About

Arun Lakshmanan is a highly skilled Software Engineer in the Planning & Controls team at Optimus Ride, an autonomous vehicle startup that operates a fleet of shuttles in geo-fenced areas. With over 3 years of relevant experience, Arun focuses on modern control techniques that provide rigorous safety guarantees for autonomous vehicles. He has produced a design document that rigorously details the safety requirements and associated assumptions for an autonomous vehicle from a controls perspective. He has also documented the design of a model predictive control algorithm with computational, stability, and feasibility guarantees. Prior to joining Optimus Ride, Arun completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he worked under the guidance of Prof. Naira Hovakimyan. His research was at the intersection of robotics, control theory, and machine learning, where he focused on safe motion planning for robots under uncertainty. Arun's research is available on his website, arunl.com. Arun has also gained valuable experience as a Research Intern at Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) and as a Robotics Perception Intern at Occipital. During his internship at FRL, he worked on the control design of a device with a mechanical actuation. At Occipital, he designed a C++ motion planning library and implemented different types of planning algorithms for wheeled robots mounted with Structure sensors. Arun's educational background is impressive, with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Science (MS) in Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical Engineering, and a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in Mechanical Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology. Arun's technical skills include Software Engineering, Research Science, and Machine Learning. He is a highly motivated individual with a passion for developing innovative solutions to complex problems.