Hello! I'm Parag
I like to make devices and algorithms that can make human work easier and am highly interested in developing and designing various autonomous tools and robots. I love to learn new things and concepts. I finished my PhD at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, in March 2025. Currently, I am working as a Postdoctroal Researcher at KTH in human-robot interaction. You can read about my current work here.
Parag Khanna
Postdoctoral​ Researcher at KTH Royal Inst. of Technology.
Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction.
Email:
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Address:
Sweden, Stockholm
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Date of Birth:
June 26th, 1996
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EXPERIENCE
April 2025 - Currently
PostDoctoral Candidate
​​​Masters Thesis Supervisor
KTH-Teaching Assistant​​
Robotics, Perception and Learning (RPL), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Research on HRI, Human-Robot Handovers, Explanation for robotic failures in human-robot collaboration.
Medical Robotics
Masters Course: Introduction to Robotics (DD2410)
May 2021- March 2024
Doctoral Student
​​Masters Thesis Supervisor
KTH-Teaching Assistant
Robotics, Perception and Learning (RPL), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Research on Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Robot Handovers, Explanation for robotic failures in human-robot collaboration.
Masters Course: Introduction to Robotics (DD2410)
Masters Course: Machine Learning (DD2421),
Masters Course: Artificial Intelligence (DD2380)
Nov 2019-May 2021
Research Engineer
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), at LS2N lab, Nantes France
Project on developing a bird-neck inspired tensegrity based manipulator {paper}
May 2016-July 2016
Internship
PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY, UK
Project on applying Machine Learning Algorithms(NSM: Reinforcement Learning) on real world tasks being performed by a robot, under Prof. Torbjorn Dahl.
Nov 2015-Dec 2015
Internship
ROBOTIC LABS ,MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT VNIT NAGPUR, INDIA
Project on Autonomous Quadcopter under Prof. S.Chiddarwar.
May 2015-July 2015
Internship
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE, VNIT NAGPUR, INDIA
Project on Design, control and fabrication of low cost prosthetic hand under Prof. K.M. Bhurchandi, Electronics Department, VNIT.
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THESIS AND PROJECT SUPERVISION
May 2025 - Ongoing
Karolinska Institute, and KTH, Sweden
Master's Degree Thesis for Chenhao Yue.
Title: "Developing a Robotic Solution to Genetically Manipulate Mice in Utero"
Jan 2025 - Ongoing
KTH, Sweden
Master's Degree Thesis for Chunyu Wang,
Title: "Inspiring Human-Robot Handovers from Human-Human handovers: Effects of object-weights in handovers"
Feb 2024 - Nov 2024
KTH, Sweden
Masers's Project for Karen Jane Dsouza,
Title: "Weight Matters: An Investigation into Human Handover Behavior and Its Implications for Human-Robot Object Handovers"
Feb 2023 - Nov 2023
KTH, Sweden
Master's Degree Thesis for Jonathan Fredberg,
Title: Automated Control of Human-Robot Handovers using Data-driven STL Modeling of Human-Human Handovers. Link
Mar 2025 - Ongoing
Volkswagen, Germany, and KTH, Sweden
Master's Degree Thesis for Linda Maria Seseke.
Title: "A Decision-Making Framework for Modern and Future Vehicle Disassembly"
Jan 2025 - Ongoing
KTH, Sweden
Master's Degree Thesis for Haoyun Zhou,
Title: "Adaptive Robotic Failure Explanations for Human-Robot Collaboration"
Feb 2024 - Nov 2024
KTH, Sweden
Master's Project for Andreas Naoum,
Title: Adapting Robot’s Explanation for Failures Based on Observed Human Behavior in Human-Robot Collaboration
EDUCATION
2021- 2025
PhD
Doctoral Degree
KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
PhD in Computer Science, Specialization in Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction, and Machine Learning
2017-2019
Masers's Degree
ECOLE CENTRALE DE NANTES, FRANCE
UNIVERSITY OF GENOA, ITALY
Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree on Advanced Robotics
2013-2017
Bachelor's Degree
VISVESVARAYA NATIONAL INSTITUE OF TECHNOLOGY, NAGPUR
Bachelor of Technology In Mechanical Engineering
2008-2011
High School
DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, HISAR, INDIA
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PUBLICATIONS
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“Hand it to me Formally! Data-driven Control for Human-Robot Handovers with Signal Temporal Logic”, Journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (IEEE-RAL) 2024. {paper}
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“How do Humans take an Object from a Robot: Behavior changes observed in a User Study “, in International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI) 2023. BEST POSTER PAPER AWARD.
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“A Multimodal Data Set of Human Handovers with Design Implications for Human-Robot Handovers”, IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2023 {paper}
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“Detecting the Intention of Object Handover in Human-Robot Collaborations: An EEG Study”, IEEE RO-MAN, 2023.
