Nandan Banerjee

About

Nandan Banerjee’s research lies at the intersection of humanoid robotics, human-supervised autonomy, and lifelong mapping, with a focus on enabling robots to operate reliably in unstructured, real-world environments. He made major contributions to the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), where his work on Team WPI-CMU helped achieve reliable humanoid behavior in simulated disaster missions. His paper on human-supervised control of the ATLAS humanoid robot for traversing doors—a deceptively simple task for humans but a monumental challenge for robots—has garnered 51 citations, while his overview of the DRC Finals has been cited 57 times. Banerjee’s later work on lifelong mapping, including the adaptive local maps algorithm and strategies for map stability over time, extends his impact to mobile robotics, with applications across thousands of robots. His research demonstrates a rare ability to bridge high-stakes competition robotics with practical, long-term autonomy, making him a notable figure in advancing humanoid robot reliability and persistent mapping.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   What Happened at the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals

   57 citations · 2018
2. 2
   Human-supervised control of the ATLAS humanoid robot for traversing doors

   51 citations · 2015
3. 3
   Team WPI‐CMU: Achieving Reliable Humanoid Behavior in the DARPA Robotics Challenge

   47 citations · 2017
4. 4
   Lifelong Mapping using Adaptive Local Maps

   18 citations · 2019
5. 5
   Lifelong mapping in the wild: Novel strategies for ensuring map stability and accuracy over time evaluated on thousands of robots

   6 citations · 2023
6. 6
   Achieving Reliable Humanoid Robot Operations in the DARPA Robotics Challenge: Team WPI-CMU’s Approach

   4 citations · 2018

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links