[{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m Junior Sundar, a Lead Engineer at the Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi, working on robotics software for UAVs, UGVs and quadrupeds: mission control stacks, safety filters, and the data pipelines around them. Before that I built robot automation for greenhouses and medical devices.\nOutside work I write Rust motion-planning code, Neovim plugins, and stories, which live in my digital garden.\nEverything below is generated from the same file as my CV.\nDownload CV (PDF)\nExperience Lead Engineer October 2025 - Present Technology Innovation Institute ·\u0026nbsp;Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Lead the integration of the team\u0026rsquo;s first module into the department-wide UxV mission controller by managing seven engineers and researchers under Agile principles.Coordinate with ML researchers to design UAV data collection experiments for system-monitoring and predictive behavioral analysis models.Oversee in-house test flights and coordinate with sub-contractors to gather over twenty hours of varied flight data.Manage collaborative projects with university partners to ensure alignment with internal roadmap requirements.Integrate novel robotics platform (quadrupeds, UGVs, etc.) into in-house mission management stack.Agile Software Development ·\u0026nbsp;Project Lead ·\u0026nbsp;Technical Writing ·\u0026nbsp;Unitree Go2 Quadruped ·\u0026nbsp;JIRA\nSenior System Integration Engineer September 2024 - October 2025 Technology Innovation Institute ·\u0026nbsp;Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Designed and developed a novel ROS 2 framework from scratch to enable platform-agnostic control barrier function plugins for UxV mission control.Ensured software robustness with blackbox systems and established a CI/CD pipeline with custom runners and multi-architecture builds.Served as the primary contact for team-wide integration projects leveraging NixOS and Docker for the mission controller stack.Delivered comprehensive documentation and performed integration testing to validate system stability.C\u0026#43;\u0026#43; ·\u0026nbsp;Go ·\u0026nbsp;Nix ·\u0026nbsp;CI/CD ·\u0026nbsp;Integration Testing ·\u0026nbsp;Control Barrier Functions ·\u0026nbsp;SITL/HITL ·\u0026nbsp;Quadrotor Piloting ·\u0026nbsp;Design of Experiment ·\u0026nbsp;Quadrotors (Holybro x500, T-Motor M690B) ·\u0026nbsp;Agile Scout Mini ·\u0026nbsp;Pixhawk Flight Controller ·\u0026nbsp;NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX ·\u0026nbsp;ROS 2 ·\u0026nbsp;Gazebo Simulation ·\u0026nbsp;Docker ·\u0026nbsp;Nav2 ·\u0026nbsp;PX4-Autopilot ·\u0026nbsp;Linux (NixOS, Ubuntu) ·\u0026nbsp;Virtualisation (VM) ·\u0026nbsp;GitHub Actions\nRobotics Engineer October 2023 - September 2024 Unikie MEA Limited ·\u0026nbsp;Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Work closely with clients in securing multi-agent, aerial systems, moving towards safe, level-5 autonomy.Built and deployed quadcopters from scratch running on proprietary flight controller hardware and firmware (a derivative of Pixhawk series flight controllers and PX4-Autopilot) and mission control stack.Coordinated experiments to collect over six hours of of drone flight data of normal and anomalous missions to build a comprehensive dataset for training machine learning models.Developed and deployed API to inject faults into drone flight controller dynamically during runtime to emulate behaviour under fault.Developed and deployed fully automated software-in-the-loop (SITL) and semi-automated hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) framework to collect simulated drone flight data with and without fault injection for randomised flight missions and fault types.Python ·\u0026nbsp;C\u0026#43;\u0026#43; ·\u0026nbsp;SITL/HITL ·\u0026nbsp;Quadrotor Piloting ·\u0026nbsp;Data Collection for Machine-Learning ·\u0026nbsp;Fault Injection ·\u0026nbsp;Quadrotors (Holybro x500, T-Motor M690B) ·\u0026nbsp;Pixhawk Flight Controller ·\u0026nbsp;NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX ·\u0026nbsp;Raspberry Pi ·\u0026nbsp;ROS 2 ·\u0026nbsp;Gazebo Simulation ·\u0026nbsp;PX4-Autopilot ·\u0026nbsp;Linux (Ubuntu)\nRobotics Engineer May 2023 - July 2023 Honest AgTech B.V. ·\u0026nbsp;Delft, Netherlands Applied