Meet the team

It's a new lab, and I'm actively recruiting others who share my passion for building robots that can help the planet!

Vivek Thangavelu

Principal Investigator

My research vision centers on addressing critical global ecological and sustainability challenges in environmental remediation and stewardship through foundational research in robotics and its practical application. My research philosophy focuses on creating robust, long-term autonomous solutions through a hetero geneous team of robots equipped with diverse sensing capabilities to effectively monitor and modify unstructured environments to address ecological challenges.

Alt career: Writer for a comedy show you’ve probably never heard of, but whose Reddit community is currently writing a 1000-word post defending character arcs.

PhD Students

Chinmay Prashanth

PhD Student

I am a Robotics and Autonomous Systems PhD student working at the intersection of simulation-driven robotics, robot learning, field robotics, and deployable hardware systems. My current research focuses on slope-aware autonomous excavation for soil remediation, using sandbox experiments, ROS 2, Isaac Sim, Project Chrono, and learning-based methods to connect simulation with real-world soil interaction.

Alt career: Pilot

Mridula Buragohain

PhD Student

My research interest lies in the intersection of robotic automation and smart sensing. My current work explores multimodal sensing and automation in robot-plant interaction for agricultural applications, combining perception control and learning to enable robots to operate reliably amid environmental uncertainty, occlusion, and unstructured conditions.

Alt career: Artist

Vikas Narang

PhD Student

My current research focuses on agriculture robotics, with emphasis on navigation and controls in unstructured environment. My broader interests sit at the intersection of perception, controls, safe autonomy, and data-driven engineering. Before joining ASU, I spent more than a decade in industry R&T, focusing on systems integration, controls, simulation, and analytics. My work spanned powertrain controls, machine learning, calibration, and validation across conventional and hybrid platforms.

Alt career: Trekonomist with expertise in hiking, cooking, and confidently pretending this was always the correct trail

Masters Students

Currently recruiting

Undergraduate Students

Currently recruiting

Asadbek Ruziev

Undergraduate Student

I develop the electronics and software for the Bunker Mini excavation arm. My interests lie in designing and advancing mobile robotic systems for agricultural and environmental research to improve soil quality, increase crop productivity, and support sustainable ecosystems.

Alt career: Mechatronics Engineer

Diego Suarez

Undergraduate Student

I am an undergraduate in Engineering Robotics in the Class of 2028. I am currently completing my Honors Thesis on the design and construction of an autonomous tree-climbing robot. This platform will serve as the foundation for future research on detecting contaminants and diseases in trees through robotic inspection. My interests include field robotics, embedded systems, autonomous robots, and robot design.

Alt career: Chef

Erjan Baigenzhin

Undergraduate Student

Past Students

Harshavardhan Karancheti : Masters, Mechanical Engineering
Akshaya Jeyaprakash : Masters, Computer Science