Scalable and Autonomous Research on Agents and Systems (SARAS Lab)
The SARAS Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) is a dedicated robotics research laboratory focused on fundamental and applied frontiers in autonomous aerial systems (UAVs / drones), multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL), safety-critical robot control, and distributed swarm coordination.
Founded and directed by Dr. Shashi Shekhar Jha, the laboratory serves as a vibrant multidisciplinary hub bringing together researchers from Computer Science, Aerospace Control, Telecommunications, Civil Disaster Management, Edge Electronics, and Strategic Defense Organizations.
Principal Investigator & Lab Founder Lab Leadership
Leading research, academic mentorship, and strategic initiatives at SARAS Lab
Dr. Shashi Shekhar Jha
Principal Investigator (PI) & Founder, SARAS Lab- Associate Professor: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Ropar (Jun 2025 – Present)
- Dean Academics (UG): Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (Dec 2025 – Present)
- Director: Technology Business Incubation Foundation (TBIF - IIT Ropar) (Sep 2021 – Present)
- Coordinator: Centre of Drones and Autonomous Systems (DRAS), IIT Ropar (Jun 2025 – Present)
- Associate Faculty: School of Artificial Intelligence & Data Engineering (sAIDE), IIT Ropar (Apr 2024 – Present)
- Associate Faculty: Centre for Applied Research in Data Science (CARDS), IIT Ropar (Mar 2023 – Present)
- Past Roles: Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Ropar (2018–2025) • Accredited HDR Supervisor, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia • Research Scientist, Fujitsu-SMU UNiCEN Corp. Lab, Singapore • Postdoc, Accenture Technology Labs Bangalore
Multidisciplinary Scope: Beyond Computer Science Core Identity
Aerospace & Autonomous Control
Autonomous quadrotor target tracking, precision recovery, vision-based onboard state estimation, and learned predictive control for challenging dynamic environments.
Space & Wireless Swarm Telecommunications
Funded by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO): Developing distributed beamforming and beampattern synthesis using synchronized drone swarm networks for high-gain communications and emergency satellite uplinks.
Disaster Management & Flood Monitoring
Sponsored by SERB CRG: Multi-UAV critical area coverage, damage assessment, and target tracking during catastrophic floods and natural disasters using decentralized Deep Reinforcement Learning.
Defense & Strategic Operations
Collaborative research with scholars from the Indian Army, Indian Air Force, and DRDO on decentralized reliability-aware multi-agent coordination, change detection with drones, and offline RL data rollouts.
Edge AI & Model Compression for Embedded UAVs
Sponsored by TIH-IoT (IIT Bombay) & SERB: Optimizing Deep Neural Networks, transformers, and vision models to run efficiently with low latency and low power consumption on resource-constrained drone companion computers.
Human-AI Teaming & Cognitive Science
Combining human domain expertise with calibrated machine learning predictions to enhance team accuracy (AAMAS & ECAI), as well as Indian Classical Rāga-informed virtual environments for therapeutic mental wellness.
Sponsored Research Projects & Grants Funded Initiatives
Research initiatives funded by national government agencies, space organizations, and technology innovation hubs
| Project Title | Funding Agency | Duration | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distributed Beamforming and Beampattern Design using Drone Swarm Network | ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) | 2023 – 2026 | Principal Investigator (PI) |
| Autonomous Precision Landing of Drones for Uninterrupted Surveillance | TIH-IoT TDP 6, IIT Bombay | 2024 – 2026 | Principal Investigator (PI) |
| Autonomous Multi-UAV Control for Area Coverage during Floods using Deep Reinforcement Learning | SERB CRG (Govt. of India) | 2025 – 2028 | Principal Investigator (PI) |
| DivyaDrishti: Leveraging IoT and CPS for Immersive Real-time Monitoring and Interaction-based Navigation with Drones | NMICPS TiHAN Foundation, IIT Hyderabad | 2023 – 2025 | Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) |
| Optimising Machine Learning Models for Resource-Constrained Edge Devices in AIoT Applications through ML Model Compression | SERB CRG | 2023 – 2026 | Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) |
| Beyond AI models: Integrating Human Expertise with AI for Improving their Combined Performance | SERB CRG | 2023 – 2026 | Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) |
| Multi-UAV based Damage Estimations and Rescue Information During Natural Calamities | ISIRD, IIT Ropar | 2019 – 2021 | Principal Investigator (PI) |
| Fair and Explainable AI algorithms with Human-in-the-loop | Indo-Taiwan Joint Research Centre | 2023 – 2024 | Principal Investigator (PI) |
Research Group & People Scholars & Alumni
Dedicated doctoral candidates, post-graduate researchers, military fellows, and graduated alumni
Publications (Selected Latest) Academic Output
Featured latest publications from Dr. Shashi Shekhar Jha's academic portfolio
-
Deep deterministic policy gradient based multi-UAV control for moving convoy trackingEngineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (EAAI 2023), Vol. 126, 107099 | Impact Factor: 8.0 (2022)EAAI 2023 Multi-UAV DDPG Convoy Tracking
-
Decentralized Critical Area Coverage Using Multi-UAV System with Guided Explorations During Floods2023 IEEE 19th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), pp. 1-6, IEEE, 2023IEEE CASE 2023 Disaster Coverage Guided Exploration
-
Take Expert Advice Judiciously: Combining Groupwise Calibrated Model Probabilities with Expert Predictions26th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2023), pp. 956-963, IOS Press, 2023ECAI 2023 Human-AI Teaming Calibrated Advice
-
On subset selection of multiple humans to improve human-AI team accuracyProceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS-23), pp. 317-325, 2023AAMAS 2023 Multi-Agent Systems Team Accuracy
-
Directed explorations during flood disasters using multi-UAV system2022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), pp. 2154-2161, IEEE, 2022IEEE CASE 2022 Flood Disaster Multi-UAV Exploration
Notable Highlights & Achievements Recognitions
Key institutional milestones, patents, fellowship awards, and scientific recognitions
🏛️ Institutional Leadership
- Dean Academics (UG): Appointed Dean Academics (UG) at IIT Ropar in Dec 2025.