robotics solutions to automate agricultural processes in greenhouses using UR robotic platform.Applied computer vision and obstacle detection methods with image segmentation and identification algorithms (Neural Networks) to differentiate between plant attributes to optimise path-planning in a sensitive workspace.Performed Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) for an automated UV disinfecting bot in greenhouses.Applied Agile software development principles to deliver testable and scalable results to ensure that a reliable product is delivered to the customer.Python ·\u0026nbsp;C\u0026#43;\u0026#43; ·\u0026nbsp;Path/Motion Planning ·\u0026nbsp;Computer Vision ·\u0026nbsp;Site Reliability Engineering ·\u0026nbsp;Agile Software Development ·\u0026nbsp;Robotic Manipulators (UR5e) ·\u0026nbsp;ROS 1 ·\u0026nbsp;MoveIt ·\u0026nbsp;Gazebo Simulation ·\u0026nbsp;Octomaps ·\u0026nbsp;PointCloud Library ·\u0026nbsp;OpenCV ·\u0026nbsp;Linux (Ubuntu) ·\u0026nbsp;JIRA\nRobotics Software Engineer August 2021 - April 2023 Maria Medical Technology ·\u0026nbsp;Sharjah, U.A.E. Applied robotics solutions to automate laser aesthetic devices with UR and Omron TM robot platforms.Conceptualised medical device automation solutions on ROS framework, including computer-vision and perception systems, path-planning, and machine learning principles.Developed hardware-software interface for Vention linear belt-actuator with MQTT network protocol.Prototyped and manufactured modular tools for medical devices using 3D printing technology.Python ·\u0026nbsp;C\u0026#43;\u0026#43; ·\u0026nbsp;Path/Motion Planning ·\u0026nbsp;Computer Vision ·\u0026nbsp;Image Segmentation ·\u0026nbsp;3D Printing ·\u0026nbsp;UR5e ·\u0026nbsp;TM500 ·\u0026nbsp;Vention Linear Belt-Actuator ·\u0026nbsp;Creality FDM and Resin Printers ·\u0026nbsp;Intel Realsense RGBD Camera ·\u0026nbsp;ROS 1 ·\u0026nbsp;MoveIt ·\u0026nbsp;Gazebo Simulation ·\u0026nbsp;Octomaps ·\u0026nbsp;PointCloud Library ·\u0026nbsp;OpenCV ·\u0026nbsp;Open3D ·\u0026nbsp;Mediapipe ·\u0026nbsp;CAD (FreeCAD ·\u0026nbsp;Solidworks) ·\u0026nbsp;Linux (Ubuntu) ·\u0026nbsp;MQTT\nProjects OxMPL - Oxidised Motion-Planning Library May 2024 - Present Developer/Maintainer of Motion-Planning Library written in Rust All-in-One PX4 Log Tool May 2024 - Present Developer/Maintainer of PX4 log-handling CLI Tool written in Python Roam and Agenda in Neorg August 2024 - March 2025 Developer/Maintainer of Neovim Plugin written in Lua Publications Secure Safety Filter: Towards Safe Flight Control under Sensor Attacks October 2025 IROS: International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems Critical Sensor Failure Analysis for Proactive Mitigation in Secure System-on-Chip for UAVs June 2024 SSH-SoC: Safety and Security in Heterogeneous Open System-on-Chip Platforms Education University of Colorado Boulder August 2019 - May 2021 M.S. in Mechanical Engineering ·\u0026nbsp;Boulder CO, U.S.A. Computer Science: Coordinated Control of Multi-Agent Systems. Algorithmic Motion Planning.Control Systems: Feedback Control. Linear Control Systems. Statistical Estimation of Dynamical Systems. Digital Controls.Mechanical Engineering: Microsystems Integration. Mathematics for Mechanical Engineering.Robotics: Algorithmic Foundations of Human-Robot Interactions. Mechatronics and Robotics. Modeling of Human Movement. Heriot-Watt University September 2016 - July 2021 B.Eng. (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering ·\u0026nbsp;Dubai, U.A.E. Certifications Introduction to Concurrent Programming with GPUs May 2025 by Johns Hopkins University on Coursera Google Data Analytics Specialization August 2023 by Google on Coursera ","permalink":"https://juniorsundar.github.io/about/","summary":"Robotics software engineer in Abu Dhabi: experience, projects, publications and CV.","title":"About"},{"content":" oxmpl Oxidised Motion-Planning Library. Sampling-based planners in Rust, with Python and WASM bindings. px4-log-tool All-in-one CLI for PX4 flight logs. Converts between ulog, ROS 2 bags and CSV. ur5_gripper_control UR5 with a Robotiq gripper. Motion planning with MoveIt and workspace perception with Octomap. move_bot_sim Kinova Gen3 arm on a PAL omni base, driven by MoveIt and move_base. refer.nvim A Neovim picker that doesn\u0026#39;t get in