Dhruv Thanki

I am a Software Engineer - Legged Controls at Apptronik, where I work on reinforcement learning for legged robots, motion imitation, locomotion control, and sim-to-real transfer.

Previously, I was a Controls and Autonomy Engineer at Boardwalk Robotics (now Foundation), working on humanoid robot control systems in collaboration with IHMC. I completed my Master of Science in Robotics at the Robotic Locomotion Lab, University of Delaware, under the guidance of Dr. Ioannis Poulakakis. I also worked at Noah Medical and Space Applications Centre - ISRO.

I grew up in Porbandar, India, and have since lived in Jinja (Uganda), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Newark (Delaware), Pensacola (Florida), and now Austin (Texas). Outside of work, I'm passionate about street photography and rock music.

Email / Resume / LinkedIn / GitHub / Google Scholar
Dhruv Thanki profile photo

News

  • 2025 Paper on humanoid multi-contact teleoperation published in IEEE RA-L
  • 2024 Joined Apptronik as Software Engineer - Legged Controls
  • 2024 Completed M.S. Thesis: "Gait Synthesis and Controller Design for Dynamic 3D Bipedal Robot Walking"
  • 2023 Joined Boardwalk Robotics as Controls and Autonomy Engineer
  • 2023 Paper on MPCC for bipedal robots presented at IROS 2023
  • 2022 Paper on sequential MPC for bipedal robots published in IEEE RA-L

Publications

Control flow for contact and posture retargeting in humanoid teleoperation

Stability-Aware Retargeting for Humanoid Multi-Contact Teleoperation

Stephen McCrory, Romeo Orsolino, Dhruv Thanki, Luigi Penco, and Robert Griffin

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 10, No. 12, pp. 12397-12404, December 2025

DOI arXiv
3D Bipedal robot walking gait synthesis

Gait Synthesis and Controller Design for Dynamic 3D Bipedal Robot Walking

Dhruv Ashwinkumar Thanki

M.S. Thesis, University of Delaware, 2024

UDSpace
Digit robot overtaking obstacles using MPCC

Overtaking Moving Obstacles with Digit: Path Following for Bipedal Robots via Model Predictive Contouring Control

Kunal Sanjay Narkhede, Dhruv Ashwinkumar Thanki, Abhijeet Mangesh Kulkarni, and Ioannis Poulakakis

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023

DOI arXiv
Sequential MPC approach diagram for bipedal robot reactive planning

A Sequential MPC Approach to Reactive Planning for Bipedal Robots Using Safe Corridors in Highly Cluttered Environments

Kunal Sanjay Narkhede, Abhijeet Mangesh Kulkarni, Dhruv Ashwinkumar Thanki, and Ioannis Poulakakis

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 11831-11838, October 2022

DOI arXiv PDF Video

Projects

MPC-Based Global Trajectory Tracking for Humanoid Robots

2022

Model Predictive Control approach for global trajectory tracking on the Digit humanoid robot from Agility Robotics.

Trajectory Optimization for Digit Robot

2021

Optimizing trajectories for straight-ahead walking motion on the Digit robot from Agility Robotics.

5-Link biped robot simulation demonstrating Hybrid Zero Dynamics

Understanding Hybrid Zero Dynamics

2019

A tutorial explaining HZD-based controllers and how they can drive a reduced-order system via feedback using virtual constraints. Includes simulation of a 5-Link biped robot.

5-Link Code 3-Link Code