Professional Experience:

Joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) of ISRO in September 1987 and served in various capacities as given below till he joined IIST in January 2010 as Adjunct Professor on a working arrangement basis.

• Division Head, Control Design Division (CLD) , VSSC
• Deputy Project Director (Control Design), Human in Space Programme (HSP)
• Section Head, Servo Analysis and Design Section
• Engineer-in-charge, Servo analysis and design section
• Project Manager (Servo analysis and Design), Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV-TD) Project
• Deputy System Manager (Servo design and Simulation), DALIA project
• Team Leader, Technology Development Programme on Mechatronic Test Rig for Actuators (METRA)
• Team Leader, Technology Development Programme on LVDT Indigenization for Launch vehicle actuators

Major contributions

1. Development of an iterative method for extending Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) to MIMO problems without the conservatism associated with normal MIMO QFT methods.
2. Development of nonlinear mathematical models of all servo actuation systems for PSLV, GSLV, GSLV Mk3 and RLV-TD which are currently used for integrated vehicle level simulation test beds like ICOMETS, SITARA,OILS and HLS.
3. Compensator design of various electro hydraulic and electro mechanical servo actuation systems used in GSLV, GSLV Mk3 and RLV-TD.
4. Stabilization of 3-axis gimbal system for Air borne synthetic aperture radar developed for SAMCS project.
5. Compensator design of 3-axis high frequency angular motion simulator (AMS) indigenously developed for PSLV/GSLV NGC simulations.
6. Development of nonlinear mathematical model and compensator design for the indigenously developed electro hydraulic actuators controlled by Direct Drive Valves (DDV) with dual redundancy for usage in aircraft rudder and elevon actuation systems.
7. Development of a novel concept of mechatronically realizing actuation system’s load dynamics and demonstrated the same to Chairman, ISRO.
8. Compensator design of isothermal heating furnace (IHF) of Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE).
9. Electromagnetic design of LVDT using finite element software FEMLAB for launch vehicle actuation systems.
10. Developed a novel fault detection scheme for the dual redundant DDV based electro hydraulic actuation systems of GSLV Mk3 which got implemented using nonlinear analog electronic circuits for the solid booster stage and liquid first stage.
11. Developed the integrated nonlinear mathematical for the liquid stage rocket engine (VIKAS HP engine) used in GSLV to reproduce the transient and steady state engine behaviors. This model has been used for the engine failure analysis of GSLV- F02.
12. Initiated a technology development programme for the “Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)” for the autonomous navigation of planetary robotic missions.
13. Responsible for the Digital Autopilot (DAP) design and onboard control software development for PSLV continuation flights (C9 to C15 series) and GSLV D3 as the Head of Control Design Division, VSSC.

Internal Technical Reports :

• More than 75 internal technical reports covering various aspects of aero space servo actuation systems and launch vehicle control systems.