Hanumant Singh

Professor,  Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jointly Appointed,  Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Program Director,  Master of Science in Robotics

Contact

Social Media

Office

  • 727 EXP
  • 617.373.7286

Lab

  • High Bay, EXP

Related Links

Research Focus

Machine Learning for Fisheries, SLAM in the presence of Dynamic Moving Objects, Counter UAS methodologies , Manipulation Underwater, and Imaging in Visually Degraded Environments including underwater and in polar regions

About

Hanumant Singh is a Professor at Northeastern University. He received his Ph.D. from the MIT WHOI Joint Program in 1995 and then worked on the Staff at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution until 2016 when he joined Northeastern. His research interests are in the area of field robotics, with an emphasis on SLAM, imaging, and mapping, particularly in the marine, polar and aerial domains.

His group has designed and built the Seabed AUV and the Jetyak Autonomous Surface Vehicle, dozens of which are in use for scientific and academic research across the globe. He also has strong interests in small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).  He has participated in 60 expeditions in all of the world’s oceans in support of Marine Geology, Marine Biology, Deep Water Archaeology, Chemical Oceanography, Polar Studies, and Coral Reef Ecology.  In collaboration with his students his awards include the ICRA Best Student Paper Award, the Sung Fu Memorial Best IEEE Transactions on Robotics Paper Award and Best Paper Awards at the Oceans Conference and at AGU.

Education

  • Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program, 1995

Professional Affiliations

  • Senior Member, IEEE
  • Member, American Geophysical Union
  • Member, Eta Kappa Nu, National Honor Society for Electrical Engineering
  • Member, Alpha Chi, National Honor Society

Research Overview

Machine Learning for Fisheries, SLAM in the presence of Dynamic Moving Objects, Counter UAS methodologies , Manipulation Underwater, and Imaging in Visually Degraded Environments including underwater and in polar regions

The NUFR Lab’s autonomous car.

Field Robotics Lab

Our group of students, faculty, and collaborators work on diverse interests including photomosaicking, visual-based navigation, 3D image reconstruction, image segmentation and classification, and chemical sensors. We work with manned submersibles, remotely operated and tethered vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles on different aspects of these systems including docking, navigation, manipulation and software for autonomous operations.

Field Robotics Lab

Research Centers and Institutes

Selected Publications

  • Strycker, Noah, Borowicz, Alex, Wethington, Michael, Forrest, Steven, Shah, Vikrant, Liu, Yang, Singh, Hanumant, Lynch, Heather J. (2021). Fifty-year change in penguin abundance on Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica: results of the 2019–20 census. Polar Biology, 44(1),45-56. 10.1007/S00300-020-02774-4
  • Mei, M. Jeffrey, Maksym, Ted, Weissling, Blake, Singh, Hanumant (2019). Estimating early-winter Antarctic sea ice thickness from deformed ice morphology. The Cryosphere, 13(11),2915-2934. 10.5194/TC-13-2915-2019
  • Mei, M. Jeffrey, Maksym, Ted, Singh, Hanumant (2019). Estimating Early-Winter Antarctic Sea Ice Thickness From Deformed Ice Morphology. The Cryosphere Discussions, ,1-33. 10.5194/TC-2019-140
  • Wagner, Till J. W., Straneo, Fiamma, Richards, Clark G., Slater, Donald A., Stevens, Laura A., Das, Sarah B., Singh, Hanumant (2019). Large spatial variations in the flux balance along the front of a Greenland tidewater glacier. The Cryosphere, 13(3),911-925. 10.5194/TC-13-911-2019
  • H. Singh, W. Freeman, et al., Camouflaging an Object from Many Viewpoints, Proceedings of the 2014 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, 1-8
  • C. Murphy, J. Walls, T. Schneider, H. Singh, et al. CAPTURE: A Communications Architecture for Progressive Transmission via Underwater Relays with Eavesdropping, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 39(1), 2014, 1-13
  • K.E. Smith, H. Singh, et al., Discovery of a Recent, Natural Whale Fall on the Continental Slope Off Anvers Island, Western Antarctic Peninsula, Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 90, 2014, 76-80
  • G. Williams, J. Wilkinson, T. Maksym, H. Singh, C. Kunz, et al., Mapping Ice Thickness and Extreme Deformation of Antarctic Sea Ice from an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Nature Geoscience, 8, 2014, 61-67
  • M. Yi Cheung, J. Leighton, U. Mitra, H. Singh, F.S. Hover Performance of Bandit Methods in Acoustic Relay Positioning, Proceedings of the 2014 Automatic Control Conference, 2014, 4708-4714
  • C. Kunz, H. Singh, Map Building Fusing Acoustic and Visual Information Using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Journal of Field Robotics, 30(5), 2013, 1556-4967
  • H. Singh, K. Nakamura, M. Jakobssen, T. Shank, et al. Effusive and Explosive Volcanism on the Ultraslow- Spreading Gakkel Ridge, 85°E, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 13(10), 2012

