Winner. Scientist of the Year 2023

Karthikeyan Yuvaraj

Academic title, degree: MS in Electrical Engineering in Robotics
Fields of science: Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Research interest: 3D Computer Vision, Autonomous Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Camera Calibration
Career Development: Senior
Organization: Yaskawa
Position: Senior Robotics Software Engineer
City: Austin, Texas
Country: USA

Karthikeyan Yuvaraj is a Senior Roboticist at Yaskawa. Previously, he worked as a roboticist at Alphabet (parent of Google), where the goal was to democratize robotics for millions more businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers. The startup Vicarious AI he joined as one of the founding roboticists, was acquired by Google for its groundbreaking tech in Robotics/AI.

Before this, Karthikeyan worked as a Robotics Software Engineer at Honeywell (a Fortune 500 MNC) to develop advanced robotics and AI solutions for manufacturing and material handling applications.

Particularly in Robotics, Karthikeyan specializes in developing vision systems for complex robots and enabling them to achieve autonomy. In simple words, he makes robots see the world.

Mr. Yuvaraj has several international patents and publications in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, his work has been mentioned in major media like National Geography, LA Times, Popular Mechanics, Bloomberg, etc.

Contributions to DARPA Robotics Challenge:

Mr. Yuvaraj's robotics career started at Drexel University, where he had the opportunity to participate in DARPA Robotics Challenge. This was an international robotics competition conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, USA. Some of the competitors were NASA, Lockheed Martin, Boston Dynamics, Google, etc.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster led to the loss of many lives, as humans were sent to neutralize the nuclear disaster, and many died due to exposure to heavy radiation. This inspired DARPA to see the necessity of robotic agents operating in hazardous environments and containing such thermal/nuclear disasters.

Karthikeyan's contribution was developing the software/hardware for the vision system for the humanoid robot to be able to drive a vehicle, climb up a ladder, manipulate a drill, etc. These efforts have led to many publications, including the prestigious Springer Robotics journal. And most importantly, it enabled the humanoid robot DRC-Hubo to compete in the competition alongside other robots.

Mr. Yuvaraj’s top/recent achievements are:

• IEEE Senior Membership Award. Karthikeyan Yuvaraj was awarded Senior Membership in the IEEE, a premium engineering organization. Only 10% of IEEE’s more than 400,000 members hold this grade, which requires extensive experience and reflects professional maturity, and documented achievements of significance;

• International Achievers Award. Awarded by the Indian government for outstanding contributions in the field of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence;

• Professional of the Year Award. Awarded by the Indian government for outstanding professional contribution in the field of Robotics/Artificial Intelligence;

• One granted US patent on Robotics/AI for innovation in material handling/logistics space. Karthikeyan was one of the founding roboticists of Vicarious AI, a startup acquired by Google last year. He was one of the key members in developing an AI-enabled robot that helps other robots learn to grasp novel objects;

• Four granted USA patents for advanced Robotics/Artificial Intelligence innovation in manufacturing/logistics. Manual unloading of cargo from a truck is a very labor-intensive process. When Karthikeyan was at Honeywell, he developed the vision system for an autonomous robotic truck unloader. The robot's goal was to navigate inside a trailer and start unloading boxes. While working on this, Mr. Yuvaraj made 4 US patents, and it led to international patents as well. Also, his patents got over 150 citations, including some from tech giants like Amazon and Google.