Chanaka Thushitha Bandara

Robotic Technology (United States), University of Delaware

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Chanaka Thushitha Bandara is a robotics researcher specializing in autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) navigation, state estimation, and sensor fusion. His work addresses fundamental challenges in underwater robotics, particularly the difficulty of maintaining accurate pose estimation in visually degraded environments. Bandara’s most cited paper, “Hybrid Visual Inertial Odometry for Robust Underwater Estimation” (2023, 7 citations), tackles the critical problem of vision-based state estimation failure caused by color attenuation, low visibility, and floating particulates—common obstacles in underwater settings. He proposes a hybrid approach that fuses visual and inertial data to enhance robustness, directly improving the reliability of autonomous underwater operations. In his 2024 work (4 citations), Bandara pioneers the first dynamical system modeling, identification, and control approach for the Jaiabot, a new, commercially available micro-AUV. This research establishes foundational methods for using small, cost-effective marine robotic platforms for environmental sensing and control. By enabling more robust underwater navigation and expanding the capabilities of accessible AUVs, Bandara’s contributions are advancing practical applications in marine robotics, from environmental monitoring to underwater exploration.