Muhammad Hanif · Robotics Control Engineer

About

I’m currently a Robotics Control Engineer at DeepX in Tokyo, developing coordinated planning methods for autonomous construction machinery. My current work focuses on enabling multiple autonomous excavators to collaborate safely and efficiently during excavation operations.

Previously, I completed my Ph.D. and M.Eng. in Systems and Control Engineering at the Institute of Science Tokyo under the supervision of Prof. Takeshi Hatanaka. My doctoral research focused on coordinated multi-drone image sampling and coverage control for real-time 3D reconstruction, from algorithm development and simulation to real-world experiments.

Over the years, I have worked across aerial, ground, marine, underwater, and construction robotics. These experiences include UAV mapping and tracking, multi-robot task allocation, autonomous vessel control, underwater robotic systems, and autonomous heavy machinery.

I’m particularly interested in multi-robot systems, safety-critical autonomous control, and computer vision. I enjoy developing coordination, planning, control, and perception methods that connect strong theoretical foundations with reliable operation in complex real-world environments.

Affiliations

Research & Technical Skills

Research Topics Multi-Robot SystemsCoverage ControlMulti-Robot Task AllocationSafety-Critical Control3D ReconstructionComputer Vision
Robot Platforms Multirotor UAVFixed-Wing UAVHybrid VTOL UAVUGVsUnderwater Gliders & AUVsAutonomous VesselsConstruction Machinery
Methods Model Predictive ControlControl Barrier FunctionsDistributed OptimisationPath Planning3D Gaussian Splatting3D Reconstruction PhotogrammetryObject Detection
Frameworks ROS / ROS2GazeboUnityPyTorchTensorFlowOpenCVCUDAMATLAB / SimulinkDockerGitLinux
Languages C/C++PythonC#MATLABJavaScriptLaTeX
Hardware Pixhawk / ArduPilotMission PlannerRaspberry PiMicrocontrollerSingle Board ComputerArduinoBeagleBoneAltium / Eagle

News

Aug 2026 Gave a plenary talk, Orchestrating Multi-Robot Collaboration: From Aerial Drones to Heavy Machinery, at the 17th Multidisciplinary International Student Workshop (MISW 2026), Institute of Science Tokyo.
Feb 2026 Our work on hyperspectral imaging for rice plants cultivated in closed plant factories was presented at the 3rd BrIAS Conference on Smart Agriculture, Brussels, Belgium.
Nov 2025 Started as a Robotics Control Engineer at DeepX, Inc. in Tokyo, working on autonomous construction machinery.
Sep 2025 Completed my Ph.D. in Systems and Control Engineering at the Institute of Science Tokyo, advised by Prof. Takeshi Hatanaka.
Jul 2025 Submitted my doctoral dissertation, Multi-Drone Coordinated Image Sampling for 3D Map Reconstruction through Efficient and Scene-Adaptive Coverage Control.
Jul 2025 Coverage-Recon: Coordinated Multi-Drone Image Sampling with Online Map Feedback is under review at IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.
May 2025 Invited talk, Drones Meet 3D-AI: Multi-Drone Collaboration for 3D Reconstruction, at the Tokyo AI × Drones session in Tokyo.
Mar 2025 Two papers accepted for presentation at the 2025 European Control Conference — on real-time map feedback for coordinated image sampling, and on hierarchical multi-robot data sampling through online Gaussian processes.
Jan 2025 Joined FBTriangle as a simulation software engineer intern, developing a coverage control algorithm for optimal defensive formations in ice hockey.
Aug 2024 Presented Real-time Adaptation of Drone Altitude and Object Detection Model for Moving Target Tracking at the SICE Festival 2024 in Kochi, Japan.
Apr 2024 Efficient Angle-Aware Coverage Control for Large-Scale Map Reconstruction using Drone Networks published in the SICE Journal of Control, Measurement, and System Integration.
Nov 2023 Presented collaborative 3D structure reconstruction with drone teams at the SSS Global Forum 2023 in Tokyo, Japan.
Oct 2023 Awarded the WISE SSS Doctoral Leadership Scholarship for research ability and potential.
Sep 2023 Hierarchical Vessel Autonomous Operation in a Port with Safety Certificates accepted at the IFAC World Congress 2023.
Apr 2023 Predictive Receding-Horizon Multi-Robot Task Allocation Applied to the Mapping of Direct Normal Irradiance in a Thermosolar Power Plant published in Solar Energy.
Nov 2022 Poster presentation on Human-Collaborative Control of Drone Networks with Virtual Reality at the WISE SSS Matching Workshop 2022.
Oct 2022 Started my Ph.D. at Tokyo Institute of Technology in the Hatanaka Laboratory.

