Colloquium: Dr. Ninad Jadhav
Thursday, February 26
3:30–5 PM
115 Avery Hall
"Wireless Sensing at the Edge for In-Situ Multi-Robot Coordination"
Abstract: Advancing autonomy for real-world deployment remains one of the most compelling frontiers in robotics, particularly in complex and dynamic environments characterized by uncertainty, limited communication, and challenging sensing conditions. Addressing these challenges requires the seamless integration of diverse sensing modalities with heterogeneous robotic platforms capable of autonomous reasoning and collaboration. In this talk, I will present our work on enabling coordination in multi-robot systems by leveraging information inferred from the physical properties of wireless signals. I will also discuss the integration of this sensing capability with aerial robots and demonstrate its application in real-world field scenarios, including sperm whale monitoring at sea. Together, these efforts illustrate how integrating diverse sensing modalities into robotic systems can unlock new capabilities for multi-robot coordination and enable scientific discoveries that deepen and transform our understanding of the natural world.
Bio: Ninad Jadhav is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University and holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Arizona State University and a B.Tech. from SRM University, India. His research investigates novel sensing modalities for multi-robot coordination, with applications in field robotics. He has co-led multiple scientific expeditions in the Caribbean Sea, deploying autonomous robots to collect biological data on sperm whales. His work has been published in leading robotics venues, including Science Robotics, and has been recognized with the 2025 MassRobotics RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award.