Ankit Ravankar

I am a Project Associate Professor in the Department of Robotics at Tohoku University, Japan. I obtained my Ph.D. in Human Mechanical Systems and Design Engineering from Hokkaido University, Japan in 2015 majoring in autonomous mobile robot navigation and was a MEXT scholarship recepient from the government of Japan for my graduate studies from 2010-2015 (Masters and Doctoral).

I was previously affiliated with the School of Engineering at Hokkaido University in Japan where I was an Assistant Professor from 2015 to 2021 (same lab as my graduating lab).

My research areas are in mobile robot navigation, path planning, multi-robot systems, and probabilistic inferencing and scene understanding for mobile robots. I am particularly interested in integrating intelligent service robots in homes and healthcare scenarios by utilizing semantic inferencing at object level and generative AI that allows robot to handle complex tasks. I am currently working and researching on the development of mobility and assistive robots and multi-robot support systems for elderly and home care.

I have previously worked on several areas in robotics including: Field robotics/ search and rescue robots, Autonomous Driving in Snow Environments; Agriculture robots for vineyard monitoring, weed inseption, spectral imaging using UAVs; Aerial Robotics: For insepction of pier structures, spectral imaging of banana plantations, and inspection for coastal tetrapod rocks.

news

Jan 10, 2026	I will be giving an invited talk at the workshop on Addressing the Societal Challenge of Aging through Integrated Robotic Support Systems at the IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (IEEE/SICE SII2026) at Cancun, Mexico.
Jan 05, 2026	I have been appointed as Associate Editor for the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots & Systems (IROS2026).
Dec 10, 2025	I have been appointed as Associate Editor for the Frontiers in Robotics and AI in Industrial Robotics and Automation Section.
Nov 01, 2025	One papers got accepted to The 2026 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII 2026) (IEEE/SICE SII2026) to be held in Cancun, Mexico.
Jul 01, 2025	Two papers got accepted to he 2025 SICE Festival with Annual Conference (SICE FES 2025) (SICE-FES2025 to be held in September 2025 at Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Jun 10, 2025	Two papers got accepted to 34th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN2025) to be held in Eidhoven, Netherlands!
Jun 08, 2025	Participated and presented six papers at the The Robotics and Mechatronics Conference 2025 (ROBOMECH2025) held in Yamagata, Japan.
Jun 04, 2025	Our paper titled “Real-Time Geometric-Registration-Based Precision Localization for Autonomous Docking in Unstructured Factory Environment” got accepted in IEEE-RA-L.
Mar 23, 2025	I will serve as the organizing committee for 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation IEEE-ICRA 2025. I will organize and Co-Chair the IEEE-ICRA EXPO 2025 event at Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Mar 01, 2025	I will serve as a Organizing Committee for the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots & Systems (IROS2025), and Chair the IROS EXPO 2025 at Hangzhou, China.

selected publications

Sensors

Hitchhiking robots: A collaborative approach for efficient multi-robot navigation in indoor environments

Abhijeet Ravankar, Ankit A Ravankar, Yukinori Kobayashi, and Takanori Emaru

Sensors, 2017

Bib HTML

@article{ravankar2017hitchhiking,
  title = {Hitchhiking robots: A collaborative approach for efficient multi-robot navigation in indoor environments},
  author = {Ravankar, Abhijeet and Ravankar, Ankit A and Kobayashi, Yukinori and Emaru, Takanori},
  journal = {Sensors},
  volume = {17},
  number = {8},
  pages = {1878},
  year = {2017},
  dimensions = {true},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081878},
  publisher = {MDPI}
}

IEEE-TIM

Autonomous vtol-uav docking system for heterogeneous multirobot team

Eduardo Narváez^*†, Ankit A Ravankar^*†, Abhijeet Ravankar, Takanori Emaru, and Yukinori Kobayashi

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2020

Bib HTML PDF

@article{narvaez2020autonomous,
  title = {Autonomous vtol-uav docking system for heterogeneous multirobot team},
  author = {Narv{\'a}ez, Eduardo and Ravankar, Ankit A and Ravankar, Abhijeet and Emaru, Takanori and Kobayashi, Yukinori},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement},
  volume = {70},
  pages = {1--18},
  year = {2020},
  dimensions = {true},
  doi = {10.1109/TIM.2020.3039649},
  publisher = {IEEE}
}

ACCESS

HPPRM: hybrid potential based probabilistic roadmap algorithm for improved dynamic path planning of mobile robots

