Projects


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.

Boston CTO
Boston CTO

The left video displays the TurtleBot Kobuki robot with a pan-tilt camera joint. The middle video shows the custom manipulator picking up an object for deivery. The right video shows the (previous version) of manipulation integrated onto the mobilerobot. When given a goal object name, the TurtleBot navigates towards it using visual servoing.


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.

Boston CTO
Boston CTO

The first row shows the design of Gello arms for UR3e and UR5e robots used for teleoperation. The second row demonstrates the teleoperation of UR5e in mujoco simulation environment, real-world teleop of UR3e, UR5e robots respectively.


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.

The first video demonstrates teleoperation of the custom arm in a simulation environment. The second video shows real-world teleoperation, while the third video presents behavior cloning (BC) model testing on the custom manipulator, using camera images as observations to generate actions.


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.

Boston CTO
Boston CTO

The left image shows the robot in real-world environment setup, while the GIF showcases its operation in the simulation world using Gazebo and ROS2 humble.


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.

Zahir's Talk
Boston CTO
Boston CTO

Snapshots during maze navigation - TurtleBot Waffle


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.

Zahir's Talk
Boston CTO
Boston CTO
Zahir's Talk
Boston CTO
Boston CTO
Zahir's Talk
Boston CTO
Boston CTO

The first row shows the integrated manipulator design to perform object manipulation. The second row shows the how design and can tranform into 3 different modes The third row shows the robot in Gazebo environment


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.

Zahir's Talk

The first row shows the integrated manipulator design to perform object manipulation. The second row shows the how design and can tranform into 3 different modes The third row shows the robot in Gazebo environment


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.

Zahir's Talk

The image showcases the concept and design of the RescueBOT and some snapshots while fabricating the design, and the video shows the simple prototype of the concept.


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.

Zahir's Talk
Boston CTO
Zahir's Talk

The first row shows the robot design (replica of Husky), in Fusion 360. The robot is simulated with a LIDAR and camera sensor as shown and the video shows the navigation


Sheet Metal Unfolding Software

Software Developement & Research
Presentation  •   Report  •   Video

Developed a software that takes a sheet metal product design, especially free-form surfaces, flattens it, and backtracks to determine the optimized the manufacturing steps required for production.


*: Zahir Mahammad


Mini-Projects

F550 Waypoint Navigation - PX4 SITL

RRC, IIIT Hyderabad - Transmission Line Inspection

Designed and integrated the F550 hexacopter model into the PX4 SITL package for simulation in Gazebo with an integrated camera. Developed a custom world for transmission line inspection and implemented waypoint navigation using QGroundControl

Boston CTO

The left image displays the F550 drone design, while the video demonstrates its integration with the PX4 SITL package and the implementation of waypoint navigation in the Gazebo environment.


Zahir's Talk
Boston CTO

CrazyS - ROS Noetic

UAV Simulation
Code  •   Video


A* Algorithm - Pygame

Path Planning for Robots
Code  •   Video


Dijkstra Algorithm - Pygame

Path Planning for Robots
Code  •   Video


Object Tracking - OpenCV

Perception
Code  •   Video