Karthik Rajgopal

Robert Bosch (Netherlands), Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Karthik Rajgopal is a robotics researcher whose work bridges the gap between theoretical safety guarantees and real-world autonomous navigation. His primary research areas include control theory, collision avoidance, and legged robotics, with a particular focus on developing practical safety frameworks for unmanned systems. Rajgopal’s most significant contribution is his pioneering integration of collision cone concepts with Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), a novel approach that proactively prevents collisions with kinematic obstacles in both ground and aerial vehicles. His 2024 paper on "Collision Cone Control Barrier Functions" (7 citations) provides experimental validation on UGVs, demonstrating the real-world applicability of his theoretical framework, while his companion work (4 citations) extends this unified approach to UAVs. Rajgopal also showcases his versatility in hardware design with "Stoch BiRo" (3 citations), a low-cost bipedal robot that overcomes cost barriers in legged robotics research. With a growing citation impact and a portfolio spanning from foundational theory to practical implementation, Rajgopal is establishing himself as a rising voice in safe autonomous navigation, particularly for students and researchers interested in bridging control theory with experimental robotics.