School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering
Faculty Khawaja Fahad Iqbal

Khawaja Fahad Iqbal

Assistant Professor
Summary

Dr. Khawaja Fahad Iqbal is the Deputy HoD of the Department of Robotics & Artificial Intelligence, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (SMME), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. He is also serving as the Scientific Director and Principal Investigator of Intelligent Robotics Lab (IRL) at the National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI), Pakistan. He is the founding CEO of Rise AI Pvt. Ltd. which is a spin-off of NUST registered with the National Science and Technology Park (NSTP). Dr. Fahad obtained his PhD degree in Robotics in 2022 and MS degree in Bioengineering and Robotics degrees in 2017 from Tohoku University, Japan. He received the Japanese Government (MEXT) scholarship for both his MS and PhD. He completed his BE degree in Mechatronics Engineering from NUST in 2011. He is a member of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and MEXT Alumni Association of Pakistan. He has authored over 30 research papers in well-reputed international journals and peer-reviewed conferences. His research interests include Collaborative Robots, Motion Planning, Reinforcement Learning, Embodied AI, Generative AI, Augmented Reality, and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM).

Academic Background
PhD (Robotics) Tohoku University September 01, 2017 - September 26, 2022
Honours and Awards
Publications
Fast Convergence Adaptive Approach for Real-Time Motion Planning April 01, 2026 Robotics - Volume 15(4), Article Number 73
Thermo-economic evaluation of working fluids for a flue gas driven organic Rankine cycle powered vapor compression cycle for cooling air conditioning using a two-step intermediate performance index January 01, 2026 Energy Conversion and Management - Volume:347, Article Number:120541
A Markerless Vision-Based Physical Frailty Assessment System for the Older Adults September 10, 2025 AI - Volume 6(9), Article Number 224
Active interception of moving ball: a multi-player strategy for humanoid soccer robots December 13, 2024 Multimedia Tools and Applications - Pages 1-17
A Comprehensive Multimodal Humanoid System for Personality Assessment Based on the Big Five Model June 21, 2024 IEEE Access - Volume 12, Pages 84261-84272
Dynamic Goal Tracking for Differential Drive Robot Using Deep Reinforcement Learning October 24, 2023 Neural Processing Letters - Pages 1-18
Deploying efficient net batch normalizations (BNs) for grading diabetic retinopathy severity levels from fundus images September 02, 2023 Scientific Reports - Volume 13, Issue 1, Article Number 14462
Techno-Economic Analysis of Vacuum Membrane Distillation for Seawater Desalination March 15, 2023 Membranes - Volume 13, Issue 3, Article Number 339
A Human-Following Motion Planning and Control Scheme for Collaborative Robots Based on Human Motion Prediction December 09, 2021 Sensors - Volume 21(24), Article Number 8229
A real-time motion planning scheme for collaborative robots using HRI-based cost function March 19, 2021 International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation - Volume 8, No.1, Pages 42-52
Collaborative Optimal Reciprocal Collision Avoidance for Mobile Robots June 01, 2015 International Journal of Control and Automation - Volume 8, No.8, Pages 203-212
Conferences
ConvoCrop Vision Language Model for Rice Disease Detection May 04, 2026 - May 05, 2026 Qurat ul Ain Fatima, Saad Hassan Butt, Muhammad Asfand e Yar, Anwar Iqbal, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, 2026 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Industry (ICRAI)
Optimizing Real-Time Visual Emotion Perception Using Influential Landmark-Based Spatial Feature Extraction for Edge Devices April 07, 2026 - April 09, 2026 Muhammad faisal Zia, Sara Baber Sial, Syed Hamza Gilani, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Anum Jaffar, Yasar Ayaz, Zaib Jahan, 2026 IEEE 15th International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies (CSNT)
A Multimodal Architecture for Real-Time Automated Attention Monitoring Using Computer Vision April 07, 2026 - April 09, 2026 Kainat , Sara Baber Sial, Anum Jaffar, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Syed Hamza Gilani, Yasar Ayaz, Zaib Jahan, 2026 IEEE 15th International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies (CSNT)