your way. cling.nvim Thin Neovim wrapper around your command line. neorg-extras Roam and Agenda for Neorg. Organise your life in plain text. ","permalink":"https://juniorsundar.github.io/projects/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"project-cards\"\u003e\n  \u003ca class=\"project-card\" href=\"https://github.com/juniorsundar/oxmpl\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/projects/oxmpl.webp\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-name\"\u003eoxmpl\u003c/span\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-desc\"\u003eOxidised Motion-Planning Library. Sampling-based planners in Rust, with Python and WASM bindings.\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003ca class=\"project-card\" href=\"https://github.com/tiiuae/px4-log-tool\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/projects/px4-log-tool.webp\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-name\"\u003epx4-log-tool\u003c/span\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-desc\"\u003eAll-in-one CLI for PX4 flight logs. Converts between ulog, ROS 2 bags and CSV.\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003ca class=\"project-card\" href=\"https://github.com/juniorsundar/ur5_gripper_control\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/projects/ur5_gripper_control.gif\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-name\"\u003eur5_gripper_control\u003c/span\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-desc\"\u003eUR5 with a Robotiq gripper. Motion planning with MoveIt and workspace perception with Octomap.\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003ca class=\"project-card\" href=\"https://github.com/juniorsundar/move_bot_sim\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/projects/move_bot_sim.gif\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-name\"\u003emove_bot_sim\u003c/span\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-desc\"\u003eKinova Gen3 arm on a PAL omni base, driven by MoveIt and move_base.\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003ca class=\"project-card\" href=\"https://github.com/juniorsundar/refer.nvim\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/projects/refer.nvim.gif\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-name\"\u003erefer.nvim\u003c/span\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-desc\"\u003eA Neovim picker that doesn\u0026#39;t get in your way.\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003ca class=\"project-card\" href=\"https://github.com/juniorsundar/cling.nvim\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/projects/cling.nvim.webp\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-name\"\u003ecling.nvim\u003c/span\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-desc\"\u003eThin Neovim wrapper around your command line.\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003ca class=\"project-card\" href=\"https://github.com/juniorsundar/neorg-extras\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/projects/neorg-extras.webp\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-name\"\u003eneorg-extras\u003c/span\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"project-desc\"\u003eRoam and Agenda for Neorg. Organise your life in plain text.\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e","title":"Projects"},{"content":"What I use day to day. Configs live in nixos, nvim and dotfiles.\nDesk Desktop: Intel Core i7-13700K, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, 32 GB RAM, ASUS PRIME B760M-K Software OS: NixOS (flakes), KDE Plasma Editor: Neovim (nightly), with my own refer.nvim and cling.nvim Terminal: Ghostty, Lilex Nerd Font, Doom One theme Shell: zsh with Starship Tools: lazygit, yazi Notes: Obsidian, published as my digital garden Robotics Middleware: ROS 2, Nav2, MoveIt Simulation: Gazebo, PX4 SITL/HITL Flight stack: PX4-Autopilot on Pixhawk-class flight controllers Compute: NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX, Raspberry Pi Platforms: Holybro X500 and T-Motor M690B quadrotors, Agile Scout Mini, Unitree Go2 Containers: Docker, and Nix for reproducible builds ","permalink":"https://juniorsundar.github.io/uses/","summary":"Hardware, OS, editor and robotics tooling I use day to day.","title":"Uses"}]