Dr. Sunil Kumar

Assistant Professor

Specialization

Control system applications in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and dynamical systems

Email

sunil.kumar@thapar.edu

Specialization

Control system applications in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and dynamical systems

Email

sunil.kumar@thapar.edu

Contact No.

+91-9695885963

 

Biography

I received my Ph.D. degree in Control Systems from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India, in 2023. In 2024, I was awarded the prestigious TIH-IoT CHANAKYA Postdoctoral Fellowship at IIT Bombay, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. From March 2024 to March 2025, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at IIT Bombay, and from May 2025 to August 2025, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at IIT Kanpur. I have published several articles in reputed journals and conferences. Additionally, I have qualified for the National-Level GATE Examination in Instrumentation Engineering (IN) six times and have also qualified for the UGC-NET in Electronics Science. My research interests include nonlinear control, predefined-time convergence, sliding mode control, observer design, guidance law design, and UAVs.

Academic Profile

  • Ph.D. in Control systems,  IIT (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
  • M.Tech. in Instrumentation & Control, SLIET, Sangrur, Punjab, India
  • B.Tech. in Electronics & Instrumentation, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

Teaching and Research Experience

  • Assistant Professor, Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala, India
    • August 2025-Contd
  • Post Doc Researcher, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
    • May 2025-Agust 2025
  • Post Doc Researcher, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Maharashtra, India
    • March 2024-March 2025
  • Assistant Professor, Institute of Engineering and Rural Technology, Prayagraj, Uttar     Pradesh, India
    • April 2023- March 2024

Research Interests

  • Sliding mode control
  • Nonlinear control
  • Observer design
  • Predefined-time control
  • Guidance Law
  • Control system applications in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Research Projects

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Publications in Peer Reviewed International Journals (6)

  1. Kumar, S., Soni, S. K., Pal, A. K., Kamal, S., & Xiong, X. (2021). Nonlinear polytopic systems with predefined time convergence. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, 71(2), 632-636.

DOI: 10.1109/TCSII.2021.3125722, (Impact Factor-4.9, Quartile-Q1).

 

  1. Kumar, S., Kumar Pal, A., Kamal, S., & Xiong, X. (2023). Design of switched high-gain observer for nonlinear systems. International Journal of Systems Science, 54(7), 1471-1483.

           DOI: 10.1080/00207721.2023.2178863, (Impact Factor-4.9, Quartile-Q1).

 

  1. Kumar, S., Soni, S. K., & Kamal, S. (2023). Predefined-Time Frequency Estimation of Biased Sinusoidal Signals. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, 71(4), 2369-2373.

DOI: 10.1109/TCSII.2023.3334157, (Impact Factor-4.9, Quartile-Q1).

 

  1. Kumar, S., Soni, S. K., Kamal, S., & Djemai, M. (2024). Observer Design for Multi-Output Systems with Predefined-Time Convergence. IEEE Control Systems Letters, 8, 2175-2180.

DOI: 10.1109/LCSYS.2024.3443048, (Impact Factor-2, Quartile-Q1).

 

  1. Pal, A. K., Kumar, S., Kamal, S., Leung, H., & Xiong X. (2024). Tuning the controller gains using sensitivity analysis. Asian Journal Control, 1-16.

 DOI: 10.1002/ASJC.3504, 2024, (Impact Factor-2.7, Quartile-Q2).

 

  1. Sachan, A., Gupta, N., Kumar, S., & Kumar Deveerasetty, K. (2022). Switching controller for nonlinear systems: an invariant [K, KL] sector approach. International Journal of Systems Science, 53(15), 3339-3350.

DOI: 10.1080/00207721.2022.2081373, (Impact Factor-4.9, Quartile-Q1).

 

Conference Papers (7)

  1. Kumar, S., Sharma, R. K., & Kamal, S. (2021, October). Adaptive super-twisting guidance law with extended state observer. In IECON 2021–47th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (pp. 1-6), DOI: 10.1109/IECON48115.2021.9589142. IEEE.

 

  1. Kumar, S., Soni, S. K., Sachan, A., Kamal, S., & Bandyopadhyay, B. (2022, September). Adaptive super-twisting guidance law: an event-triggered approach. In 2022 16th International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems (VSS) (pp. 190-195), DOI: 10.1109/VSS57184.2022.9901685. IEEE.

 

  1. Kumar, S., Sharma, R. K., & Kamal, S. (2022). Design of guidance law with predefined upper bound of settling time. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 55(22), 418-423, DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2023.03.070.

 

  1. Kumar, S., Yesmin, A., Sinha, A., & Guha, A. (2024, December). Adaptive Continuous Terminal Sliding Mode Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. In 2024 Tenth Indian Control Conference (ICC) (pp. 262-267), DOI: 10.1109/ICC64753.2024.10883749. IEEE.

 

  1. Soni, S. K., Kumar, S., Wang, S., Sachan, A., Boutat, D., & Geha, D. (2022, October). Sliding Mode Even-Triggered Tracking Control for Robot Manipulators With State Constrains. In IECON 2022–48th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (pp. 1-6), DOI: 10.1109/IECON49645.2022.9968984. IEEE.

 

  1. Soni, S. K., Kumar, S., Sachan, A., Goyal, J. K., & Djemai, M. (2024, October). Fast-terminal Super-twisting Control for Quadrotor UAVs Landing on Moving Ship. In 2024 17th International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems (VSS), (pp. 292-297), DOI: 10.1109/VSS61690.2024.10753388. IEEE.

 

  1. Soni, S. K., Singh, S., Kumar, S., Sahu, H. S., & Saket, R. K. (2023, December). Solar-to-Vehicle Charging with Maximum Power Point Tracking using Super-Twisting Controller. In 2023 IEEE International Transportation Electrification Conference (ITEC-India) (pp. 1-6), DOI: 10.1109/ITEC-India59098.2023.10471485. IEEE.

Courses of Interest

  • Control system
  • Transducer and sensor measurement systems
  • Industrial measuring instruments
  • Circuit theory
  • Analog circuits
  • Signals and systems

Reviewer

  • Automatica
  • ISA Transactions
  • Journal of Difference Equations and Applications

 

Professional Responsibilities

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Awards/Honours/Achievements

  • Received CHANAKYA Postdoctoral Fellowship at IIT Bombay, Supported by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India in 2024.
  • Received Senior Research Fellowship by Ministry of Human Resource and Development (M.H.R.D.), Government of India during the Ph.D.
  • Received Junior Research Fellowship by Ministry of Human Resource and Development (M.H.R.D.), Government of India during the Ph.D.
  • Received GATE fellowship for M.Tech by Ministry of Human Resource and Development (M.H.R.D.), Government of India during the M.Tech.
  • Qualified in the National-Level GATE Exam for Instrumentation Engineering (IN) six times.

Qualified in the National-Level UGC-NET Exam for Electronics Science

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