- Coordinator, DRAS: Appointed Coordinator of Centre of Drones and Autonomous Systems (DRAS), IIT Ropar in June 2025.
- Director, TBIF: Director of Technology Business Incubation Foundation (TBIF - IIT Ropar) since Sep 2021.
📜 Granted Indian Patents
- Patent No. 415792: Granted by Indian Patent Office in December 2022.
- Patent No. 377728: Granted by Indian Patent Office in September 2021.
🏆 Scholar Honors & Fellowships
- TCS Research Scholarship: Ph.D. student Mr. Armaan Garg awarded the prestigious TCS Fellowship (2020).
- Joint-PhD Fellowship: Ph.D. scholar Ms. Amanjot Kaur selected for the Joint-PhD programme with Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.
- Convocation 2024: Both Dr. Armaan Garg and Dr. Amanjot Kaur received Ph.D. degrees in the 13th Convocation of IIT Ropar (July 2024).
🌍 International Recognition
- IAAA 2020 Finalists: Finalists for the 2020 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award (IAAA-2020), INFORMS Analytics Society.
- Winner ACM CIKM-17 Challenge: Winner (Prize money SG$9,000) of DataSpark Mobility Open-Task Challenge, CIKM AnalytiCup 2017.
- Best Demo Award: Best Application Demo Award at AAMAS 2018.
- TCS Research Fellowship: TCS Research Scholars Programme Fellowship (2013–2016).
• 2024: IJCAI (PC), ECAI (PC), IEEE CASE (Reviewer).
• 2023: ECAI (PC & Session Chair), GenPlan Workshop @ NeurIPS (PC), Advances in Robotics (SPC & Session Chair).
Outreach & Recent Activities SARAS in Action
Real-world impact, academic awards, summit presentations, and scientific outreach from our official LinkedIn updates
We are proud to share that our students secured 3 major awards, reflecting our consistent efforts toward application-driven innovation:
- 🥇 Shivam Kainth: Autonomous Drone Applications — Best Poster + Lightning Talk (1st Place)
- 🥉🏆 Vaasu Gupta: Distributed Transmit Beamforming using UAV Swarm — Best Poster + Lightning Talk (2nd Runner Up) & Best Poster in Special Category: Novelty & Real-World Impact
We continue to work at the intersection of reinforcement learning, autonomous drone systems, swarm intelligence and remain open to meaningful collaborations across academia and industry. Looking forward to building further on this momentum! 🚁
At the India AI Summit, SARAS Lab presented its latest work on advanced autonomous drone systems designed for mission-critical environments. Drones today face major challenges in GPS-denied zones, harsh weather, and complex dynamic landscapes.
Dr. Shashi Shekhar Jha (Associate Professor) and Shivam Kainth (SRF) presented our latest research on tackling these challenges through vision-based autonomous landing, AI-enabled flight control, multi-sensor fusion, immersive VR-based remote operation, and real-time edge analytics — enabling safe, precise, and intelligent UAV operations.
School and college students visited SARAS Lab at IIT Ropar to see cutting-edge aerial robotics in action. Our Ph.D. scholars (including Shivam Kainth, Vaasu Gupta, Ishaan Chhabra, and Jugal Alan) presented their ongoing research on UAVs, explaining how fundamental concepts of mathematics and physics translate into real-world technologies.
Such exposure helps bridge the gap between classroom learning and cutting-edge innovation, encouraging curiosity, critical thinking, and aspiration among the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Contact & Laboratory Location Get in Touch
Address
SARAS LabScalable and Autonomous Research on Agents and Systems
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Room 208, S. Ramanujan Block (Main Campus)
Indian Institute of Technology Ropar
Birla Farm, Rupnagar, Punjab - 140001, India
Contact Information
PI Email: shashi@iitrpr.ac.in
Lab Profile: SARAS Lab on LinkedIn ↗
Institutional Website: www.iitrpr.ac.in ↗
Joining SARAS Lab
We are always on the lookout for motivated students with strong backgrounds in mathematics, control systems, machine learning, computer vision, and embedded robotics:
- Prospective Ph.D. Students: Apply via IIT Ropar regular/external Ph.D. admissions (GATE/NET CS/EC/EE/ME).
- M.Tech. / Dual Degree Scholars: Thesis topics available in MARL, swarm robotics, and flight control.
- Summer/Winter Interns: Open to highly driven undergraduate students with hands-on ROS/Python/C++ or flight simulator experience.