RAVI PRAKASH

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Systems that see, decide, and act

I build full-stack robotic systems connecting sensing with learning-based algorithms and precision robotic hardware and control, to enable reliable autonomy in high-stakes, unstructured real-world environments.

Through-line

Sense it. Understand it. Act on it.

Robotics researcher specializing in multimodal sensing and closed-loop autonomy for medical robotics, surgical robotics and aerial robotic systems in complex, dynamic environments.

SonicFly aerial robot pursuit experiment

2026Under review

SonicFly: listening to the sound of flight

Passive aeroacoustic sensing enables a flying robot to estimate and pursue another using its intrinsic flight sound.

TumorMap

Under Review

TumorMap: A Laser-Based Surgical Platform for 3D Tumor Mapping and Fully-Automated Tumor Resection

Multimodal surgical platform — leveraging optical coherence tomography (OCT), laser-induced fluorescence, RGB images, to generate 3D pathological maps with learning-based mapping, enabling autonomous resection through laser scalpel. Validated in murine osteosarcoma and soft-tissue sarcoma with submillimeter accuracy.

See, Plan, Cut research overview

ICRA 2026

See, Plan, Cut: MPC-Based Volumetric Laser Surgery

Sampling-based MPC for OCT-guided volumetric ablation. Optimal trajectories respecting tissue constraints.

PalpAid research overview

RoboSoft 2026

PalpAid: Multimodal Pneumatic Tactile Sensor

Pneumatic tactile sensor for tissue palpation — mentored undergraduate project.

Portable Dual research overview

ISMR 2025

Portable Dual Sensor Visualization

Large-area dual sensing for real-time surgical guidance in resource-constrained settings.

SurgXBench research overview

WACV 2026

SurgXBench: Explainable VLM for Surgery

Vision-language model benchmark for surgical scene understanding.

Multimodal Tissue Boundary research overview

IEEE/EMBS BSN 2025

Multimodal Tissue Boundary Delineation

Sensor fusion for tissue transition detection. Mentored project.

ISMR 2023

Brain-Mimicking Phantom for Photoablation

Tunable optical/mechanical phantoms for validating robotic laser surgery systems.

IROS 2023

3D Laser-Tissue Agnostic Surgical Planning

Data-driven method for robotic laser surgical planning from 3D scans.