About me
I’m a second-year MS in Robotics student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. I work with Prof. Abhisesh Silwal in the Kantor Lab on SLAM and 3D reconstruction for forest environments. My current research includes MapForest — a modular field robotics system for invasive species localization and forest mapping — and developing methods to merge under-canopy and above-canopy maps for comprehensive forest reconstruction.
Previously, I was a Project Scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi under Prof. Rohan Paul and Prof. P.V.M Rao, where I worked on leveraging foundation models for embodied AI — developing open-world perception and planning methods for field and assistive robots, and building autonomy stacks with a focus on task planning and world modeling.
I completed my undergraduate studies in Electronics and Communication Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Calicut, graduating Institute Rank 1 with a CGPA of 9.75/10.
Research Interests
- SLAM & 3D Reconstruction — LiDAR-inertial mapping, multi-modal map fusion, aerial-terrestrial co-registration, forest environments
- Field Robotics & Agricultural AI — autonomous inspection systems, invasive species monitoring, orchard robotics
- Embodied AI & Task Planning — language-guided manipulation, open-world perception, planning under uncertainty
- Robot Learning — world-action models, video-conditioned policies, diffusion and flow-matching methods for control
Selected Publications
MapForest: A Modular Field Robotics System for Forest Mapping and Invasive Species Localization
Sandeep S. Zachariah, Francisco Yandun, Sachet Korada, Abhisesh Silwal
arXiv preprint
[arXiv] [Website]
Generating Open-World & Multi-Hierarchy Scene Graphs for Human-instructed Manipulation Tasks via Foundation Models
Sandeep S. Zachariah, Aman Tambi, Moksh Malhotra, P. V. M. Rao and Rohan Paul
ICRA 2024: Workshop on Mobile Manipulation and Embodied Intelligence
[Paper] [Website]
G2TR: Generalized Grounded Temporal Reasoning for Robot Instruction Following
Riya Arora, Niveditha Narendranath, Aman Tambi, Sandeep S. Zachariah, Souvik Chakraborty, Rohan Paul
arXiv preprint
[Paper] [Website]
Awards & Honors
- Vikram Sarabhai Ever Rolling Trophy — Best Outgoing Student of the Year, NIT Calicut (2023)
- Er M L Bapna Gold Medal — Institute Rank 1 among all undergraduates, NIT Calicut (2023)
- Prof. Allesu Kanjirathinkal Memorial Award — Institute Rank 1 among all B.Tech students, NIT Calicut (2023)
- Department Gold Medal — Highest CGPA in Electronics & Communication Engineering, NIT Calicut (2023)
- Merit Award — ISRO Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, for ISC board exam performance (2018)
Outside research, I enjoy music and photography.