Nilanjan Sarkar

I am interested in the analysis, design, and development of intelligent and autonomous systems that can work with people in a versatile and natural way. The applications of this research range from helping individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities in learning skills, aiding stroke patients to regain some of their movement abilities through robot-assisted rehabilitation, and providing more autonomy in robots for a variety of tasks. We are developing new generations of robots and computer-based intelligent systems such as virtual reality systems that can sense human emotion from various implicit signals and cues such as one’s physiology, gestures, facial expressions and so on, to be able to interact with people in a smooth and natural way. My current research involves both theoretical analysis and experimental investigation of electromechanical systems, sensor fusion and machine learning, modeling of human-robot and human-computer interaction, kinematics, dynamics and control theory leading to the development of these smart systems.