Himani Sinhmar

Himani Sinhmar

Postdoctoral Research Associate  ·  Princeton University

I develop resource-aware embodied decision and control architectures for robots operating in dynamic and highly interactive settings.

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University working at the intersection of robotics, control theory, neuromorphic decision-making, and game theory. My research asks how individual robots and teams can think and act simultaneously, forming fast, reliable decisions as they move and interact with the physical world and one another. I develop interpretable dynamical models of embodied decision formation and translate them into decentralized, resource-aware controllers that rely solely on local information, without explicit communication. These controllers shape fluid, goal-directed behavior in heterogeneous collectives of robots, people, and other interacting agents while providing mathematical guarantees of safety and task success in uncertain, dynamic, and social environments. I am currently working with Prof. Naomi Leonard at Princeton. I did my PhD at Cornell University with Prof. Hadas Kress-Gazit, and my Bachelor's and Master's in Aerospace Engineering at IIT Bombay. Outside of research, I enjoy running, hiking, and reading about world affairs, psychology, and philosophy of science.

I study how robots can make fast, reliable, and provably safe decisions when sensing, computation, communication, or actuation are limited. My work combines control theory, nonlinear dynamics, and collective intelligence to develop decentralized decision-making and control frameworks that are both mathematically grounded and deployable on real robotic systems.

Environment Monitoring in the Wild

Decentralized, game-theoretic, and neuromorphic control for scalable environment monitoring in resource-constrained robot teams.

Multi-Robot Social Navigation in Crowded Environments

Safe, scalable, and deadlock-free multi-robot navigation through continuous adaptation and local interaction rules.

Provably Safe Motion Planning for Resource-Constrained UAVs

Provably safe aerial motion planning under uncertainty, limited computation, and complex workspace constraints.

Aerospace Systems and Control

Control, estimation, and modeling for distributed spacecraft systems, autonomous navigation, and propulsion.

Minimalist Robotic Swarms for Target Encapsulation

Provably correct decentralized control for robot swarms with no memory, no communication, and no localization.

Electronically Programmable Shape-Morphing MetaBots

Micrometer-scale origami robots that fold into 3D shapes, locomote in solution, and are controlled by surface electrochemical actuators.

Affordance-Aware Task and Motion Planning

Reactive task and motion planning using object affordances, feasibility checks, and tool substitution — demonstrated on a Stretch robot.

Advised students are marked with and equal contributions with *.

Manuscripts in Preparation
Neuromorphic Decision Dynamics for Deadlock-free Safe Navigation in Congested Environments
Himani Sinhmar, Vaibhav Srivastava, Naomi Ehrich Leonard
In preparation
Real-Time Inference of Cooperation for Path-Preserving Multi-Robot Social Navigation in Crowded Spaces
Himani Sinhmar*, Antoun K. Salib*†, Vaibhav Srivastava, Naomi Ehrich Leonard
In preparation
Decentralized Neuromorphic Supervisory Control for Parsimonious Multi-Agent Persistent Environment Monitoring
Himani Sinhmar, Giovanna Amorim, Vaibhav Srivastava, Naomi Ehrich Leonard
In preparation
2026
Neuromorphic Realization of Best Response in Finite-Action Games
Himani Sinhmar, Vaibhav Srivastava, Naomi Ehrich Leonard
To appear in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC 2026)
A Continuous-Time and State-Space Relaxation of the Linear Threshold Model with Nonlinear Opinion Dynamics
Ian Xul Belaustegui, Himani Sinhmar, Ling-Wei Kong, Andrew Michael Hein, Naomi Ehrich Leonard
To appear in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC 2026)
2025
Safety with Agency: Human-Centered Safety Filter with Application to AI-Assisted Motorsports
Donggeon David Oh, Justin Lidard, Haimin Hu, Himani Sinhmar, Elle Lazarski, Deepak Gopinath, Emily S. Sumner, Jonathan A. DeCastro, Guy Rosman, Naomi Ehrich Leonard, Jaime Fernández Fisac
Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS 2025)
Motion Planning and Control with Multi-Stage Construction of Invariant Sets
Marcus Greiff, Stefano Di Cairano, Himani Sinhmar
US Patent Application No. 18/589,946, 2025
2024
Invariant Set Planning for Quadrotors: Design, Analysis, and Experiments
Marcus Greiff, Himani Sinhmar, Andreas Weiss, Kristofer Berntorp, Stefano Di Cairano
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 33(2), 449–462, 2024
Practical and Safe Navigation Function Based Motion Planning of UAVs
Himani Sinhmar, Marcus Greiff, Stefano Di Cairano
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2024)
Multi-Source Encapsulation With Guaranteed Convergence Using Minimalist Robots
Himani Sinhmar, Hadas Kress-Gazit
Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 2024)
Microscopic, Continuum, Compliant, and Electronically Configurable Metasheet Robots
Qingkun Liu*, Wei Wang*, Himani Sinhmar, Itay Griniasty, Jason Z. Kim, et al.
Nature Materials, 2024
Design and Control of Microscopic Robot Sheet
Himani Sinhmar, Itay Griniasty, Qingkun Liu, Wei Wang, Itai Cohen, Hadas Kress-Gazit
ICRA 2024 Workshop
Control With Guarantees for Minimalist Robotic Swarms
Himani Sinhmar
PhD Dissertation, Cornell University, 2024
2023
Guaranteed Encapsulation of Targets with Unknown Motion by a Minimalist Robotic Swarm
Himani Sinhmar, Hadas Kress-Gazit
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 40, 816–830, 2023
2022
Decentralized Control of Minimalistic Robotic Swarms For Guaranteed Target Encapsulation
Himani Sinhmar, Hadas Kress-Gazit
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2022)
Consensus of Networked Double Integrator Systems under Sensor Bias
Pallavi Sinha, Srikant Sukumar, Himani Sinhmar
International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, 37(1), 278–297, 2022
Earlier
Distributed Model Independent Algorithm for Spacecraft Synchronization under Relative Measurement Bias
Himani Sinhmar, Srikant Sukumar
5th CEAS Conference on Guidance, Navigation and Control, 2019
Relative Autonomous Navigation Without Communication Between Spacecraft Using Line of Sight Measurements
Himani Sinhmar, Vinod Kumar
8th IEEE/CSAA GNC Conference, Xiamen, China, 2018
Direct Theoretical Approach to Jet Propulsion Principles based on Pressure Variation inside the Engine
Himani Sinhmar, Pallavi Rastogi, Shripad P. Mahulikar