Hey there đź‘‹
I'm a roboticist and controls engineer passionate about designing integrated hardware and software systems. My experience spans underwater, medical, and soft robotics—from conceptualization through prototyping and deployment. With a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering and undergraduate background in Electronics and Communication Engineering, I bring a multidisciplinary approach to solving complex robotic systems challenges. I apply these skills in both robotics R&D and industrial automation.
Professional Journey
Controls Engineer
June 2025 - Present
Redwood Materials, McCarran, NV
- Leading the control system development and commissioning for lithium extraction pilot plants.
- Developing and designing an in-house TwinCAT library to support redundant Beckhoff controllers for blue-green deployment.
Graduate Student Instructor
January 2025 - April 2025
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
- Assisting graduate students in their ME 568 – Vehicle Control Systems and ME 543 – Analytical and Computational Dynamics coursework.
- Generating problem sets on vehicle control systems and providing guidance on computational assignments, and projects.
Graduate Researcher
August 2023 - December 2024
FREE Lab, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
- Developed a control strategy based on variable damping coefficient to develop a semi-actively controlled tremor suppression device for people with Parkinson's disease.
- Zuo, R., Mehta, M., Han, D. H., & Bruder, D. Embedded Valves for Distributed Control of Soft Pneumatic Actuators. In 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), IEEE. (DOI: 10.1109/IROS58592.2024.10801494)
Controls Engineering Intern
May 2024 - August 2024
Redwood Materials, McCarran, NV
- Enhanced the controls network of a copper foil recycling plant by identifying efficient ways to communicate between the Mitsubishi and Siemens PLC modules.
- Integrated a spray gun system onto a FANUC robot arm for an automated spray coating system.
- Conducted tests in the plant to ensure the safety of the robot and personnel during automated operations.
Project Associate
September 2022 - June 2023
THRIVE Lab, IIITDM Kancheepuram, India
- Intuitive Surgical Inc. sponsored medical device R&D project guided by Dr. Karthik Chandrasekaran.
- Conceptualized a disposable surgical tooltip for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery with a 2+1 degree of freedom gripper.
- Developed a detailed mechanical design of the prototype in SolidWorks and fabricated it using a combination of 3D printed parts, and machined and re-purposed components from other devices.
- Mehta, Mayank, et al. "CLEANSurgiTip: A Contamination Limiting, Expendable, and Novel Surgical Tooltip for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery." Journal of Medical Devices 19.3 (2025)(DOI: 10.1115/1.4068612)
My Tool Box
Education
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
(May 2025)
Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering with distinction
(May 2022)