Selected Projects

All projects on the projects page.

2023 – 2025 ROS2UnityCoverage Control

Multi-Drone Image Sampling with Online Map Feedback

Coverage control for drone teams that closes the loop with the 3D reconstruction itself — the evolving mesh tells the fleet where the map is still unresolved, and the controller flies them back there.

View project

2022 – 2025 ROSROS2Multi-UAV

Angle-Aware Coverage Control for 3D Map Reconstruction

Coverage control that treats viewing angle as part of the state, so a drone team collects the images a 3D reconstruction actually needs — extended to large fields, steerable cameras and battery-limited missions.

View project

2022 – 2024 MATLABSimulinkMPC

Safe Autonomous Ship Operation in a Port

Hierarchical control for autonomous vessels manoeuvring inside a port, combining model predictive control with control barrier function safety certificates.

View project

2021 – 2023 ROSGazeboPython

Predictive Multi-Robot Task Allocation for Radiation Monitoring

UAV and UGV teams dispatched across a thermosolar plant to map direct normal irradiance, with a receding-horizon allocation that anticipates where measurements will matter next.

View project

2015 – 2017 AvionicsPixhawkFixed-Wing

Tube-Launched Folding-Wing UAV

A compact fixed-wing UAV that stows in a tube and deploys without a runway, with a coordinated relay system to extend communication range. Best Design, Indonesia Aerial Robotics Competition 2017.

View project

2018 – 2019 ROSC++Python

Hybrid Autonomous Underwater Glider

A long-endurance underwater platform combining AUV propulsion with buoyancy-driven glider motion, taken from design through lake testing.

View project

Featured Publications

Full list on the publications page, or on Google Scholar.

IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 2025 Under review

Coverage-Recon: Coordinated Multi-Drone Image Sampling with Online Map Feedback

Muhammad Hanif, Reiji Terunuma, Takumi Sumino, Kelvin Cheng, Takeshi Hatanaka

arXiv:2510.18347. Extends our ECC 2025 conference paper.

Paper Project Page Code Video

@article{hanif2025coverage,
  title   = {Coverage-Recon: Coordinated Multi-Drone Image Sampling with Online Map Feedback},
  author  = {Hanif, Muhammad and Terunuma, Reiji and Sumino, Takumi and Cheng, Kelvin and Hatanaka, Takeshi},
  journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.18347},
  year    = {2025}
}

SICE Journal of Control, Measurement, and System Integration, 2024

Efficient Angle-Aware Coverage Control for Large-Scale Map Reconstruction using Drone Networks

Muhammad Hanif, Takumi Shimizu, Zhiyuan Lu, Masaya Suenaga, Takeshi Hatanaka

pp. 144–155. Open access.

Paper Video

@article{hanif2024angleaware,
  title   = {Efficient Angle-Aware Coverage Control for Large-Scale Map Reconstruction using Drone Networks},
  author  = {Hanif, Muhammad and Shimizu, Takumi and Lu, Zhiyuan and Suenaga, Masaya and Hatanaka, Takeshi},
  journal = {SICE Journal of Control, Measurement, and System Integration},
  volume  = {17},
  number  = {1},
  pages   = {144--155},
  year    = {2024},
  doi     = {10.1080/18824889.2024.2346375}
}

Nonlinear and Constrained Control — Springer Nature, 2025

Hierarchical Vessel Safe Operation in a Port through CBF, MPC and RRT-like Spatiotemporal Path Planning

Satoshi Otsuki, Naoki Hatta, Muhammad Hanif, Riku Funada, Kenichi Nakashima, Takeshi Hatanaka

Book chapter, pp. 407–441. E. Garone, I. V. Kolmanovsky and T. W. Nguyen (eds).

