Zahir Mahammad

Interactive Mobile Manipulator

RAAS Lab - Language Models

On-going

Built low cost arm, and mounted on a TurtleBot (Kobuki). Project involves integration with Language models for user interaction, enabling it to navigate to locations, identify, and deliver objects (π0), while interacting with humans and memorizing everything.

RAG-Based local ChatBot

Multi-Modal Foundation Models
Presentation • Report • Video

This is a chatbot that can accurately answer questions from documents containing both text and images. It uses FAISS for vector-based text indexing, ColPali for image retrival, and Qwen-VL for visual understanding, with Mistral LLM for response generation. The dual-stream approach improves document understanding by extracting relevant information from both images and text

Gello-Based Teleop & Learning Framework for UR robots

RAAS Lab - Imitation Learning, Reinforcement Learning
Code

Developed the Gello arms for UR5e, UR3e robots for teleoperation, and data collection for imitation learning, and built a custom RL environment that reads observations (proprioception, camera images) and generate actions, enabling RL training and IL testing.

Gello-Based Custom Manipulator

RAAS Lab - Imitation Learning
Code

A custom robot design replicating the UR3e configuration, inspired by GELLO. Developed a passive arm for teleop and data collection, implemented joint space and Cartesian space controllers, and created an RL environment for testing behavior cloning models.

Vision-Based Navigation system - TurtleBot Waffle

Perception for Autonomous Robots
Presentation • Simulation Video

A perception-based challenge for both simulation and hardware, designed to complete four tasks: detecting a STOP sign and stopping, Dynamic obstacle avoidance, Horizon line detection using projective geometry, and Lane-based navigation along white paper.

RU-RRT* - ReUsable RRT*

Planning for Autonomous Robots
Presentation • Report • Video

A new method based on the RRT* algorithm for path planning on the same map. RU-RRT* stores trees sampled from previous queries and reuses by importing subtrees to speed up current query planning, allowing more exploration within less computation time while maintaining optimal path quality.

TurtleBot Competition - 2nd Place

Planning for Autonomous Robots
Code • Video

A competition to use any planning algorithm, (A-star), to find the optimal path and deploying it on the TurtleBot to navigate the maze in shortest time.

RL for Humanoid Robot Gait

Robot Learning
Presentation • Report

Developed a reinforcement learning environment for custom humanoid robot, and trained it using PPO (Proximal Policy Optimization) and SAC (Soft Actor-Critic) algorithms, comparing their performance in OpenAI Gymnasium and Google Brax environments.

Multi-Modal Mobility Robot

Robot Modeling
Report • Video

A transformable robot design that can operate as a mobile robot, drone, Underwater Vehicle (UV), and has an integrated 4-DOF manipulator, designed in SolidWorks. The design is simulated in three environments in Gazebo-classic using ROS2 Galactic.

TurtleBot Navigation using ArucoMarkers - C++

Robot Programming
Video • Code

This project equips a TurtleBot with a camera to navigate a maze using ArUco markers on the walls. While navigating, it detects objects, records their color and position, and displays the collected data upon stopping.

RescueBOT

Project
Presentation • Video

A system designed to assist in borewell rescue operations, addressing accidents where a child fall into uncovered borewells, a common issue in some countries. It features a dexterous robotic hand, teleoperated by a human for precise rescue operations.

MobileRobot Maze Navigation based on Color

Robot Modeling and Programming
Code • Video

This project involves designing a mobile robot in Fusion 360, exported and simulated in Gazebo with ROS2 Galactic. Designed a maze traversal environment and implemented vision-based navigation using color blocks.