Ankit A Ravankar, Abhijeet Ravankar, Takanori Emaru, and Yukinori Kobayashi

IEEE Access, 2020

Bib HTML

@article{ravankar2020hpprm,
  title = {HPPRM: hybrid potential based probabilistic roadmap algorithm for improved dynamic path planning of mobile robots},
  author = {Ravankar, Ankit A and Ravankar, Abhijeet and Emaru, Takanori and Kobayashi, Yukinori},
  journal = {IEEE Access},
  volume = {8},
  pages = {221743--221766},
  year = {2020},
  dimensions = {true},
  doi = {10.1109/MRA.2022.3223256},
  type = {article},
  publisher = {IEEE}
}

IEEE-Sensors

Multi-modal sensor fusion-based semantic segmentation for snow driving scenarios

Sirawich Vachmanus, Ankit A Ravankar, Takanori Emaru, and Yukinori Kobayashi

IEEE sensors journal, 2021

Bib HTML

@article{vachmanus2021multi,
  title = {Multi-modal sensor fusion-based semantic segmentation for snow driving scenarios},
  author = {Vachmanus, Sirawich and Ravankar, Ankit A and Emaru, Takanori and Kobayashi, Yukinori},
  journal = {IEEE sensors journal},
  volume = {21},
  number = {15},
  pages = {16839--16851},
  year = {2021},
  dimensions = {true},
  doi = {10.1109/JSEN.2021.3077029},
  publisher = {IEEE}
}

IEEE-RAM

Care: Cooperation of ai robot enablers to create a vibrant society

Ankit A Ravankar, Seyed Amir Tafrishi, Jose V Salazar Luces, Fumi Seto, and Yasuhisa Hirata

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 2023

Bib HTML

@article{ravankar2023care,
  title = {Care: Cooperation of ai robot enablers to create a vibrant society},
  author = {Ravankar, Ankit A and Tafrishi, Seyed Amir and Luces, Jose V Salazar and Seto, Fumi and Hirata, Yasuhisa},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics \& Automation Magazine},
  volume = {30},
  number = {1},
  pages = {8--23},
  year = {2023},
  dimensions = {true},
  doi = {10.1109/MRA.2022.3223256},
  type = {article},
  publisher = {IEEE}
}

IEEE-RAL

Running Guidance for Visually Impaired People Using Sensory Augmentation Technology Based Robotic System

Zhenyu Liao, Jose V Salazar Luces, Ankit A Ravankar, and Yasuhisa Hirata

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2023

Bib HTML PDF

@article{liao2023running,
  title = {Running Guidance for Visually Impaired People Using Sensory Augmentation Technology Based Robotic System},
  author = {Liao, Zhenyu and Luces, Jose V Salazar and Ravankar, Ankit A and Hirata, Yasuhisa},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
  year = {2023},
  volume = {8},
  number = {9},
  pages = {5323-5330},
  type = {article},
  doi = {10.1109/LRA.2023.3294718},
  publisher = {IEEE}
}

IEEE-RAL

Concept and prototype development of adaptive touch walking support robot for maximizing human physical potential

Junya Terayama, Ankit A Ravankar, Jose Victorio Salazar Luces, Seyed Amir Tafrishi, and Yasuhisa Hirata

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2024

Bib HTML PDF

@article{terayama2024concept,
  title = {Concept and prototype development of adaptive touch walking support robot for maximizing human physical potential},
  author = {Terayama, Junya and Ravankar, Ankit A and Luces, Jose Victorio Salazar and Tafrishi, Seyed Amir and Hirata, Yasuhisa},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
  year = {2024},
  type = {article},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2024.3415928},
  publisher = {IEEE}
}

ACCESS

Semantic-based Multi-Object Search Optimization in Service Robots Using Probabilistic and Contextual Priors

Akash Chikhalikar, Ankit A Ravankar, Jose Victorio Salazar Luces, and Yasuhisa Hirata

IEEE Access, 2024

Bib HTML

@article{chikhalikar2024semantic,
  title = {Semantic-based Multi-Object Search Optimization in Service Robots Using Probabilistic and Contextual Priors},
  author = {Chikhalikar, Akash and Ravankar, Ankit A and Luces, Jose Victorio Salazar and Hirata, Yasuhisa},
  journal = {IEEE Access},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {IEEE},
  type = {article},
  doi = {10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3444478}
}