Hi, I’m Pras.
I specialize in architecting, designing, fabricating, and productizing extremely complex embodied AI systems. With a breadth of knowledge spanning multiple industries and technologies, I love to help people create the systems they want.
Experience
My professional work experience in academia and industry.
Agility Robotics
Leading R&D and technology strategy for the first humanoid robot to be deployed under commercial contract.
CTO
Apr 2024 - Present
Apr 2024 - Present
Chief Architect / VP Innovation
May 2023 - Apr 2024
May 2023 - Apr 2024
Berkshire Grey
Leading software and electromechanical research and product development for industry-leading robotic material-handling systems. https://berkshiregrey.com
VP Engr, Chief Architect
May 2022 - Apr 2023
May 2022 - Apr 2023
Director of Engineering
May 2018 - May 2022
May 2018 - May 2022
Principal Scientist
Oct 2014 - May 2018
Oct 2014 - May 2018
Carnegie Mellon University
Performed state-of-the-art manipulation planning, decision theory, and perception research on the HERB personal robot platform. https://personalrobotics.cs.washington.edu/ (now at UW)
Adjunct Faculty - Personal Robotics Lab
Nov 2014 - May 2022
Nov 2014 - May 2022
Project Scientist - Personal Robotics Lab
Sep 2012 - Oct 2014
Sep 2012 - Oct 2014
Platypus, LLC
Developed and deploy Android-based autonomous boats for environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and academic research applications. https://senseplatypus.com
Founder / CTO
Aug 2012 - Oct 2014
Aug 2012 - Oct 2014
Cephal Systems, LLC
Provided consulting services for industry clients requiring specialized robotics expertise in perception, navigation, controls and electromechanicals. https://cephalsystems.com
Founder / CEO
Jan 2013 - Mar 2021
Jan 2013 - Mar 2021
Redzone Robotics
Led electrical engineering for developing submersible perception and power distribution systems for subterranean robotic inspection platforms. https://redzone.com
Robotics Engineer
Jun 2005 - Jul 2006
Jun 2005 - Jul 2006
EDUCATION
2006 - 2012
PhD in Robotics
Carnegie Mellon University
2006 - 2012
2006 - 2009
MS in Robotics
Carnegie Mellon University
2006 - 2009
2002 - 2005
BS in Elec. & Computer Engr. and Comp. Sci.
Carnegie Mellon University
2002 - 2005
Creating open-source hardware and software is a passion of mine. Here are some of the projects that I have contributed to.
Open-Source
AIKIDO
C++ library of topological, kinematic and dynamic motion-planning utilities and reference implementations, built on DART library.
Chimera
Clang-based language binding code-generator for C++ (currently supports boost-python).
Truss
Lua/Terra-based cross-platform visualization and scripting engine.
NASA SRR
Competed in NASA Centennial Challenge: Sample Return Rover in three-person team. Built autonomous ground vehicle for sample retrieval into isolated containers. Selected for People's Choice Award.
DARPA VRC
Competed in DARPA Virtual Robotics Challenge in two-person team. Developed VR visualization environment and real-time trajectory record/playback system. Qualified and placed 19th in competition.
Selected publications from my academic career.
PUBLICATIONS
HERB’s Sure Thing: a rapid drama system for rehearsing and performing live robot theater
Garth Zeglin, Aaron Walsman, Laura Herlant, Zhaodong Zheng, Yuyang Guo, Michael Koval, Kevin Lenzo, Hui Jun Tay, Prasanna Velagapudi, Katie Correll and Siddhartha Srinivasa | IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts
Pregrasp Manipulation as Trajectory Optimization
Jennifer King, Matthew Klingensmith, Christopher Dellin, Mehmet Dogar, Prasanna Velagapudi, Nancy Pollard and Siddhartha Srinivasa | Robotics: Science and Systems
Development of a Low Cost Multi-Robot Autonomous Marine Surface Platform
Abhinav Valada and Prasanna Velagapudi and Balajee Kannan and Christopher Tomaszewski and George A Kantor and Paul Scerri | International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR 2012)
Real-World Testing of a Multi-Robot Team
Paul Scerri and Prasanna Velagapudi and Balajee Kannan and Abhinav Valada and Christopher Tomaszewski and John M Dolan and Adrian Scerri and Kumar Shaurya Shankar and Luis Lorenzo Bill-Clark and George A Kantor | International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS)
Distributed Model Shaping for Scaling to Decentralized POMDPs with hundreds of agents
Prasanna Velagapudi and Pradeep R Varakantham and Paul Scerri and Katia Sycara | International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS)
Decentralized Prioritized Planning in Large Multirobot Teams
Prasanna Velagapudi and Katia Sycara and Paul Scerri | IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
How Search and its Subtasks Scale in `N` Robots
Wang-Hsuan Lee and and Prasanna Velagapudi and Paul Scerri and Katia Sycara | ACM/IEEE International conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI)