engineering in the bay

VARUN CHILUKURI

STUDENT @ LELAND HIGH SCHOOL · 2× BAY AREA HACKATHON AWARD RECIPIENT

DWG NO. 001SCALE NTSSHEET 1/1

CONTACT

varunchilukuri7@gmail.com GitHub ↗ LinkedIn ↗ Devpost ↗

SELECT A PART TO EXPLORE ↓

Blueprint-style render of a robotic arm, shown from a diagonal side angle. Select a labeled axis to open that part of the portfolio.

MECHANICAL ARM ASSEMBLY PAYLOAD: 250g MAX REPEATABILITY: ±0.5mm MATERIAL: 6061-T6 AL FINISH: ANODIZED

220mm

97° 112° 76° 58° 180°

185mm

142mm

01 BASE 02 SHOULDER 03 ELBOW 04 FOREARM 05 WRIST 06 KNUCKLE 07 GRIPPER 08 COUPLING

PART 01

About

Hi, I'm Varun. I'm a high school student passionate about mechatronics, autonomous robotics, and embedded systems.

I enjoy building working prototypes utilizing CAD, 3D printing, and electrical systems. Currently building personal robotics projects, competing in hackathons, and documenting all my work on GitHub. I also use Raspberry Pis, Arduino, Python, Flask, BLE, and bash when a project needs them.

Interested in autonomous navigation, computer vision, and building robots that solve real-world problems while designing fun hardware systems with various mechanical actuators.

PART 02

Shoulder Axis

Fetch

1ST PLACE OVERALL · CSI HACKS · 82+ TEAMS

Fetch

Co-Founder & Hardware Lead, mechanical + electrical, roughly half the stack

Fetch is a robot that carries a trash can around a gallery and comes when you call it. You drive it around a room once and name each stop, and after that it just goes there on its own. It uses AprilTags and QR codes instead of lidar or a stored map, plus an ultrasonic e-stop so it doesn't run into anyone. Visitors call it by pointing their phone at the AprilTag next to them. Built this with my co-founder Rishith in about eight hours: he did the app and routing, I did the CAD, electronics, and hardware.

Compute Raspberry Pi 4 + Arduino Uno R4
Drive 4× NEMA 17, mecanum wheels
Localization AprilTags + QR destinations
Safety Ultrasonic e-stop

Mecanum Kinematics AprilTag Localization CAD Design Embedded Electronics Raspberry Pi Arduino Uno R4 Hardware Integration

GitHub ↗ Devpost ↗

PART 03

Elbow Axis

Street Sweeper

Street Sweeper robot, front view showing the two-wheel drivetrain

2ND PLACE · INTERACTIVE LEARNING TRACK · MILPITAS HACKS

Street Sweeper

Team build (4 people), hardware & electronics

A trash-collection robot on a two-wheel drivetrain, with a camera-guided intake driven by an ESP32 and an L298N motor driver. The part that actually won our track: you type in commands and the robot runs them while it's out collecting trash, so it doubles as a coding lesson. Built this with a team of four at Milpitas Hacks, splitting up the mechanical build, the wiring, and the intake mechanism, and got the whole thing demo-ready in time for judging.

Compute ESP32
Drive L298N, two-wheel drivetrain
Vision Camera-guided intake mechanism
Track win Command-driven coding lesson while collecting trash

ESP32 Motor Drivers (L298N) Computer Vision Command Parsing Mechanical Assembly Team Collaboration

GitHub ↗

PART 04

Forearm Axis

Hope

IN PROGRESS · SEARCH & RESCUE

Hope (Rail-Mounted Rubble Scanner)

Building with Rishith and one more teammate, in progress

A rail-mounted scanner for search-and-rescue. Basically: a 24GHz mmWave radar can tell if something's moving or just sitting there, but it has no idea where. So instead of hunting for a fancier sensor, we just move a cheap one. A NEMA17 stepper drags it down a 400mm V-slot rail on a GT2 belt, stopping every so often to take a reading, which adds up to a full scan across a rubble pile. A Raspberry Pi runs the whole thing and serves a Flask page over its own WiFi so you can watch results come in live, color-coded.

