Thiyagarajan Ranganathan

My Ph.D. research was on “Design and Control of a Novel Variable Buoyancy Module – vBuoy for Underwater Robotic Applications”. During my research, I was focussed on developing standalone variable buoyancy (VB) module which can be used to design novel underwater systems and applications. I developed a novel VB module called vBuoy, mathematically modelled the same, analysed its dynamics and designed a hybrid depth controller. The concept of vBuoy was then extended and demonstrated for use in three different underwater applications such as the design of a novel underwater glider – RoBuoy, use of vBuoys as actuators for underwater manipulation and selective deployment of multiple vBuoys.

I was also involved in developing multi-terrain robots. One of the initial works was on development of an amphibious robot with multiple fins for underwater motion and using the same fins for motion in land. The same robot has been designed and field tested. Currently, I am working on designing an aerial-underwater vehicle (Acutus), the preliminary simulation results have been submitted to ICRA 2019. Apart from these, I have also worked on aerial robots of both micro and macro scales. As a team, we developed a novel concept of aerial design using which the payload carrying capacity can be improved without increasing the overall footprint of the quadrotor.