/College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Nilanjan Chakraborty, PhD

Nilanjan ChakrabortyAssociate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Office: Heavy Engineering 212

Email Address: nilanjan.chakraborty@stonybrook.edu

Phone Number: (631) 632-9327 

Websites: Interacting Robotic Systems (IRSL) Laboratory

Nilanjan Chakraborty Website

IRSL YouTube Channel

 

Bio: 

Nilanjan Chakraborty joined the Mechanical Engineering Faculty at Stony Brook University in the Fall of 2014. His research interests are in robotics, artificial intelligence, dynamical systems, and applied optimization. He is interested in developing capabilities for robots that will allow them to work robustly and reliably with or without human teammates, and enable long-term autonomy in robotic systems. He specializes in developing algorithms for robot manipulation planning, robot learning from demonstrations, multibody contact dynamics, and distributed planning for multi-robot systems. His work finds applications in assistive robotics, flexible low-volume high-mix manufacturing, and automation of scientific discovery. 

He is a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and ASME. He has served in editorial roles and also as reviewers of multiple leading robotics journals and conferences. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Robotics Research and the Journal of Robotics and Mechanisms, Transactions of the ASME. He is the conference chair of the 50th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference at ASME IDETC 2026. He was a recipient of the Best Paper Award (Computer Systems Technical Group) at the Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 2013 and the Best Student Paper Award at Robotics: Science and Systems Conference in 2007. 



Education:

  • PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • MSc, Indian Institute of Science
  • BE, Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College

Professional Experience:

  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University, 2014 - Present 

Awards & Publications:

  • Best Paper Award (Computer Systems Technical Group) at the Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 2013 
  • Best Student Paper Award at Robotics: Science and Systems Conference in 2007 

Professional Memberships & Service:

  • Associate Editor for International Journal of Robotics Research (2023 - present) 
  • Associate Editor Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, Transactions of the ASME (2022 - present) 
  • Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (2017-2021) 
  • Associate Editor for IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2014-2016, 2021-2024) 
  • Associate Editor for IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Robots and Systems (2017-2018)
  • Member of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS)
  • Member of  American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 
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Overview: 

Nilanjan Chakraborty’s research interests are in robotics, artificial intelligence, dynamical systems, and applied optimization. He is interested in developing capabilities for robots that will allow them to work robustly and reliably with or without human teammates and to enable long-term autonomy in robotic systems. He specializes in developing contact dynamics-based algorithms for manipulation planning, algorithms for robot motion planning, and algorithms for distributed planning in multi-robot systems.

Highlights & Accomplishments: 

  • Developed a Novel Approach to Programming by Demonstration (PbD) That Allows Active Incremental Acquisition of Demonstrations With Performance Assurance. 
  • Developed a Unified Framework for Combining Grasp Planning and Constrained Manipulation Planning.
  • Developed a Novel Method for Multirobot Task Allocation Under Uncertainty with Performance Guarantees.

 

Research Interests: 

  • Use of robots as assistants in small-batch manufacturing, patient care, nursing, and lab automation
  • ISR, Search and Rescue, Environmental Monitoring applications