Sensing 24GHz mmWave radar + webcam + laser marker
Motion NEMA17 + GT2 belt, 400mm V-slot rail
Software Pi control loop + Flask web GUI, live UART parsing
Scope Detects motion/presence, not vital signs (a triage tool)

mmWave Radar UART Frame Parsing Stepper Motor Control Raspberry Pi Flask GT2 Belt Drive Design V-Slot Rail Assembly

PART 05

Wrist Axis

HocDiuTempusSumpsit

HocDiuTempusSumpsit arm extended, gripper and linkage visible

3D-PRINTED · BLUETOOTH CONTROLLED

HocDiuTempusSumpsit (Bluetooth Robotic Arm)

Solo build

A 3D-printed, Bluetooth-controlled 4-bar linkage arm with three axes of rotation, a wireless remote, and a three-finger helical-gear gripper for grasping circular objects. Driven by a PCA9685 servo controller over two ESP-WROOM-32s. The elbow joint originally couldn't hold the wrist and gripper's weight, so I reworked the joint geometry and leverage instead of just using a bigger servo.

Control ESP-WROOM-32 + PCA9685 + BLE
Servos MG996R, SG90, Spektrum A330
Mechanism 4-bar linkage, three-finger helical-gear gripper

4-Bar Linkage Design Gear Design PCA9685 Servo Control Bluetooth / BLE 3D Printing Torque & Leverage Analysis

GitHub ↗

PART 06

Knuckle Axis

More of my projects.

The Eclipse Lamp internals, Raspberry Pi, gears, and 3D-printed shutter housing

COVERT HARDWARE

The Eclipse Lamp

Looks like a normal lamp. Inside, a motorized shutter cycles open every few seconds while the camera sweeps the room; AI checks each look for a person, locks onto them, and pushes a real-time alert to your phone.

AI Person Detection Motorized Shutter Mechanism Pan Camera Control Real-Time Alerts

GitHub ↗

2ND PLACE · LELAND SCIENCE FAIR

MagLift

An aluminum prototype demonstrating how magnetic cranes work. One motor raises and lowers the magnet, a second rotates the crane, steered by a joystick and two touch pads. Designed, built, and coded solo.

Arduino Uno Stepper Motor Control DC Motor Control Joystick Interfacing Solo Prototyping

MARS-61 herringbone gear reduction prototype next to its NEMA17 drive motor

CONCEPT · ON HOLD

MARS-61 (Advanced Robotic Arm)

Dual NEMA 17 shoulder, a differential wrist, and a custom 5:17 herringbone gear reduction at the base, with cycloidal drives and planetary gearboxes on the research list. On hold for now, but not forgotten.

Herringbone Gear Design Differential Mechanisms Dual-Motor Coordination Gear Ratio Analysis

BUILT FROM SCRATCH

Custom Gaming Mouse

A mouse built from scratch around a Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3, with a PixArt PMW optical sensor for cursor tracking, a rotary encoder for the scroll wheel, and a 3.7V LiPo, plus arrow keys and a spacebar built into the shell on top of normal mouse features. Some parts scavenged from other mice.

ESP32-S3 Optical Sensor Integration Rotary Encoder LiPo Power Management Enclosure Design Firmware Programming

GitHub ↗

PART 07

Skills

A few things I've worked with.

Microcontrollers

Motors

Sensors

Drivers & controllers

Power

CAD & fabrication

Mechanisms

Software

PCB design & soldering

Hand & power tools

Version control (Git)

Test & measurement

PART 08

Awards & Recognition

The ones I'm most proud of.

1st Place Overall · CSI Hacks (82+ Teams)

For Fetch, co-founded and co-built as hardware lead. Designed, printed, wired, and demoed inside an 8-hour build window.

2nd Place, Interactive Learning Track · Milpitas Hacks (220+ Participants)

For Street Sweeper, a trash-collection robot that doubles as a coding lesson for whoever's driving it.

2nd Place · Leland High School Science Fair (30+ Submissions)

For MagLift, a working magnetic crane prototype. Designed, built, and coded solo.