Rishi D. Khajuriwala

Roboticist

ABOUT

I am currently pursuing my Master of Science in Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), and hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechatronics Engineering.

During my academic and professional career, I have completed a range of projects that have equipped me with the ability to effectively work on a team and solve complex problems. I am comfortable taking a leadership position or not depending on the needs of the group and have proven to be able to collaborate with people of diverse backgrounds to accomplish a task.

At the technical level, I have a passion for the integration of disciplines needed in Robotics Engineering, but especially enjoy hardware and the challenge of designing and testing new prototypes. I have experience with circuits, hardware assembly, and machining. On the software side, I have direct experience with debugging robots and with programming using Python and MATLAB and how to implement kinematics, dynamics and control of the robot.

I am currently working on my Capstone project, here I am developing a bedside assistive robotic system for lower body rehabilitation. For this project, I contributed in developing the controller in MATLAB, making a Simulink Model for the KUKA LBR iiwa serial manipulator. In the past, I have taken courses on Robot Dynamics, Robot Control, soft robotics, Motion Planning, Synergy of human and Robots and Artificial Intelligence. Through my Artificial intelligence class, I have implemented Search algorithms, Supervised learning and unsupervised learning.

I completed my Co-op at Philips Analytics and Monitoring- Connected Sensing, where I was the part of the Algorithms Team. Here, I worked on a cross-collaborative team to design and develop a wearable device to monitor heart rate, respiration rate, activity type and level and ECG signals. I contributed in the development process of the signal processing algorithms in MATLAB and worked with large physiological data-sets to test the algorithms. I was given the task to design and develop experimental setups for the final verification and validation of the algorithms and successfully developed protocols for final integration of the algorithms.

Resume

EDUCATION

Master of Science in Robotics Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
2 Years Course

GRADUATING IN MAY 2019
IN PROGRESS

Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics Engineering
G.H.Patel College of Engineering and Technology | Gujarat Technological University
4 Years Course

JUNE 2016

WORK

Trainee Engineer
Chokshi Graphics, Ahmedabad, India

• Designed Hydraulic Platform for easy loading and unloading of paper reels using SolidWorks.
• Integrated the Hydraulic system for the platform to lift weights up to 3 tons.
• Supervised the Prototyping of the platform.
• Integrated the Platform with the already available machines in the factory.

May 2016 - June 2017

Graduate Tutor
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,WPI, USA

• Worked for Prof Maqsood Mughal for the class ECE 2049 Embedded Computing in Engineering Design
• Helped the Professor with Grading, Exams and Labs
• Conducted Office Hours to help students with their Assignments and Labs
• Conducted Lab sessions on MSP-430 mirco controller.

March 2018 - May 2018

Algorithms Intern
Philips- Connected Sensing Venture,Cambridge,USA

• Worked on a cross-collaborative team to design and develop a wearable device to monitor heart rate, respiration rate, activity type and level and ECG signals.
• Contributed in the development process of the signal processing algorithms in MATLAB and then passed on to supervisor for final production quality code integration in C.
• Worked with large physiological data-sets from Physionet in Cygwin and MATLAB.
• Used software like Bitbucket, JIRA, JAMA, Wiki for version control, bug control & internal documentation.
• Developed the protocols for the final validation and verification of the algorithms for internal testing.
• Collaborated with the quality and regulatory team to develop the final reports for the internal testing.
• Designed experimental test setups for the validation of the signal processing algorithms.
• Worked with cross platform teams for the final integration of the algorithms into the firmware.

May 2018 - December 2018

LEADERSHIP

Organizer
Robotics Project Club, GCET

• Organized and delivered various Workshops for high school and college students on Robotics Engineering.
• Advised and guided students to complete their technical projects by helping them debug problems they face with their projects.

April 2014-May 2016

Team Lead
Food Committee,Annual Function, GCET

•Led a team of 25 people to manage the catering of the university annual function which was attended by 3000 students.
• Partnered with Security committee to systematize the entire security of the event.

