Narek Harutyunyan

Robotics Researcher | Reinforcement Learning | Autonomous Systems | Multi-Robot Systems

I'm a senior at Brown University majoring in Computer Engineering. My research focuses on robotics and artificial intelligence, particularly reinforcement learning, stability in locomotion, and multi-robot systems. I've worked on advancing reliable and adaptive robotic systems—including autonomous drones, quadruped robots, and AI-driven exploration platforms—through research at Caltech's ARCL Lab, Carnegie Mellon's AirLab, and Brown's ACT Lab.

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Research Experience

Brown University — ACT Lab

May 2023 – Present

PI: Nora Ayanian

Mentors: Eric Ewing, Anoop Kiran

  • Design RL policies in IsaacLab for cooperative object transport with Crazyflie drone swarms.
  • Characterize quadcopter downwash using PIV and MATLAB for improved formation safety.
  • Build aerial painting quadrotor with custom 3D-printed components and Python control wrappers.
  • Develop synchronized LED lighting and real-time audio processing for drone choreography.

Caltech — ARCL Lab

May – September 2025

PI: Soon-Jo Chung

Mentors: Vrushabh Zinage

  • Build IsaacLab simulation of Unitree Go1 on moving platform for ship-like dynamics training.
  • Develop certified RL algorithm with contraction theory achieving 100% deployment success.
  • Create custom SDK and validate policies on Unitree Go1 under wind and motion platform tests.
  • Deploy RL policies for locomotion and fault recovery on humanoid robot Booster T1.

Carnegie Mellon University — AirLab

May 2024 – July 2025

PI: Sebastian Scherer

Mentors: Brady Moon, Seungchan Kim, Cherie Ho

  • Refactor MapEx framework into Gym, add IoU metric, and fix algorithmic issues.
  • Propose MapExRL: human-inspired RL exploration with frontier planning and uncertainty modeling.
  • Achieve up to 18.8% performance gains over state-of-the-art baselines on real-world indoor maps.

Publications and Posters

MapExRL: Human-Inspired Indoor Exploration with Predicted Environment Context and Reinforcement Learning

To appear at the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), 2025

Presented at the ICRA 2025 Workshop on Structured Learning for Efficient, Reliable, and Transparent Robots

Narek Harutyunyan*, Brady Moon*, Seungchan Kim, Cherie Ho, Adam Hung, Sebastian Scherer

Paper Website Video

ContractionPPO: Certified Reinforcement Learning via Differentiable Contraction Layers

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), under review, 2025

V. Zinage*, N. Harutyunyan*, E. Verheyden*, F. Hadaegh, S.-J. Chung

(co-first-author)

Paper Website

MapEx: Indoor Structure Exploration with Probabilistic Information Gain from Global Map Predictions

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025

Cherie Ho*, Seungchan Kim*, Brady Moon, Aditya Parandekar, Narek Harutyunyan, Chen Wang, Katia Sycara, Graeme Best, Sebastian Scherer

Paper Website Video

Downwash Dynamics: Impact of Quadrotor Separation on Forces, Moments, and Velocities for Dense Formation Flight

AIAA AVIATION FORUM AND ASCEND 2024

Anoop Kiran, Narek Harutyunyan, Nora Ayanian, Kenneth Breuer

Paper

RoboChaser

Brown University Deep Learning (DL) Day 2024 — TAs' Choice Award

O. Heng, N. Harutyunyan, J. Dhanda

Website

Advancements in Multi-Robot Systems

Yale Northeast Robotics Colloquium (NERC) 2023

Alice Min*, Robayet Hossain*, Hammad Izhar*, Narek Harutyunyan*

Teaching Experience

CSCI 1952z: Robots as a Medium: Making Art with Teams of Robots

Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2026

Brown University

Head Teaching Assistant

Course Website

CSCI 1470: Deep Learning

Fall 2025

Brown University

Teaching Assistant

Course Website

ENGN 0032: Introduction to Engineering: Design

Fall 2023

Brown University

Teaching Assistant

Honors & Awards

Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society

2025

Inducted member recognizing academic excellence in engineering

Providence, RI, USA

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF)

2025

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, CA, USA

Robotics Institute Summer Scholar (RISS)

2024

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA)

2023, 2024

Brown University

Providence, RI, USA

Huys Scholar

2023, 2024

Huys Foundation STEM Scholarship

Yerevan, Armenia

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Narek Harutyunyan
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