Eashwar Sathyamurthy

About Me

Hi there! I’m Eashwar Sathyamurthy, a final-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland. My research bridges the gap between high-level AI reasoning and low-level robotic control, with a focus on Multi-Agent Systems, Optimization, and Embodied AI.

My primary research centers on designing energy‑aware routing algorithms for battery‑operated drone fleets. I develop frameworks that account for limited battery capacity, recharging logistics, and potential vehicle failures. This journey began during my Master’s thesis on failure‑aware, capacity‑constrained routing and has evolved into my current doctoral work: embedding live Graph Neural Network (GNN) predictions into planners. This allows drones to adjust routes in real-time based on weather and road conditions—specifically optimizing visual data collection over icy roads in winter environments.

Beyond optimization, I am passionate about integrating Generative AI into robotics. As a System Design Engineer for the UMD Crossfire team, I am working on integrating Vision-Language Models (VLMs) to contextually distinguish between wildfires and campfires, reducing false positives in autonomous suppression missions.

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I am currently seeking postdoctoral or research-focused industry roles where I can apply my expertise in autonomous systems, fleet optimization, and multi-modal perception.