Ashis Banerjee

Also known as Ashis G. Banerjee

Ashis Banerjee is a robotics researcher who develops AI methods for autonomous robots and other cyber-physical systems. He earned a mechanical engineering PhD at the University of Maryland in 2009 and worked at MIT and GE Global Research before joining the University of Washington in 2015. His 2011 paper on interpreting robot commands received an AAAI Classic Paper Award in 2026. With Ekta Samani, he developed THOR, a system that helps a low-cost robot recognize objects on a cluttered shelf. He is an associate professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Washington and directs the SMARTS Lab.

Now at: University of Washington
Works: 107
Citations: 2,285
h-index: 23
Badges: Bridge

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

2004–2009

Engineering degrees in India and Maryland

He earns a B.Tech. in Manufacturing Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 2004. At the University of Maryland, he completes an MS in Mechanical Engineering in 2006 and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2009.
2009–2015

Research at MIT and GE

In September 2009, he becomes a postdoctoral associate in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a post he holds until December 2011. He works as a research scientist in the laboratory from January 2012 to August 2012. In September 2012, he joins the Complex Systems Engineering Laboratory at GE Global Research, where he remains until July 2015.
2011

Learning to interpret robot commands

In 2011, he coauthors “Understanding Natural Language Commands for Robotic Navigation and Mobile Manipulation” with Stefanie Tellex, Thomas Kollar, Steven Dickerson, Matthew Walter, Seth Teller and Nicholas Roy. Its Generalized Grounding Graphs framework learns from commands paired with robot actions and generates plans for navigation and mobile manipulation.
2015

Joining the University of Washington

In 2015, he joins the University of Washington's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering as an assistant professor.
2019

An Amazon Research Award

He receives a 2019 Amazon Research Award for a robotics project on visual features for 3D object detection and 6D pose estimation in indoor environments.
By 2024

THOR recognizes objects in clutter

By 2024, he is the senior author of work on THOR with UW doctoral student Ekta Samani. The system uses 3D shape and topology to help a low-cost robot recognize partially hidden objects on a cluttered shelf.
2026

An AAAI Classic Paper Award

In 2026, he shares an AAAI Classic Paper Award with the coauthors of “Understanding Natural Language Commands for Robotic Navigation and Mobile Manipulation.”
August 2026

Teaching in robotics graduate programs

In August 2026, UW names him among the faculty for the initial courses in its new robotics graduate programs. The courses span robotics foundations, motion and path planning, and autonomous systems.
As of October 2026

Associate professor and SMARTS director

In October 2026, he is an associate professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington. He directs the Scale-independent Multimodal Automated Real Time Systems (SMARTS) Lab and develops AI decision methods for cyber-physical systems. His research uses machine learning and reinforcement learning for systems that include autonomous robots.