Sithija Vihanga Ranaraja

4th year undergraduate of B.Sc.(Hons) in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Moratuwa.

Robotics Enthusiast | Passionate about innovation in robotics and automation technologies.

Mobile Robot Receptionist 2.0

2024 - Ongoing
  • Designed a multi-floor navigation framework expanding 2D mapping and navigation techniques.
  • Developed Gazebo plugins for elevator simulations and implemented behavior trees for automating multi-floor navigation, including elevator interactions.
  • Implemented the Nav2 stack and SLAM toolbox for the robots; worked on hardware integration and testing.
  • Replicated research on human goal prediction and tested the implementation to enhance the crowd navigation algorithm.

Custom Gazebo plugin designed for elevator simulation from scratch

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SANSA - mobile robot receptionist

Teleop navigation testing with ROS2

Goal predictor algorithm implementation based on IMPC research.

Voyager: Mobile Robot Platform

2024 - 2025
  • Developed robot simulations with SLAM, Nav2, and teleop from scratch with ROS2 and Gazebo.
  • Designed SolidWorks enclosure and assembled the robot hardware.
  • Integrated custom sensors (wheel encoders, lidar, and camera), hardware interfaces, and tested SLAM and navigation stack.

Robot teleop testing with diff-drive controller and camera positional controllers.

Custom designed SolidWorks assembly

Robot hardware integration and testing

Lidar sensor integration and testing

Hydra: 6 DOF Robot Manipulator

2024 - Ongoing
  • Developed ROS2 workspace for manipulator simulations with Moveit2.
  • Designed the robot in SolidWorks, assembled the manipulator, and tested the hardware interface.

Modified manipulator design in SolidWorks

Manipulator controls through RViz and joint state publisher

Manipulator hardware testing

Moveit 2 integration and trajectory planning test

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RoboRoarz Robot Challenge, Singapore

2024
  • Developed algorithms in C++ for Smorphi reconfigurable robot platform.
  • Designed reconfigurable robot concepts for disaster management.
  • Participated in robotics workshops, gaining hands-on experience in robot development.
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Reconfigurable custom robot design for disaster management.

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Team Spectro

Roboroarz award ceremony

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Reconfigurable robot assembly and workshops

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Sri Lankan Robotics Challenge (University Category)

2022
  • Implemented algorithms to solve the Tower of Hanoi using custom manipulators.
  • Designed robot hardware configurations and tested software and hardware setup.

Competing in SLRC

Maze navigation and manipulator functionalities

Line following testing

Our robot for SLRC

Our robot for SLRC

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Spark Innovation Challenge

2023
  • Designed a prototype for the generation of hydrogen as a clean renewable energy source using tidal waves.
  • Conducted year-long research proving the finding and achieving project milestones.

Our implementation: AlgaGen

  • Developed the designs for floating structures which can harness tidal energy through telescopic chambers for internal controls.
  • Research on abundant sea chemicals for growing hydrogen producing algae, and also tested hydragon formation doing physical testing.
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Battle robot design: Scorpion

2023
  • Worked with team of 14 people for designing a battle robot for demonstration purposes.
  • Collaborate with external resource persons and gained hands-on experience on developing the robot.
  • Seperately powered weapons and navigation systems focusing on power management while robot stalling during battle to ensure its strngth.
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Our team

  • Team worked on custom metal enclosure designing and development, custom pcb designing, and developing custom controllers for the robot.
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Mobile robot: Navigation based on image processing

2023
  • Designed an ESP32 cam based mobile robot platform to share its video feed with server computer within LAN, and take navigation commands through the server computer.
  • Implemented OpenCV functions to detect markers and enable autonomous navigation.

Robot design competition

2022
  • Develeoped image processing based algorithms for obstacle detection and carrying to fix a broken bridge.
  • Implemented colored dotted line following, wall following for reaching the target.
  • Improved stability while moving up on a ramp when carrying obstacles.

Maintaining stability while navigating on ramp

Broken wall following

Colored line following

Our robot for SLRC

Solidworks design of the robot

Sri Lankan Robotics Challenge (School Category)

2021
  • Designed C++ based controllers and gained hands-on experience on robot simulators.
  • Implemented autonomous functionalities for the custom designed robot for achieving the multiple tasks in the final round.

Decoding Floor Patterns

Wall following task

Simulated radar task

Simple reciever implementation task

Contact Me

Email: sithija.vihanga28@gmail.com

Phone: +94 71 1500725

Location: Gampaha, Sri Lanka