Debasish Ghose
Debasish Ghose is an aerospace and robotics researcher whose work spans autonomous guidance, multi-agent systems, and swarm optimization. He earned an electrical-engineering BSc at REC Rourkela in 1982, an ME at IISc in 1984, and a PhD there in 1990, then joined IISc's Aerospace Engineering department. With Animesh Chakravarthy, he published a collision-cone approach to obstacle avoidance in 1998; he later visited UCLA and became an IISc professor. With Krishnanand, he introduced Glowworm Swarm Optimization for multimodal search in 2005 and became a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2006. He chaired IISc Aerospace Engineering from 2012 to 2015 and, as of October 2026, is an honorary professor in the department.
- Works
- 552
- Citations
- 10,772
- h-index
- 49
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.
Timeline
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1982–1993
Engineering degrees and teaching
He earns a BSc in electrical engineering at REC Rourkela in 1982, an ME in electrical engineering at IISc in 1984, and a PhD at IISc in 1990. He joins IISc's Department of Aerospace Engineering as a lecturer from 1990 to 1993.
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1998
The collision-cone approach
With Animesh Chakravarthy, he publishes a paper on a collision-cone approach to obstacle avoidance in a dynamic environment in 1998.
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1999–2003
Professor at IISc
He serves as visiting faculty in UCLA's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 1999–2000, 2001 and 2002, then becomes a professor in IISc's Department of Aerospace Engineering in 2003. His research covers guidance and control of autonomous vehicles, robotics, multi-agent systems and mobile robotics.
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2005
Glowworm swarm optimization
With Krishnanand, he introduces Glowworm Swarm Optimization, a method that locates multiple optima of multimodal functions, in 2005.
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2006
An INAE fellowship
He is elected a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2006.
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2012–2015
Chair of Aerospace Engineering
He chairs IISc's Department of Aerospace Engineering from 2012 to 2015.
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As of October 2026
Honorary professor at IISc
As of October 2026, he is an honorary professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IISc.
Career
- Since 1990Indian Institute of ScienceLecturer, Professor
- 2023–2025Robert Bosch
- 2022–2026Høyskolen Kristiania
- 1999–2002University of California, Los AngelesVisiting faculty
- 1987–1990Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
Education
- 1990Indian Institute of SciencePhD
- 1984Indian Institute of ScienceME in electrical engineering
- 1982Regional Engineering College, RourkelaBSc in electrical engineering
Most-cited works
- Obstacle avoidance in a dynamic environment: a collision cone approach
- Glowworm swarm optimization for simultaneous capture of multiple local optima of multimodal functions
- Scheduling Divisible Loads in Parallel and Distributed Systems
- Nonsingular Terminal Sliding Mode Guidance with Impact Angle Constraints
- Detection of multiple source locations using a glowworm metaphor with applications to collective robotics
Sources and credits
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