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“Effects of Explanation Strategies to Resolve Failures in Human-Robot Collaboration”, IEEE RO-MAN 2023, {paper}
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“User Study Exploring the Role of Explanation of Failures by Robots in Human Robot Collaboration Tasks”, The Failure Workshop, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2023 {paper}
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“Safe Deep Reinforcement Learning for Power System Operation under Scheduled Unavailability”, IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM), 2023 {paper}
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“Human inspired grip-release technique for robot-human handovers”, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2022 {paper}
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“Data-driven Grip Force Variation in Robot-Human Handovers”, Advances in Close Proximity HumanRobot Collaboration Workshop, IEEE-Humanoids, 2022 {paper}"
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“Identification and control of a 3-X cable-driven manipulator inspired from the bird’s neck”, Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, 2022 {paper}
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“A bio-inspired 3-DOF light-weight manipulator with tensegrity X-joints”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020. {paper}
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“Prototype of a tensegrity manipulator to mimic bird necks”, 24th French Congress of Mechanics, Aug 2019, Brest, France {paper}.
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" Explicit Sequence Proximity Models for Hidden State Identification”, Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2018) ,Workshop on Reinforcement Learning under Partial Observability.{git} {paper}
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"Design Analysis and Development of Low Cost Underactuated Robotic Hand", IEEE ROBIO Conference, Dec’2016; indexed IEEE Xplore Digital Library.
Awards &
Recognition
1. Honourable mention and Nomination for the Best Paper Award in Short Contributions Category at the HRI 2025.
My paper, titled "REFLEX Dataset: A Multimodal Dataset of Human Reactions to Robot Failures and Explanations," was nominated for the best paper award under the Short Contribution Category.
2. Selected as a Human-Robot Interaction Pioneer in the 20th HRI Pioneers Workshop at the HRI conference 2025.
Based on my research abstract, I was selected as a Pioneer in the esteemed HRI Pioneers Workshop organized at the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, held in Melbourne, Australia. (LINK)
3. Selected to represent KTH at the Unite! Research School in Grenoble, France, 2024.
Based on my research abstract, I was selected to represent KTH Royal Institute of Technology at the Unite! Research School organized by the University Alliance for Science and Technology (Unite!) in Grenoble, France. There were researchers and students from Grenoble INP-UGA, Aalto, KTH, PoliTO, TUDa, TU Graz, ULisboa, UPC and Wroclaw Tech universities. (LINK)
4. Best Poster Paper award in International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI) 2023.
My poster for the paper titled: "How do Humans take an Object from a Robot: Behavior changes observed in a User Study" won the best Poster Award at the HAI conference held at Gothenburg, Sweden in 2023.
5. VNIT Excellence Award 2017 for exhibiting successful and outstanding work in the field of Science and Technology (Innovative Projects).
Awarded for my bachelor thesis project, "Flying Snake," at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, India.
6. Selected to represent VNIT at the Meeting of National Innovation Club Members, 2017, The President's House, India.
My research for my thesis project on "Flying Snake" was selected to represent VNIT at the prestigious event titled "Meeting of National Innovation Club Members, 2017 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan (The President's house) in New Delhi, India.
Grants
1. IEEE RAS Travel Grant for the IEEE-ICRA conference 2025.
Grant for accommodation support during International Conference on Robotics and Automation at Atlanta, USA, 2025.
2. HRI Pioneers Travel Support for the ACM/IEEE conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI), 2025.
Partial funding for travel and accommodation during the HRI conference in Melbourne, Australia. This was granted as a result of selection in the esteemed HRI Pioneers workshop at HRI 2025.
3. Conference Travel Scholarship from the Karl Engvers Foundation, Stockholm, 2024
Travel Scholarship for attending Academic Conference in the year 2025. The funds were utilized for attending IEEE ICRA 2025.
ACHIEVEMENTS and NEWS
Organized Workshop: "Real-World Physical and Social Human-Robot Interaction" at IEEE-Humanoids, Nancy, France, 2024.
Selected to Represent KTH at (EU) UNITE! Research School, Grenoble, France, 2024.
Best Poster Award at HAI-conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2023.
Paper on explanation for robotic failures, presented at IEEE-ROMAN 2023 in Busan, South Korea.
Published a dataset of handovers Handovers@RPL which includes over 8000 handovers. It is a first-of-its-kind dataset that includes both the human-motion tracking and forces involved in handovers
Related paper presented at IEEE-ROMAN 2023.
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3 papers selected for presentation at IEEE RO-MAN 2023, Busan, South Korea
My first paper from PhD selected accepted for presentation at IEEE-Humanoids 2022 in Okinawa, Japan.
Tensegrity manipulator {paper} selected to be presented at International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) ,Paris 2020. As the research engineered the project, I have been selected to present the robot.
I was awarded VNIT Excellence Award, 2017 for exhibiting a Successful and outstanding work in the field of Science and Technology (Innovative Projects). Given for the Flying-Snake project.
I have been nominated for reperesenting VNIT for THE MEETING OF NATIONAL INNOVATION CLUBS, 2017 to be held at The Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's house), New Delhi.
I authored a paper on "Design Analysise and Development of Low Cost Underactuated Robotic Hand" which got accepted in IEEE ROBIO Conference,2016 at Qingdao, China.
The project "Prosthetic Hand" was selected for the MEETING OF INNOVATORS, 2016 held at The Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's house), New Delhi.
