A REPORT

ON
GUEST LECTURE
21 OCTOBER,2022
Guest Lecture was conducted by the department of Electronics Communication Engineering
of B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent University on 21-10-2022(Friday) from 11.00 am to 12.40
pm .Chief guest Prof. Asokan Thondiyath Madras ,has taken a lecture on topic “Autonomy for
mobile robots Challenges in Localisation and Navigation” for third year and final year students
in Mechanical department seminar hall . Dr T Asokan is a Professor in the Department of
Engineering Design, and currently the Head of the Department at IIT Madras. He completed
his B.Tech. and M.Tech. in mechanical engineering from Calicut University. Dr Asokan
received his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
in the year 2000. His area of specialization was electro hydraulic controls for robotic
applications. He then spent six years as a researcher at the Robotics Research Center, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore working in the area of mechatronic systems and robotics.
He was instrumental in developing the Remotely Operated Underwater vehicle and a 7-axis
underwater manipulator at NTU, Singapore. Prior to this, he spent 3 years in DRDO as a
Scientist. He joined IIT Madras as Assistant Professor in the year 2006 and was promoted as
Associate Professor in 2009 and Professor in 2014. He was awarded the Stanford-India
biodesign fellowship by the Stanford University, USA in 2009 and has completed a post
doctoral fellowship in medical device development at the Stanford University. Dr. Asokan is
a visiting Fellow of the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is currently the national
secretary of The Robotics Society. His areas of teaching and research are Robotics, Product
design, and Engineering System design. Dr Asokan has published more than 120 papers in
International Journals and conferences and has filed 20 patents in India, USA and Singapore.
He has supervised 11 Ph.D and 9 MS students and currently supervising 6 Ph.D, 3 MS and 6
dual degree students. He is actively involved in many sponsored research projects with an
approximate budget of Rs. 500 lakhs, sponsored by DRDO, ISRO, DST, NRB and other
sponsoring agencies. Total of around 100 students and staff participated in this programme.

Fadhl ur Rahman's of final year ECE department has opened the lecture with Qirat once all
the students, staff members, and the chief guest has been arrived, Supporting Pillar of our ECE
department Dr.C.Tharini mam addressed the gathering after Qirat followed by our respective
Dean mam Dr. Najumnissa jamal felicitated the session. And then our beloved Dr. Kalaivani
mam introduced the Chief Guest.
Dr.Asokan began the session with introduction about various autonomous robots and then he
explained various challenges faced by the autonomous robots. He mainly focused on Mapping
,localization and navigation.And than he clearly described about how to overcome the
challenges faced by underwater communication robots,he has also explained about
manufacturing procedures,facilitating human- robot collaboration,mapping Enivronments
etc.He has also explained the localization approaches i.e how to identify the probabilities of
robot being in Specific conditions .He also talked about Under water robots and has shown
some of his works on Mobile robots such as Surgical Robots ,Under water robots etc.
After his lecture Students were given time to clarify their doubts and to interact with him.and
then The vote of thanks was given by a Dr.C.Tharini mam of ECE Department .As per the
feedback received from the participants it was very good learning experience and more
informative session.
Some of the Students has shared their views on the session in form of feedback
Kavya Pasupuleti :I found the session was very much Interesting and informative we had learnt
many things it will definitely helps us to work on our future projects .
Tharun Adi: The guest lecture was a very informative and interesting session. We got to know
about the design and development process of autonomous robots and also the difficulties and
complications in developing them.
Mohammad Aman: The seminar conducted by the IIT Professor was very informative and
helpful for usWe got to learn what are the various ways to localize an autonomous robot and
the challenges faced in its navigation. Overall the lecture was worth spending the time.
Chandu:Its an interesting session, it was relevant to our subject and knowledgeable.
Fathima : He gave a clear idea about the challenges in localization and navigation of mobile
robots. The session was very interesting.
Here are some of the photos of guest lecture