Sivakumar Rathinam

Dr. Sivakumar Rathinam is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, affiliated with the College of Engineering and the Computer Science & Engineering department. He holds certifications as a Fellow of ASME (2021) and Senior Member of IEEE (2019). His research focuses on motion planning for autonomous vehicles, collaborative decision-making, combinatorial optimization, and vision-based control systems. He leads the Autonomy Lab, addressing challenges in multi-agent systems, path planning, and rural autonomous vehicle accessibility.

Education:

• Ph.D., Civil Systems Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2007)
• M.S., Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, UC Berkeley (2006)
• M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University (2001)
• B.Tech., Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (1999)

Research Highlights: Dr. Rathinam's work spans autonomous vehicle navigation, UAV coordination, and sensor fusion for adverse conditions. His lab develops algorithms for multi-agent pathfinding and persistent monitoring missions. Recent efforts include rural road detection datasets (R2D2) and thermal/LIDAR sensor fusion for safety in challenging environments.

Awards:

• Outstanding Faculty Contribution Award (2021)
• Best Paper Runner-Up, ICAPS (2021)
• Teaching Excellence Award (2012)

Labs & Teams: Directs the Autonomy Lab, collaborating with industry partners through the Mechanical Engineering Industry Advisory Council. Active in NSF-funded projects on equitable rural autonomy and multi-UAV recharging frameworks.