Paper

@incollection{otsuki2025hierarchical,
  title     = {Hierarchical Vessel Safe Operation in a Port through CBF, MPC and RRT-like Spatiotemporal Path Planning},
  author    = {Otsuki, Satoshi and Hatta, Naoki and Hanif, Muhammad and Funada, Riku and Nakashima, Kenichi and Hatanaka, Takeshi},
  booktitle = {Nonlinear and Constrained Control --- Applications, Synergies, Challenges and Opportunities},
  editor    = {Garone, E. and Kolmanovsky, I. V. and Nguyen, T. W.},
  publisher = {Springer Nature},
  pages     = {407--441},
  year      = {2025}
}

Solar Energy, 2023

Predictive Receding-Horizon Multi-Robot Task Allocation Applied to the Mapping of Direct Normal Irradiance in a Thermosolar Power Plant

Javier G. Martin, Muhammad Hanif, Takeshi Hatanaka, Jose M. Maestre, Eduardo F. Camacho

Paper

@article{martin2023predictive,
  title   = {Predictive receding-horizon multi-robot task allocation applied to the mapping of direct normal irradiance in a thermosolar power plant},
  author  = {Martin, Javier G. and Hanif, Muhammad and Hatanaka, Takeshi and Maestre, Jose M. and Camacho, Eduardo F.},
  journal = {Solar Energy},
  volume  = {263},
  pages   = {111911},
  year    = {2023}
}

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2023

Human Workload Evaluation of Drone Swarm Formation Control using Virtual Reality Interface

Chanun Asavasirikulkij, Muhammad Hanif

Companion proceedings, pp. 132–136.

Paper

@inproceedings{asavasirikulkij2023human,
  title     = {Human Workload Evaluation of Drone Swarm Formation Control using Virtual Reality Interface},
  author    = {Asavasirikulkij, Chanun and Hanif, Muhammad},
  booktitle = {Companion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction},
  pages     = {132--136},
  year      = {2023},
  doi       = {10.1145/3568294.3580057}
}

Talks

All talks on the talks page.

Aug 2026 Orchestrating Multi-Robot Collaboration: From Aerial Drones to Heavy Machinery Plenary Talk · 17th Multidisciplinary International Student Workshop (MISW 2026) · Institute of Science Tokyo · Tokyo, Japan
Jul 2025 Drones Meet 3D-AI: Multi-Drone Collaboration for 3D Reconstruction Invited Talk · Emerging Technology Division, AstraZeneca India · Online
Jun 2025 Impact of Real-time Map Feedback on Coordinated Image Sampling for 3D Reconstruction International Conference · 2025 European Control Conference (ECC) · Thessaloniki, Greece
May 2025 Drones Meet 3D-AI: Multi-Drone Collaboration for 3D Reconstruction Invited Talk · Tokyo AI × Drones — Invited Session · Tokyo, Japan
Aug 2024 Real-time Adaptation of Drone Altitude and Object Detection Model for Moving Target Tracking International Conference · SICE Festival 2024 with Annual Conference · Kochi University of Technology · Kochi, Japan

Teaching

Spring 2024 SCE.C451 - Optimal Control - Teaching Assistant Graduate course · Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dept. of Systems and Control Engineering
Fall 2022 SCE.Z401 - Cyber Physical Innovation - Teaching Assistant Graduate course · Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dept. of Systems and Control Engineering
Fall 2018 EL4125 - Digital Image Processing - Teaching Assistant Undergraduate course · Bandung Institute of Technology, School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
2012 – 2016 Mathematics Olympiad Coaching — Tutor Elementary & high school · Mathematics Education Clinic, Bogor

Get in touch

I’m always glad to talk about multi-robot systems, coverage control, or 3D reconstruction for robotics. If you’re a student curious about robotics or just starting out with programming and engineering, feel free to reach out — I’m happy to answer questions and offer guidance. For professional and consulting enquiries, LinkedIn is the fastest route.

Email me LinkedIn Download CV