Personal statement

Dr. Veera Ragavan Sampath Kumar worked for several multinational companies in various capacities from a Design Engineer to Business Unit Head. He has more than 17 years of industrial experience in the design and development of Factory Automation Solutions and has executed several projects from concept to commissioning.  He is a renowned Systems Integrator and a System of Systems Architect, specializing in Fluid Power Automation and Control, Telematics, M2M, Robot Navigation, RTOS, Application Software development for Manufacturing Automation and Embedded Software for consumer electronics and Factory Automation.

His current research interests are Modeling, Simulation, Design, and Development of Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical Systems with a focus on  Industrial Automation, Real-time Embedded Systems, Robotics, Industrial Internet of Things, and Machine Learning.

He has been an active member of several internationally renowned technical committees such as IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE-RAS), IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IEEE-IES) and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  He served as a core member of IEEE RAS Working Group that developed the internationally acclaimed IEEE 1872TM- 2016 standard - Core Ontologies for Robotics and Automation. Currently, he is the Co-Chair of the IEEE working group for developing Ontologies for Autonomous Robots (IEEE1872.2 AuR) and core working member of Robot Task Representation (IEEE 1872.1). He is an active member of the ASME Standards Project on Robotics Arm Performance, IEEE P1931.1 - Roof Computing WG, IEEE P7000 - Model Process for Addressing Ethical Concerns in System Design, IEEE SA P7007 Ontological Standard for Ethically Driven Robotics and Automation Systems Working Groups. He serves on the IEEE-IES Technical Subcommittee on Computer Vision and Human-Machine Interaction in Industrial and Factory Automation.

Academic degrees

• Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering, Monash University Australia, 2016
• Master in Engineering (Machine Design), Bangalore University, 1991
• Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Bharathiyar University, 1988

Professional affiliations

Member of International Professional Bodies

• Engineering Council (UK), Chartered Engineer
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Member
• Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Member
• IEEE Robotics & Automation Society, Member
• IEEE Standards Association, Member

Research Interests

• Design and Development of Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical Systems with a focus on industrial automation
• Real-time Embedded Systems
• Robotics
• Industrial Internet of Things
• Machine Learning
• Factory Automation
• System Integration
• Embedded Systems
• Software Development

Research projects

Title: Engineering Mechatronics and Cyber-Physical Systems: Modeling, Design and Development for Industry 4.0

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) has kick-started a growing product development trend, which tends to blend electro-mechanics, digital electronics, distributed control, intelligence, the internet, and cloud computing elements into a single integrated system, popularly known as "Mechatronics Systems". Recently, a subset of mechatronic products and systems – characterized by concurrent, dynamic and real-time interactions among subsystems from “Cyber” and “Physical” domains – are being increasingly called Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).

Figure 1. Mechatronic Drive Train with Regenerative Braking for Energy scavenging and optimization.

CPS, like Mechatronics systems, need to be designed as “a whole”. Design synthesis and design automation have become difficult problems as existing methods account only for signal and not energy interactions. Model-driven development can overcome design synthesis and end-to-end design automation problems.

CPS system design has implications beyond its traditional domains such as smart transportation systems, smart factories, and homes, smart buildings and community, smart energy systems, remote monitoring systems. Today it extends to even Healthcare, cyber-physical biochip, and wearable devices

Figure 2. Development of Services based IoT Framework for Intelligent coordination of Mobile Assets for Smart cities.

Education

Units taught

TRC2001 - Introduction to Systems Engineering

TRC3000 - Mechatronics Project II

No content

Local grants

• Working Model of a Parallel Pneumatic Regenerative Braking/Launch Assist (PPRB/LA) System for LMV’s, Veera Ragavan (PI), Kok Hen Chong, Ng Kok Yew, Madhavan, 2012-2014, Exploratory Research Grant Scheme, Ministry of Science & Technology, Malaysia, RM50,000
• Modeling of Cyber-Physical Systems, Veera Ragavan (PI), Tan Chee Pin, Ng Kok Yew, Madhavan, 2015, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, RM 127,000
• Connected Vehicle Project, Veera Ragavan (PI), Madhavan, Tan Chee Pin, 2017, Industry Grant, Malaysia, RM35,000
• MATAC Project, Tan Chee Pin, Veera Ragavan (Co-Investigator), 2017-2018, Industry Grant, Malaysia, RM95,400
• MATAC Project, Veera Ragavan (Co-Investigator), Madhavan, Tan Chee Pin, 2017, Industry Grant, Malaysia, RM23,828

Current supervision

Da Ming Chan

Trajectory Control and Planning for Autonomous Cyber Physical Systems

2015

Monash University

Tarun Samraj Jeyaselvan

An Approach To Adapting Mechatronics Synthesis For Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems

2017

Monash University

Saeed Pirbodaghi (Co-supervision)

Design and Implementation of an Assistive Neuroprosthesis for Gait Rehabilitation

2016

Monash University

International Award/Recognition/Exhibition/Stewardship

• IEEE Emerging Technology Awards, Working Group contribution - IEEE-SA, 2015
• Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching and Research - Monash University, 2008, 2009, 2011,2012
• Engineering Dean’s Award for Programs that Enhance Learning - Monash University, 2016