Non-Linear Control Group

During my first week at Columbia in the fall 2025 semester, I had the pleasure of meeting Professor Homayoon Beigi and being invited to join his lab. During this semester, I worked on controlling a robotic cart and arm using ROS2.

The cart was built and developed by a fellow lab member, Onur Calisur, and he taught me a great deal about ROS2 and how to properly update and maintain the software on this mobile robot. My primary task was to make documentation about how to actually use the robot, as well as to make some

The arm we used was a Jetcobot 7 by Yahboom, and I was mentored on this robot by Harsha Kotta. He helped me greatly improve my C++ skills and guided me on the nuances of working with a robotic arm.

Additionally, during the semester, we began building a larger-scale cart to mount the robotic arm. I worked on this part of the project alongside Shlok Majmumdar and David Reyes. At the end of that semester, our effort culminated in assembling the fully developed cart and mounting the arm atop the car. This milestone is shown below.

This semester, I am currently the lead of the robotics team of this lab, and I am organising a team of 6 people to develop and improve our current hardware and software. Our aims are to design a Port-Hamiltonian dynamic model for the robotic arm and car system, implement it in a ROS control system featuring an EKF for the cart, and bridge the arm to the cart so that it becomes one cohesive system. Additionally, we will build a battery and replace the placeholder wall power supply. Finally, we will also be swapping the current mounting for the arm and electronics for modular plates that will allow us to add new hardware and electronic peripherals. I will continue to update this post as significant progress is made!