vehicles Competition 2018 and 2019. We developed a fully autonomous robot which could navigate lanes while avoiding obstacles and follow global navigation goal points. The project included lane detection(on unstructured environments), localization, controls and planning modules. We were the first to qualify amongst 40+ teams and secured runners up position in the final competition. (more) (Video)

AAROHI- AUTONOMOUS TERRACE FARMING ROBOT

8th Inter IIT Tech Meet, IIT Roorkee

I was part of IIT Kharagpur's 8th Inter IIT Tech Meet contingent. As part of the problem statement, we designed AAROHI, an Autonomous Terrace Farming robot which can climb stairs upto 40cm in height and undertake agricultural activities like plowing, seeding, harvesting and watering/pesticide spraying. My main involvement was in Mechanical Design of the climbing mechanism, and integrating the Planning and Controls Stack for the robot. After combined efforts of 12 people for 2 months we secured GOLD in our event and and the contingent secured 2nd among 20+ other IITs in the meet. (more) (Video)

LANE SEGMENTATION AND STOP-LINE DETECTION

Road feature extraction is one of the most important tasks to be performed for prototyping a self driving car. Feature based lane feature extraction and probabilistic lane fitting methods were used on an perspective transformed frame(top view) for lane detection. Principle component analysis and lateral clustering algorithms were used for stopline detection. Unscented kalman filter(UKF) based tracking was deployed to increase robustness (Video)

PATH TRACKING - IMPLEMENTING VARIOUS TRACKING ALGORITHMS

Geometric and model based control algorithms were developed and tested both on a simulation platform(gazebo) and Mahindra E2O. This module was integrated with the planning module for robust trajectory generation and tracking. Methods like pure pursuit, PID, stanley, LQR and MPC were implemented. We are currently working on implementing state of the art Learning MPC based controls for increased accuracy (Video)

EXTRA ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

E-SPORTS

I am a huge follower of E-Sports. Counter Strike Global Offensive(CSGO) and Fortnite are one of my favorite games. These games act as stress busters during busy schedules. I recently took part in XRIG gaming tournament which took place in my college.

NATIONAL SERVICE SCHEME

I was a part of the National Service Scheme IIT Kharagpur for my first two years in college. Each unit (about 50 people) was assigned a village near our college campus and assigned the task to organize events and conduct various surveys. NSS camp held every year is a 7 day camp targeting the most affected areas

AIESEC

During my Freshman and Sophomore years, I was part of AIESEC, the world's largest youth-run organization. Here I led multiple teams in organizing events for social awareness and well-being like Youth Speak Forums and Balkalakaar.

HOBBIES

CHESS

I started playing chess in 6th std. I have represented my school twice in the south zone chess tournament. I have also won the inter-school chess tournament organized by KLE. In college I have represented my Hall in the Interhall chess GC

VOLUNTEERING FOR SOCIAL DRIVES

Whenever I get the opportunity to give back to the environment, I volunteer to participate in various drives which are organized. These include tree plantation, cleanliness, awareness etc.

THRILL SEEKING

Having Go-karting and mountain biking as hobbies certainly adds the "wow" element in a mundane life. I've been to several mountain biking camps and had many immemorial racing adventures owing to these hobbies.