Praveen Kumar

Research Engineer — Robotics & AI

About

Hey there! I'm a Robotics & AI Engineer with over 4 years of experience building intelligent robotic systems and production software. I was part of the core team that developed India's first full-sized humanoid robot, working across the stack—from low-level motor drivers and embedded control to reinforcement-learning locomotion, whole-body control, and sim-to-real deployment. I'm currently based in Vapi, Gujarat.

Experience

Research Engineer, Robotics & AI

May 2025 - Present

Meril · Vapi, Gujarat

  • Led the software development of India's first full-sized humanoid robot, spanning low-level motor drivers through high-level autonomy
  • Architected the complete software stack across four bipedal robots, including two full-sized humanoid robots
  • Trained reinforcement-learning locomotion policies in Isaac Lab and mjlab and developed a whole-body controller for tracking arbitrary SMPL motions
  • Built a Pico 4 teleoperation pipeline and a robust system-identification pipeline to close the sim-to-real gap
  • Fine-tuned NVIDIA GR00T N1.6 and Physical Intelligence π0.5 vision-language-action models for loco-manipulation tasks
  • Established a standardized pipeline for generating URDF, MJCF, and USD robot models from SolidWorks

Senior Software Engineer

March 2025 - April 2025

Tirupati Associates · Vapi, Gujarat

  • Led a team of software engineers in developing a comprehensive Insurance Broker Management System from the ground up
  • Contributed across the entire software development lifecycle, including backend, frontend, and DevOps responsibilities
  • Independently built the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within one month, laying the foundation for the full-scale system before expanding the team

Full Stack Developer

March 2023 - February 2025

Xira Infotech · Vapi, Gujarat

  • Built an AI Assistant for doctors utilizing speech recognition (Whisper, AWS Transcribe), a large language model (GPT-4), and machine learning to transcribe conversations
  • Architected and developed Cliniify, a SAAS-based practice management software for dental clinics (used by 100+ clinics in India)
  • Developed a CRM solution for small businesses, improving customer management and sales pipeline
  • Managed deployment operations on AWS, Linux-based VPS, Docker, and CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions)
  • Led a small team of developers, conducted code reviews, and provided technical training to enhance team efficiency

Backend Developer Intern

February 2022 - July 2022

Xira Infotech

  • Designed and implemented a Salon Management System using Django, Postgresql, and Bootstrap 5 with multi-tenant architecture
  • Developed and deployed a push notification micro-service for a mobile app using Django, RESTful APIs, and AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Skills

Robotics & Simulation

  • Isaac Lab / Isaac Sim
  • MuJoCo / mjlab
  • ROS 2
  • URDF / MJCF / USD

RL & Control

  • Reinforcement Learning (PPO)
  • Whole-body Control
  • Sim-to-real Transfer
  • System Identification
  • Teleoperation

ML & AI

  • PyTorch
  • VLA Fine-tuning

Embedded & Hardware

  • Embedded Linux
  • PREEMPT_RT
  • Motor Control
  • EtherCAT / CAN

Languages

  • Python
  • C++

Freelance Work

Zofi (Occupational Health Management System)

Developed and managed a comprehensive health management software for Dr. Ultimate Hospital, digitalizing processes including annual health checkups and casualty treatment, with QR code-based workflow.

Django • PostgreSQL • React.js • Ant Design • AWS

Contact

GitHub LinkedIn X praveenkmrx@gmail.com