Divya Kothandaraman

Papers

Total Citations

154

H-Index

About

Divya Kothandaraman is a leading researcher at the intersection of computer vision and autonomous robotics, with a primary focus on enabling robots to navigate safely and intelligently through complex, unstructured outdoor environments. Her most impactful contribution is the development of **GA-Nav**, a novel group-wise attention mechanism for efficient terrain segmentation. This work, which has garnered over **145 citations**, allows robots to identify safe and navigable regions directly from RGB images by extracting multi-scale features from each terrain type independently and classifying them by navigability level. This represents a significant leap beyond traditional methods, which often struggle with the variability of natural landscapes. Kothandaraman’s broader research, as outlined in her 2024 survey on robotics navigation techniques, synthesizes the evolution of intelligent systems from mobile robots to semi-autonomous vehicles. Her work is foundational for advancing human-friendly, software-based robotic systems that can operate reliably in the real world, making her a key voice in the future of field robotics and autonomous navigation.