Dr. Rudranarayan Mukherjee is a Research Technologist in the Robotics Modeling and Simulation group at the Robotics and Mobility Systems section at JPL. He is a Principal Investigator of number of JPL efforts for DARPA, ARL, ONR either as lead or in collaboration with other entities as well as Co-Investigator of a number of internal JPL efforts. His primary role at JPL is to develop and apply new technologies, particularly in computational modeling of emergent behaviors in complex systems. He is an elected member of the ASME International Technical Committee on Multibody Systems and Nonlinear Dynamics (TC-MSND). His primary area of expertise is in computational modeling of robotics, space systems, manned and unmanned ground vehicles and their interactions with their environments. Current research efforts include DEM based modeling of robotic manipulation and mobility on natural terrain using High Performance Computing, modeling and design analysis of legged microground vehicles, onboard adaptive fidelity simulations for motion planning and model based design of complex systems.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2007)

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2002)

B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering

University of Pune, India (2000)

Current Experience:

• Principal Investigator, JPL effort for DARPA C2M2L program 2012-13
• Principal Investigator, JPL effort for DARPA AVM program 2012-15
• Principal Investigator, JPL and Stanford University effort for ARL MAST program, 2013-15
• Principal Investigator, JPL effort led by Neya Inc. for RTC / ONR, 2012-14
• Principal Investigator, JPL CIF funded workshop, 2013
• Co-Investigator, JPL internal RTD effort on sampling 2013

Past Experiences:

• Principal Investigator, JPL effort for ARL MAST program 2011-12
• Principal Investigator, JPL effort for DARPA M3 program 2011-12
• Co-Investigator, JPL internal RTD effort on sampling 2011, 2012
• Individual Contributor, Lunar Robotic Sample Acquisition Strategic RTD 2010
• Individual Contributor, MSL Mobility Model in RSVP for Avionics Testing 2010
• Individual Contributor, MSL Arm Model for Avionics Testing 2009
• Individual Contributor, Modeling of passive dynamic walkers, JPL SURP 2009
• Individual Contributor, NIH project on modeling bimolecular systems 2009
• Individual Contributor, ARL MAST effort 2009-10
• Individual Contributor, Vehicle dynamics and other physics modeling for Lunar Surface Operations Simulator (LSOS) 2008-09
• Individual Contributor, Modeling of Touch-and-Go sampling using flexible booms 2008
• Individual Contributor, SHERPA modeling and controls for JPL RTD, 2007

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Flight Project and Research Task Involvement

Research Tasks:
Mobility Mechanics Modeling Toolkit (M3Tk)
Night-Time Perception and Visual Odometry for Small Unmanned Ground Vehicles
Terrain Ontology and Massively Parallel Granular Media Models for Mobility

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Research Interests (previous>>)

• Modeling emergent physical phenomena using first principles approaches and High Performance Computing
• High fidelity modeling of wheeled mobility on natural terrain
• High fidelity modeling of legged mobility on heterogeneous terrain
• High fidelity modeling of sample acquisition from extra-terrestrial terrains
• Adaptive fidelity modeling of vehicle dynamics for onboard motion planning
• Model based design (not MBSE) of complex electromechanical systems
• Computational multibody dynamics
• Biomolecular systems modeling
• Scientific computing software development

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