Papers
21
Total Citations
635
H-Index
13
About
Nikhil Khedekar is a robotics researcher specializing in autonomous aerial and legged robot systems, with a particular focus on exploration in challenging subterranean and confined environments. His work spans path planning, multi-robot coordination, sensor fusion, and resilient autonomy — areas where he has made substantial contributions to the field of field robotics. Khedekar's most celebrated work, "Motion Primitives-based Path Planning for Fast and Agile Exploration using Aerial Robots" (2020, 176 citations), introduced a groundbreaking planning strategy enabling micro aerial vehicles to efficiently navigate large-scale, complex environments despite their limited endurance. He has also been a key contributor to the CERBERUS team, which competed in the prestigious DARPA Subterranean Challenge, developing heterogeneous robot teams combining legged and aerial platforms for autonomous underground search missions — work that has collectively amassed hundreds of citations. Beyond multi-robot exploration, Khedekar has advanced resilient odometry through sensor fusion of LiDAR, radar, and inertial systems, and pioneered collision-tolerant aerial robot designs tailored for underground deployment. His MIMOSA framework further demonstrates his commitment to robust autonomy in GPS-denied, perceptually degraded environments. With over 540 citations across his publications, Khedekar's research meaningfully advances the frontier of deployable autonomous robots in real-world hazardous settings.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 5Degradation Resilient LiDAR-Radar-Inertial Odometry23 citations · 2024
- 6Autonomous Cave Exploration using Aerial Robots22 citations · 2021
- 7Field-hardened Robotic Autonomy for Subterranean Exploration21 citations · 2019
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- 9Contact–based Navigation Path Planning for Aerial Robots21 citations · 2019
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