Srinivas Akella

About

Srinivas Akella is a prominent robotics researcher whose work spans multi-robot coordination, robotic manipulation, and automated parts handling. His most influential contributions lie in solving the complex challenge of coordinating multiple robots operating in shared workspaces while satisfying kinodynamic constraints — work that has garnered over 229 citations for his 2005 paper alone and established him as a leading voice in collision-free motion planning. Akella developed elegant approaches to generate continuous velocity profiles that simultaneously respect dynamic constraints, prevent collisions, and optimize time efficiency, with follow-up work demonstrating global optimality guarantees for multi-robot coordination problems. Beyond multi-robot systems, Akella made significant contributions to automated manufacturing and parts handling. His research on conveyor-based parts feeding using minimal one-joint robots, programmable parts orienting under shape tolerances, and motion-planned carton folding demonstrated how sophisticated algorithmic thinking could bring flexibility to traditionally rigid industrial automation. His 2013 work on geometrically implicit time-stepping for multibody contact simulation further broadened his impact into physically accurate robotics modeling. Collectively, Akella's research bridges theoretical rigor and practical manufacturing relevance, making his body of work essential reading for students interested in robot motion planning, manipulation, and intelligent automation systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Coordinating Multiple Robots with Kinodynamic Constraints Along Specified Paths

   229 citations · 2005
2. 2
   Coordinating the motions of multiple robots with specified trajectories

   112 citations · 2003
3. 3
   Parts Feeding on a Conveyor with a One Joint Robot

   94 citations · 2000
4. 4
   Folding cartons with fixtures: a motion planning approach

   72 citations · 2000
5. 5
   Planar Manipulation on a Conveyor with a One Joint Robot

   45 citations · 1996
6. 6
   Orienting Toleranced Polygonal Parts

   28 citations · 2000
7. 7
   Coordinating Multiple Double Integrator Robots on a Roadmap: Convexity and Global Optimality

   25 citations · 2006
8. 8
   A geometrically implicit time-stepping method for multibody systems with intermittent contact

   22 citations · 2013
9. 9
   Coordinating Multiple Robots with Kinodynamic Constraints along Specified Paths

   22 citations · 2004
10. 10
    Parts orienting by push-aligning

    22 citations · 2002

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links