Doctoral Student
Temple Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Lab

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

Alkesh K. Srivastava

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the Temple Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Lab, focusing on robot social navigation amongst pedestrians. Under the guidance of Dr. Philip Dames, I am engaged in this research alongside the remarkable RoboSNAP team. Prior to joining Temple University, I served as a researcher at the Motion and Teaming Laboratory within the University of Maryland, College Park, where I also attained a Master of Engineering degree in Robotics. During my tenure at the University of Maryland, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Michael Otte, on using probabilistic graphical models and information theory for motion planning of multi-agent systems in communication-denied environments. My academic journey commenced with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from Rajasthan Technical University.

Research Interest

My research interest lies primarily in artificial intelligence, especially in the design and analysis of planning and learning algorithms in the domain of autonomous systems, human-machine interaction, robotic manipulation, and stochastic systems. I firmly believe that the incorporation of learning algorithms into a decision-making system enhances its utility, and the results of my current research work have reaffirmed my belief in it. I am particularly interested in studying the non-deterministic and uncertain nature of dynamic systems, which has prompted me to delve deeper into understanding the principle of control of such systems.

News

Oct 2024: Presented a poster entitled "Speech-Guided Sequential Planning for Autonomous Navigation using Large Language Model Meta AI 3 (Llama3)" at the 16th International Conference on Social Robotics + AI.
Sep 2024: Our paper "Speech-Guided Sequential Planning for Autonomous Navigation using Large Language Model Meta AI 3 (Llama3)" got accepted to the 16th International Conference on Social Robotics + AI.
Nov 2023: Gave a Graduate Student Seminar Talk at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University.
Aug 2023: Started a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Temple Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory under the guidance of Dr. Philip Dames.
Jun 2023: Presented our paper "Path-Based Sensors: Will the Knowledge of Correlation in Random Variables Accelerate Information Gathering?" at International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2023 during the workshop on Communication Challenges in Multi-Robot Systems: Perception, Coordination, and Learning.
May 2023: Presented a poster entitled "Estimating Hazardous Locations in Communication-Denied Environments: A Bayesian Network Approach with Path-Based Sensors" at the 3rd Maryland Robotics Center Research Symposium.
May 2023: Presented a poster entitled "Estimating Hazardous Locations in Communication-Denied Environments: Distributed Multi-Robot Approaches with Path-Based Sensors" at the 3rd Maryland Robotics Center Research Symposium.
May 2023: Our paper "Path-Based Sensors: Will the Knowledge of Correlation in Random Variables Accelerate Information Gathering?" got accepted to the Workshop on Communication Challenges in Multi-Robot Systems: Perception, Coordination, and Learning for Oral Presentation at International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2023).
Jan 2023: Appointed as Faculty Assistant to Dr. Michael Otte at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park. I will be working in collaboration with Office of Naval Research, Army Research Lab, and Metron Inc. on the ArtAMAS project.
Dec 2022: Graduated from University of Maryland with a Master of Engineering degree in Robotics.
Nov 2022: Presented our paper "Distributed Multi-Robot Information Gathering using Path-Based Sensors in Entropy-Weighted Voronoi Regions" at the 16th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems in Montbéliard, France.
Nov 2022: Gave a student seminar on Probabilistic Graphical Modeling for Information Gathering using Path-Based Sensors at the Maryland Robotics Center.
Nov 2022: Gave a student seminar on Distributed Multi-Robot Information Gathering using Path-Based Sensors in Entropy-Weighted Voronoi Regions at the Maryland Robotics Center.
Sep 2022: Our paper "Distributed Multi-Robot Information Gathering using Path-Based Sensors in Entropy-Weighted Voronoi Regions" got accepted to the 16th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems.
Jul 2022: Appointed as Graduate Teaching Assistant for a graduate level Deep Learning course ENPM809K - Fundamentals for Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning Framework.
Feb 2022: Gave a student seminar on Path Planning for Information When Hazards Corelate with Targets at the Maryland Robotics Center.
Jan 2022: Started a semester long independent study under the supervision of Dr. Nikhil Chopra on Learning-Based control of automated parking in CARLA simulator.
Nov 2021: Awarded Maryland Robotics Center's pathway to a Ph.D. fellowship to support my research at Motion and Teaming Laboratory
Jun 2021: Joined Motion and Teaming Laboratory to work in collaboration with Office of Naval Research under the guidance of Dr. Michael Otte.
Jan 2021: Joined University of Maryland, College Park for a Masters of Engineering degree that specializes in Robotics.
Oct 2020: Graduated with Honors from Rajasthan Technical University with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering.

Highlighted Works

Videos

Hazard Detection in Communication-Denied Environments using Bayesian Network Modeling of Path-Based Sensors

Path-Based Sensors: Will the Knowledge of Correlation in Random Variables Accelerate Information Gathering?

Robots

Robot Sound Interpretation - Using raw sound for Human-Robot interaction:

Crossing The Reality Gap 1D Planner with 1 Sensor:

Videos

Robot Sound Interpretation - Combining Sight and Sound in Learning-Based Control:

Learning-Based Online Path Planner:

Improving Quality of low-light video

Games & Android Applications

Contact

Email: alkesh@temple.edu, 29alkesh@gmail.com
Office: #124 College of Engineering, 1947 N 12th St, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA