Dr. Balajee Kannan is a distinguished figure in the fields of robotics and autonomous systems, currently serving as the Vice President of Autonomy at Motional. His career has been marked by significant contributions to the development of intelligent, fault-tolerant, and collaborative robotic systems.
Dr. Kannan's academic foundation was laid at the University of Madras, where he earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering. He then pursued his graduate studies in the United States, obtaining both a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His doctoral research focused on a critical challenge in robotics: creating a learning-based fault-diagnostic system for multi-robot teams, enabling them to operate reliably in complex scenarios.
Following the completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Kannan joined Carnegie Mellon University's prestigious Robotics Institute as a Research Engineer in the Field Robotics Center. During his tenure, he was deeply involved in designing and developing advanced hardware and software for a variety of robotics research projects. His work at CMU emphasized distributed autonomous coordination, system performance adaptation, and the intricate dynamics of human-robot teaming.
His expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence also led him to a role at Amazon, where he contributed to the company's initiatives in robotics, AI, and simulation.
Throughout his career, Dr. Kannan has advanced research, with numerous publications in academic journals and conference proceedings. His work is widely cited, and he is an inventor on several patents related to vision-guided robotic systems and control. His research interests have consistently revolved around enabling robots to work together effectively and to recover from unforeseen failures, pushing the boundaries of what autonomous systems can achieve.
As the Vice President of Autonomy at Motional, Dr. Kannan continues to be at the forefront of developing safe, reliable, and intelligent autonomous driving technology.