Bearcats AI grant-backed project · Started September 2025
Problem and intended use
INARA — Intelligent Navigation & Autonomous Response Agent — explores low-cost robotic assistance in complex indoor, GPS-denied environments. The work is motivated by accessibility barriers and the difficulty of navigating unfamiliar facilities.
Architecture and development
The design combines reinforcement learning with a classical fallback, a BIM-driven Unreal digital twin, and LiDAR and depth-camera sensing.
The documented development roadmap uses ROS2 Humble, Nav2 planning and control, evaluation of Cartographer or slam_toolbox for SLAM, and EKF-based state estimation. These roadmap items are not presented as completed capabilities.
Innovation and accessibility
The Innovation Challenge reflection connects technical development with usability, accessibility, and scalability. Full reflections on this work are retained under Honors Experiences.