February-April 2016

Organizing Committee Head
International Conference on Innovations in Automation and Mechatronics Engineering, GCET

• Led a team of 40 students to host an international conclave attended by professors from international universities

February 2016

AWARDS

• Winner
Robowars, GTU central Techfest

2015

• Winner
Robowars, Shashvat

2014

• Winner
Robowars, Technopolis

2015

• Top 10
Robowars, IIT BOMBAY Techfest

2015

• Top 20
Robowars, IIT BOMBAY Techfest

2014

• Runner's Up
Robowars, IMAZE

2016

• Runner's Up
Robowars Rookie, JU-Rhythm,

2015

SKILLS

Python

MATLAB

Simulink

ROS

GNU Octave

Cygwin

Batch Programming

Vicon Motion Capture System

SolidWorks

PLC logic Programming

Arduino

PSPICE

MULTISIM

FANUC CNC Trainer

PROTEUS

LATEX

Git

Bitbucket

JAMA

JIRA

Microsoft Office

PORTFOLIO

Low Cost Robotic System to aid in the rehabilitation of stroke patients

REPORT

• Designed and prototyped a low-cost robotic system to aid in the rehabilitation of stroke patients in a team of 7 students.
• Developed the control system for the robotic arms in MATLAB, integrated an adaptive controller in the system to help the patients in various stages of rehabilitation.
• Designed an upper body template for the vicon system and using different subjects to get final patterns for all the exercises needed for stroke rehabilitation.
• Applied dynamic motion primitives to the patterns from the vicon system to get trajectories of the exercises transform into the robot space.
• Debugged the hardware and software of both the robot arms.
• Developed new interactive games for the patients to make the rehabilitation interactive.

Artificial Intelligence

REPORT

• Implemented genetic and hill climbing algorithm to determine the optimum locations of industrial, residential and commercial buildings in a city and implemented A* and hill climbing algorithm to solve N-Queens puzzle.
• Implemented gibbs sampling algorithm to compute conditional probabilities for a bayesian network, devised kalman filter to keep track of a country’s GDP and implemented kalman filter to detect and eliminate anomalous lidar data.
• Implemented expectation maximization Algorithm with random restarts that takes in N-dimensional data and finds the best number of clusters using bayesian information criterion (Unsupervised Learning).
• Used reinforcement learning (SARSA algorithm) to solve a grid world, where the agent has no model of environment.
• Applied Imitation Learning on manipulator arms.

Robot Navigation and Path planning

REPORT

• Developed a dynamic Virtual World using RVIS and Gazebo in ROS, which can be used for simulating a real-world situation for Robot navigation.
• Applied A star algorithm in python and applied it to stimulate the turtle bot in the Gazebo virtual world.
• Learned various path planning algorithms

Predictive control to prevent wheel slippage and avoid obstacles on low friction roads in autonomous cars

REPORT

• Worked with one other member to overcome dynamic friction changes and avoid obstacles in autonomous cars.
• Formulated the dynamic model, devised an optimal cost function with constraints and performed online optimization.
• Simulated the results using gain-scheduled model predictive control design in MATLAB toolbox.
• Evaluated the real-life feasibility to use online MPC in complex rapidly changing environments.

Soft Gripper Using Pneumatic Network Actuators

REPORT

• Developed soft gripper based on Pneu-nets using 3D printing and Lost wax technique.
• Conducted literature review of all soft manipulators and soft grippers.
• Tested the gripper by grasping different daily used objects.

Combat Robots

• Led a college team of 10 members to compete in “Robowars” events in national and international tournaments and in total won 12 awards for the College.
• Engineered robots of weights: 60 kg, 45 kg, 30 kg, 25 kg and 15 kg using Solid Works for Designing, Arduino, Solid state relays, etc.
• Designed a first-of-its-kind Single Piece Single Extrusion Snail Disk and Snail Drum to be used as weapon.

Semi-Automated Humanoid Robotic Limbs

• Designed and prototyped Semi-Automated Humanoid Robotic Limbs using SolidWorks and 3D Printing.
• Used inverse pendulum and Zero Moment Point (ZMP) to overcome locomotion issue in biped robots.
• Designed and prototyped the lower limb exoskeleton of the humanoid by using artificial air muscles and developed in-house pneumatic air muscles to lower the cost of the air muscles by 70%.

REPORT

CONTACT

Email
rdkhajuriwala@wpi.edu

Address
1 Mount Hope Terrace #1
Worcester 01602
Massachusetts, USA.

Phone
+1 (508)-762-2803

SOCIAL LINKS