Taskin Padir
Director, Institute for Experiential Robotics
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Affiliated Faculty, Roux Institute
Affiliated Faculty, Institute for Experiential AI
Affiliated Faculty, Global Resilience Institute
Office
- 527 ISEC
- 617.373.8114
Related Links
Research Focus
Experiential robotics, human-robot teaming at the extremes, embodied artificial intelligence
Education
- PhD (2004), Purdue University, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- MS (1997), Purdue University, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- BS (1993), Middle East Technical University, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Honors & Awards
- 2022 Faculty Research Team Award
- Kalenian Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit
- HEART: Humans Empowered with Assistive Robot Technologies
- Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education
Leadership Positions
- Executive Committee of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division of the American Nuclear Society
- Editor, International Conference in Robotics and Automation
Professional Affiliations
- IEEE
- Robotics and Automation
- Control Systems
- Systems, Man and Cybernetics
- Computer; Engineering in Medicine and Biology
- Education Societies
- The American Society for Engineering Education
- Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
- Sigma Xi
Research Overview
Experiential robotics, human-robot teaming at the extremes, embodied artificial intelligence

Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Laboratory
The Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Laboratory (RIVeR Lab) at Northeastern University, originally founded in 2010 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, aims to advance the capabilities of autonomous robots and intelligent vehicles. Research activities focus on design, analysis, implementation and control of intelligent vehicles, mobile robots, walking robots, manipulators and adaptive systems. Aligned with Northeastern University core values of contribution, diversity, engagement, integrity, and opportunity, our projects bring science and technology together with real-world problems.
Selected Research Projects
- Co-worker Robots to Impact Seafood Processing (CRISP): Designs, Tools and Methods for Enhanced Worker Experience
- – Principal Investigator, NSF Future of Work, Human-Technology Frontier
- Automation for Characterization and Evaluation of Personal Protective Equipment in Manufacturing Plants
- – Principal Investigator, ARM Institute (DoD)
- Coordination of Dyadic Object Handover for Human-Robot Interactions
- – Co-Principal Investigator, NSF M3X
Research Centers and Institutes
Director
Institute for Experiential Robotics
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- M. Wonsick and T. Padır, “Human-Humanoid Robot Interaction through Virtual Reality Interfaces,” 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100), 2021, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438400.
- Wonsick, Murphy, Philip Long, Aykut Onol, Maozhen Wang, and Taskin Padir. “A Holistic Approach to Human-Supervised Humanoid Robot Operations in Extreme Environments.” Frontiers in Robotics and AI 8 (2021): 148.
- A. Ö. Önol, R. Corcodel, P. Long and T. Padır, “Tuning-Free Contact-Implicit Trajectory Optimization,” 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020, pp. 1183-1189, doi: 10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9196805.

Apr 26, 2022
Extracting Drinkable Water from the Mars Surface
A team of undergraduate engineering students built the PARSEC (Percussive And Rotary Surveying & Extracting Carousel) robot to extract, melt, and purify water buried on the Mars surface. The team placed 2nd in NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts–Academic Linkages (RASC-AL) competition in the fall and recently won an Innovation award at this year’s RISE expo.

Apr 19, 2022
Congratulations RISE: 2022 Winners
Congratulations to our engineering students who won awards at the RISE:2022 Research, Innovation and Scholarship Expo!
Apr 15, 2022
Faculty and Staff Awards 2022
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2021-2022 academic school year.

Mar 14, 2022
SEDS Student Group Finalist in NASA BIG Idea Challenge for Innovative Robot Snake Design
A Northeastern University student team, advised by Assistant Professor Alireza Ramezani, electrical and computer engineering, was one of seven university teams selected as finalists in the 2022 NASA’s BIG Idea Challenge. The team’s project, titled “COBRA: Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator,” received $174K in funds to further develop and test the technologies over the next 10 months. COBRA is a snake-like design for their robot which will allow it to traverse the extreme terrains on the moon’s surface.

Jan 24, 2022
Checking to Determine if a Mask is Counterfeit
ECE Associate Professor Taskin Padir explains how to help determine if N95 and KN95 masks are counterfeit by checking for certain codes and expiration dates.

Nov 03, 2021
Northeastern University Team Working to Create Robotic Avatar in Multi-year Competition
Northeastern team advised by ECE Associate Professor Taskin Padir and MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney featured in WCVB article “Northeastern University team working to create robotic avatar in multi-year competition.”

Oct 22, 2021
Northeastern Team Advances to Finals of ANA Avatar XPRIZE
Team Northeastern is one of 15 teams selected as finalists in the ANA Avatar XPRIZE. Finalist teams will equally share a milestone prize purse of $2M and move on to Finals Testing in Fall 2022 for their chance to win part of the $8M Finals prize purse.

Sep 28, 2021
NU Team Places 2nd at NASA RASC-AL Competition
Northeastern University won second place and best technical paper at NASA’s 2020-21 RASC-AL Moon to Mars Ice and Prospecting Challenge for their project “Percussive And Rotary Surveying & Extracting Carousel (PARSEC).”

Sep 10, 2021
Creating a Human Avatar in Remote Locations
A group of Northeastern University students led by MIE Assistant Professor Peter Whitney, has made it to the semifinals of the global Avatar XPrize competition which aims to create an avatar system that can transport human presence to a remote location in real-time.

Aug 20, 2021
NU Team PARIS Wins in Phase 1 of American-Made E-ROBOT Prize
A Northeastern faculty and student team was awarded a $200K prize as a finalist for Phase 1 of the U.S. Department of Energy’s American-Made Challenges E-ROBOT Prize. In Phase 2, up to four teams (from the 10 finalists) will receive a $500K award. The team’s submission proposed development of a Precise Air-sealing Robot for Inaccessible Spaces (PARIS). The Northeastern team is advised by ECE Associate Professor Taskin Padir, CEE Assistant Professor Michael Kane, and ECE Distinguished Professor Carey Rappaport.