Mechanical Engineering Faculty Profile:

Dr. Nikhil Chopra
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Joint Appointment with the Institute for Systems Research

2149 Glenn L. Martin Hall, Building 088
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742

Phone: 301.405.7011
Fax: 301.314.9477
Email: nchopra@umd.edu
Website

Research Interests

Control theory, robotics, bilateral teleoperation and synchronization theory.

Vita

Dr. Chopra's research interests are in developing a fundamental understanding of synchronization and control of networked dynamical systems interacting over unreliable communication networks. This work is important in practical applications such as semi-autonomous telerobotic networks, robot networks and unmanned air vehicles.

Education

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006-2007.
Ph.D., Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. Bachelor of Technology (Honors), Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, 2001.

Select Publications

• N. Chopra and M.W. Spong, On Exponential Synchronization of Kuramoto Oscillators, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Conditionally Accepted, 2007.
• N. Chopra, P. Berestesky, and M.W. Spong, Bilateral Teleoperation over Unreliable Communication Networks, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, To Appear, 2007.
• N. Chopra and M.W. Spong, Passivity-Based Control of Multi-Agent Systems, in Advances in Robot Control, From Everyday Physics to Human-Like Movements, Sadao Kawamura and Mikhail Svinin, Eds., pp. 107-134, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2006.
• N. Chopra, M.W. Spong, and R. Lozano, Synchronization of Bilateral Teleoperators with Time Delay, Automatica, Provisionally accepted, 2007.
• N. Chopra, M.W. Spong, R. Ortega, and N.E. Barabanov, On Tracking Performance in Bilateral Teleoperation, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Vol. 22, pp. 861-866, 2006.

Scientific and Professional Membership

Co-Chair, IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Telerobotics, Reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Automatica, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Asian Journal of Control and Mechatronics

Honors and Awards

William A. Chittenden Award for outstanding graduate research and the Vodafone Graduate Fellowship, 2003.

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