Designation: Engineer-F
Research Area: Precision Control Systems for Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation; Scientific Imaging Systems (CCD/CMOS) Development; Space Situational Awareness (SSA); Embedded Systems; Adaptive Optics
kumar
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Personal webpage (Maintained by individual)

Education: Ph.D., Systems and Control Engineering, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India
 

Professional Experience
• Scientist/Engineer, ARIES, Nainital, India (2004–Present)
   – Designed and developed precision control systems for optical telescopes, enabling accurate tracking and pointing
   – Developed and integrated CCD/CMOS-based astronomical instruments and backend systems
   – Led system integration, testing, and commissioning of telescope subsystems
   – Leading Space Situational Awareness (SSA) initiatives, focusing on optical tracking systems, instrumentation, and data processing

• Engineer, Tata Motors, Pune, India (2002–2004)
   – Developed and tested automobile aggregate control units, including design and implementation of test rigs and validation setups
   – Led maintenance and automation improvements for the Tata Safari robotic production line, including logic debugging, interlock optimization, and enhancements to transfer lines (conveyor–gantry, hemming press) and robotic systems using servo control

Research and Engineering Interests

• Design and engineering of advanced ground-based optical telescopes
• System engineering and integration of astronomical instrumentation
• Development of backend instruments including polarimeters, spectrographs, and CCD/CMOS imaging systems
• Adaptive optics systems and deformable mirror control for high-resolution imaging
• High-precision motion control systems for telescope tracking and positioning
• Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and optical tracking systems
• Embedded and real-time control systems for scientific applications
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation and system validation
• Human–Machine Interface (HMI) and supervisory control systems
• Scientific software, control software, and automation frameworks

Externally Funded Projects

• ISRO-RESPOND Programme: Development of FPGA-based CMOS controller for real-time autonomous space object tracking using ground-based telescopes
• SSA software development, BEL Ghaziabad
• Evaluation of ground-based optical telescopes for SSA, IRDE–DRDO
• Development of wide-field telescope for SSA, ISTRAC–ISRO

Interested interns, researchers, and engineering graduates may contact me to work on ongoing projects related to telescope systems, SSA, and instrumentation development.

• Control systems and precision motion control
• FPGA-based system design and high-speed data acquisition
• Optical instrumentation and adaptive optics
• Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and tracking algorithms
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning for event detection, object classification, and SSA data analysis
• Embedded systems and real-time software

Contact: kumar@aries.res.in

Please include your CV, area of interest, and relevant experience in your email.

For advertised contract positions in these areas, please refer to the ARIES website from time to time.

Journal Publications

1. Characterization of 4K × 4K CCD detector system designed for ADFOSC
   Dimple, T. S. Kumar, A. Omar, and K. Misra,
   Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 2023, Vol. 9, No. 1, 018002.
2. First-light images from low dispersion spectrograph-cum-imager on the 3.6-meter Devasthal Optical Telescope
   A. Omar, T. S. Kumar, B. K. Reddy, J. Pant, and M. Mahto,
   Current Science, 2019, Vol. 116, pp. 1472–1478.
3. Velocity reversal systems: A simple friction model for telescopes
   T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
   Asian Journal of Control, 2017, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 678–688.
4. Design and development of telescope control system and software for the 50/80 cm Schmidt telescope
   T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
   Optical Engineering, 2013, Vol. 52, No. 8, 081607.
5. Optical polarimetric study of open cluster: Distribution of interstellar matter towards NGC 654
   B. J. Medhi, G. Maheswar, J. C. Pandey, T. S. Kumar, and R. Sagar,
   Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2008, Vol. 388, No. 1, pp. 105–116.
6. Observations of total solar eclipse of March 29, 2006 and related atmospheric measurements
   W. Uddin, B. Joshi, T. S. Kumar, Saurabh, and R. Sagar,
   Current Science, 2007, Vol. 93, No. 7.

Conference Proceedings / Book Chapters

7. Design and Development of Focus Controller for the 50/80 cm ARIES Schmidt Telescope
   T. S. Kumar,
   Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems (ICTIS 2023), Springer, Vol. 720.
8. Active Compensation of Disturbances Using Dual Motors in Telescope Motion Control
   T. S. Kumar and A. Dhabale,
   IEEE STPEC, 2020, pp. 1–4.
9. Lyapunov Function Analysis for System with Stochastic Nonsmooth PI Controller
   D. Kumar, S. Kamal, K. S. Tripurari, and S. Ghosh,
   IFAC PID Conference, Ghent, Belgium, May 9–11, 2018.
10. Design and development of weather station for the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope
    T. S. Kumar and P. Jangid,
    IoT-SIU, Bhimtal, 2018, pp. 1–5.
11. Observer-based control of a brushed DC motor at very low speeds over controller area network
    T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
    Asian Control Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, 2017, pp. 1449–1453.
12. Forward and inverse solution for MEMS deformable mirrors in adaptive optics
    T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
    Asian Control Conference, Malaysia, 2015.
13. Experimental characterization and modeling of telescope behavior at low velocities
    T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
    Asian Control Conference, Malaysia, 2015.
14. Identification of friction in the 50/80 cm ARIES Schmidt Telescope using the LuGre model
    T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
    IFAC World Congress, Milan, Italy, 2011.
15. Design and development of control unit and software for the ADFOSC instrument of the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope
    T. S. Kumar,
    SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, Edinburgh, U.K., 2016, Vol. 9908.
16. Characterization of friction in the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope
    T. S. Kumar, C. Bastin, and B. Kumar,
    SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, Edinburgh, U.K., 2016, Vol. 9906.
17. Modeling of deformable MEMS mirrors in modern telescopes
    T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
    OSA Photonics Conference, Chennai, India, 2012.
18. Design and development of telescope control system and software for the 50/80 cm Schmidt telescope
    T. S. Kumar and R. N. Banavar,
    SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2012, Vol. 8444.