Yash P. Talwekar

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Thanks for visiting! I am a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington, in the Autonomous Insect Robotics Lab advised by Prof. Sawyer B Fuller. I specialize in the synergistic integration of mechanical engineering, electronics and software development to build end-to-end physical systems and make them autonomous. My core expertise and interests are sensor fusion, state estimation, control systems, and signal processing.

More about my engineering experience here.

Research

I build biologically inspired insect-sized aerial robots, focusing primarily on sensing and control autonomy. Compared to their larger counterparts, these robots are typically sub-gram and their small size could be highly effective for operating within confined spaces, cooperative tasks, environmental monitoring and more. However, physical systems at this scale have extreme constraints in size, speed, weight and power (SSWaP). These pose numerous difficulties in miniaturization and further make conventional approaches in robotics dramatically inefficient, challenges that insects have evolved to tackle with incredibly elegant solutions.

My work on both hardware and software addresses these constraints and miniaturization through:

  • compact, lightweight and power-efficient sensing circuit payloads
  • highly optimized algorithms and embedded firmware for low-latency and efficiency
  • mechanical design and fabrication techniques to boost robot reliability and reproducibility

Advancements as a result of these miniaturization efforts also open avenues into other applications requiring efficient sensing and control with similar SSWaP constraints. I actively collaborate on interdisciplinary research in biomechanics, making wearable sensing backpacks for small organisms like hummingbirds, moths, and wearable accessories for humans.

Learn more about some of my work here:

Avionics for sub-gram aerial robots
Sensing wearables for biology

Other notes

Engineering itself is a creative outlet for me, but I equally enjoy music and photography. You can find some of my photos (mostly birds) on the Photography page. Outside of research, you’ll find me birding and exploring nature, hiking, or reading.