Faculty

Aug 30, 2024

The Necessary Risks of Space Exploration

ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh says the stranding of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the International Space Station reflects the inevitable risks of space travel that are necessary to endure to learn more about the universe.

Faculty

Jun 10, 2024

Northeastern Researchers Participate in Inaugural ClimaTech Conference

ECE/Khoury Professor Jennifer Dy, ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh, and CEE Assistant Professor Julia Hopkins took part in the inaugural ClimaTech conference, joining hundreds of energy and technology experts from around the world who gathered to explore how protecting the environment can contribute to economic growth. 

Faculty

Jun 06, 2024

Ensuring Safety and Evaluating Risks for Deep-Sea Missions

ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh outlines the safety certifications and risk evaluations that go into deep-sea research missions in autonomous underwater vehicles. Despite last year’s OceanGate tragedy, another manned deep dive is planned to take place in the summer of 2026.

Faculty

Apr 24, 2024

Using Robots To Map Icy Frontiers

ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh uses his team of sea-diving robots to collect data in extreme environments, helping us better understand climate change.

Faculty

Nov 30, 2023

New Robotics Lab To Lead Innovative Research

The newly opened space in EXP for the Institute of Experiential Robotics will allow for interdisciplinary collaboration in the advancement of robotics.

Singh_GBH_robotics story

In the Media

Oct 10, 2023

Northeastern Professor’s Robotic Boats Are Exploring the Arctic

ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh and his work on robotics designed to gather data on glaciers, were featured on WGBH Morning Edition, titled “A Northeastern Professor’s Robotic Boats Are Exploring the Arctic.” Singh’s robotic boats take surface measurements of Artic glaciers, a job that would be difficult and dangerous for humans. On a recent expedition off […]

MS

Sep 22, 2023

Robotics Student Researching Autonomous Vehicle Solutions

Srinivas Peri, MS’24, robotics, is completing a six-month co-op at TWT Science & Innovation in Germany, where he is researching and developing autonomous vehicle solutions.

Faculty

Sep 01, 2023

India’s Landing on the Dark Side of the Moon Is Cheered, Now Comes the Hard Part of Space Exploration

After India’s successful moon landing, ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh and ECE Professor Taskin Padir are excited to see what the future holds for lunar exploration and what role robots will play.

Faculty

Aug 11, 2023

Singh and His Collection of Sea-Diving Robots Add New Depth to Our Understanding of Climate Impacts

ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh is using marine robotics like his groundbreaking SeaBED vehicle to capture data on polar sea ice and reshape our understanding of remote environments.

Faculty

Apr 27, 2023

Using Aquatic Drones To Measure How Quickly Icebergs Are Melting

ECE/MIE Professor Hanumant Singh is using his Jetyak to create detailed 3D maps of icebergs in Greenland’s Sermilik Fjord with the intent of giving climate scientists a clearer picture of how they are melting and impacting the oceans.

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