Nikhil Sobanbabu

I'm a Masters Student in Electrical and Computer Engineering Student at Carnegie Mellon University. I work with Prof. Guanya Shi at the LeCAR Lab on Learning and Control of legged robots. My current work is on reducing the Sim2Real gap of legged robots using Real2Sim techniques and providing Online-Adaptation during deployment.

I received my Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras during which I interned as a Robotics Intern at DiFACTO Robotics and Automation focusing on navigation and recovery of in house AMR. I also worked as a Research Intern at Dynamic Robotics and Control Laboratory under the guidance of Prof. Quan Nguyen on Model-based priors guided Reinforcement Learning for Agile Legged Robot Control. Apart from this I was part of Team Anveshak, a student run Mars Rover Team of IIT Madras which participates in University Rover Challenge at Mars Research Desert Station,Utah and worked as an Embedded Systems and Control Engineer, later getting promoted as Team lead for the period 2022-2023.

Email / Resume / Linkedin / Github

Research Interests

I am interested in developing algorithms that integrate learning and model-based control to enable robots to be agile and adaptive to model inaccuracies and environmental uncertainities.

Publications

ASAP: Aligning Simulation and Real-World Physics for Learning Agile Humanoid Whole-Body Skills
Tairan He, Jiawei Gao, Wenli Xiao, Yuanhang Zhang, Zi Wang, Jiashun Wang, Zhengyi Luo, Guanqi He, Nikhil Sobanbabu, Chaoyi Pan, Zeji Yi, Guannan Qu, Kris Kitani, Jessica Hodgins, Linxi "Jim" Fan, Yuke Zhu, Changliu Liu, Guanya Shi

[Webpage|Arxiv|Video|Code]

Pre-prints

	Sampling-Based System Identification with Active Exploration for Legged Robot Sim2Real Learning Nikhil Sobanbabu, Guanqi He, Tairan He, Yuxiang Yang, Guanya Shi [Webpage\|Arxiv\|Code]
	OGMP: Oracle Guided Multimodal Policies for Agile and Versatile Robot Control Lokesh Rajan, Nikhil Sobanbabu, Quan Nguyen, [Webpage\|Arxiv\|Video\|Code]
	Preferenced Oracle Guided Multi-mode Policies for Dynamic Bipedal Loco-Manipulation Prasanth Ravichandar, Lokesh Rajan, Nikhil Sobanbabu, Quan Nguyen [Website \|Arxiv \|Video \|Code]

Projects

	Multi-agent trajectory tracking for Crazyflie Quadrotors Optimal Strategies found for a 1vn game by solving the HJI-PDE equation for a 1vn game with a reach-avoid objective. [Thesis Report]
	Single-Pursuer Multiple-Evader Target-Guarding-Game Coordinated autonomous control of multi-agent quadrotors in a regular polygon formation with varied orientations using the in-built mellinger controller. [Report] \| [Poster]
	Control of 5DoF Manipulator of a Mars Rover as part of Team Anveshak Nikhil Sobanbabu,Shivendra Verma Autonomous control of Manipulator using inverse kinematics and ROS moveit.
	E-yantra Robotics Competition. Theme: Krishi-bot Nikhil Sobanbabu, Gokul MK Autonomous navigation of an Agricultural robot to identify and pick and place bellpepers inside a greenhouse. [Video] \| [Github]
	Receding-Horizon mode planner for mode planning against perturbations Nikhil Sobanbabu, Lokesh Krishna Planner chooser behaviours encoded as latent modes using monte-carlo roll outs to be robust against perturbations generating emergent transitions between modes/behaviors. [Results Video]
	Multi-agent Game Theoretic Framwork for Target-Attacker-Defender game Nikhil Sobanbabu, Shivendra Verma Simulation environment for the single attacker, singe target, multiple defender pursuit evation differntial game.

Course Projects

Swing-up and Stabilisation of inverted pendulum.
Course EE6415 Non-Linear System Analysis

Swing-up is done using a control from an energy based Lyapunov function. After a reaching an appropriate angle, pole-placement based stabilisation kicks in.

[Report] | [Presentation video] | [Github]

Motion planning for a KUKA mobile Manipulator
Course ED5215 Intro to Motion Planning
Nikhil Sobanbabu, Balaji R, Kanishkan M S

Problem Statement: Optimal pick and place of multiple objects to a given destination with payload constraints for the mobile manipulator.
Solution: Dijkstra+Modified TSP for navigation. RRT* for manipulation.

[Report] | [Github]

Fun Mini-Project

Why WASD when you can play minecraft with ESP32

Miscellaneous
	Tech and Innovation Fair, coordinator 2022. Flagship event of Shaastra, IITM's Technical festival for the year 2022. Participants convert a prototype to a minimum viable product. [Link]

Discussion with Bob-Balram (Chief Engineer of Ingenuity Helicopter)	Former Indian Defence Secretary, Ajay Kumar

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