Amitava Bhattacharya

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

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About

Amitava Bhattacharya is a leading researcher in computational geometry and robotics, with a primary focus on algorithmic exploration of unknown environments. His work addresses fundamental challenges in autonomous navigation, particularly how robots can systematically map and traverse polygonal spaces with limited sensory information. Bhattacharya's major contributions lie in developing online algorithms that operate under bounded visibility constraints—where a robot can only perceive its immediate surroundings. His 2008 paper, "Online Algorithms with Discrete Visibility - Exploring Unknown Polygonal Environments" (26 citations), introduced novel strategies for exploring nonconvex polygonal environments with obstacles, establishing theoretical guarantees for complete coverage without prior knowledge of the terrain. Earlier, his 2001 work "Exploring an Unknown Polygonal Environment with Bounded Visibility" (11 citations) laid foundational insights into visibility-based exploration, influencing subsequent research in robotic path planning and sensor-based mapping. Bhattacharya's algorithms are notable for their practical applicability to real-world robotics, where sensors have limited range and environments are unpredictable. His research continues to shape how autonomous systems—from vacuum cleaners to planetary rovers—navigate and understand complex, unknown spaces efficiently.