Weakly-Supervised Chromosome Segmentation via SAM and Uncertainty-Guided Pseudo-Labeling August 01, 2025 - August 03, 2025 Neelam Umbreen, Sara Baber Sial, Hasan Sajid, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Yasar Ayaz, Muhammad A. B. Fayyaz, Muhammad Baber Sial, 2025 10th International Conference on Biomedical Signal and Image Processing, ICBIP 2025
Working Fluid Selection for Biogas-Powered Organic Rankine Cycle-Vapor Compression Cycle April 16, 2025 - April 17, 2025 Muhammad Talha, Nawaf Mehmood Malik, Muhammad Tauseef Nasir, Waqas Khalid, Muhammad Safdar, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, 3rd International Conference on Modern Technologies in Mechanical & Materials Engineering (MTME2025)
Socio-Cultural Factors of Industrial Workers in Low-Middle Income Countries (LMIC): Pilot Study July 20, 2023 - July 24, 2023 Umer Asgher, Sara Ali, Yasar Ayaz, Sofia Scataglini, Salman Nazir, Usama Rashed, Ellie Abdi, Fahad Iqbal Khawaja, Redha Taiar, José Arzola-Ruiz, 14th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2023) and the Affiliated Conferences
Modeling and Control of Liquid Carrying Aerial Vehicle's Endurance and Performance Based on LQR And PID Control Strategies May 10, 2023 - May 12, 2023 Syed Muhammad Nashit Arshad, Yasar Ayaz, Sara Ali, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Noman Naseer, 2023 7th International Multi-Topic ICT Conference (IMTIC)
Human Robot Interaction: Identifying Resembling Emotions Using Dynamic Body Gestures of Robot February 22, 2023 - February 23, 2023 Sara Ali, Faisal Mehmood, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Yasar Ayaz, Muhammad Sajid, Muhammad Babar Sial, Muhammad Faiq Malik, Kashif Javed, 2023 3rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI)
Novel Approach for Sensing the Humanoid Hand Finger Position Using Non-contact TMR Sensor July 24, 2022 - July 28, 2022 Saeed Iqbal, Shahid Nawaz Khan, Muhammad Sajid, Sara Ali, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Umer Asgher, Yasar Ayaz, International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) 2022
Personality Prediction in Human-Robot-Interaction (HRI) July 24, 2022 - July 28, 2022 Anum Jaffer, Sara Ali, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Yasar Ayaz, Muhammad Sajid, Umer Asgher, International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) 2022
A Chain-Driven Live Roller Mechanism for Loading and Unloading Packages on Autonomous Mobile Robots in Warehouses July 24, 2022 - July 28, 2022 Muhamad Ammar, Muhammad Moeed Ahmed, Muhammad Abdullah Younas, Khezar Qayyum, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Sara Ali, Umer Asgher, Yasar Ayaz, International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) 2022
A Review on Different Approaches for Assessing Student Attentiveness in Classroom using Behavioural Elements March 30, 2022 - March 31, 2022 Kainat, Sara Ali, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Yasar Ayaz, Muhammad Sajid, 2022 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI)
Smooth Gait Generation for Quadrupedal Robots Based on Genetic Algorithm Optimization March 30, 2022 - March 31, 2022 Zainullah Khan, Farhat Naseer, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Sara Ali, Yasar Ayaz, Muhammad Sajid, 2022 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI)
An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System to Solve Perceptual Aliasing for Autonomous Mobile Robots January 25, 2022 - January 27, 2022 Syed Madiha Qamar, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Sara Ali, Ahmed Hussain Qureshi, Yasar Ayaz, Muhammad Naveed, Abdul Ghafoor Abbasi, 27th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics (AROB 2022)
Augmenting RRT* with Local Trees for Real Time Motion Planning in Complex Cluttered Environments November 20, 2014 - November 22, 2014 Ahmed Husain Qureshi, Saba Mumtaz, Abdul Ahad Ashfaque Sheikh, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Yasar Ayaz, Osman Hasan, 2014 19th International Conference on Methods and Models in Automation and Robotics (MMAR)
Centre of mass avoidance planner using radius of gyration for Reciprocal Velocity Obstacles April 22, 2014 - April 24, 2014 Shahwar Yaseen, Yasar Ayaz, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Naveed Muhammad, Syed Omer Gilani, Mohsin Jamil, Syed Irtiza Ali Shah, 2014 International Conference on Robotics and Emerging Allied Technologies in Engineering (iCREATE)
Triangular geometry based optimal motion planning using RRT*-motion planner March 14, 2014 - March 16, 2014 Ahmed Hussain Qureshi, Saba Mumtaz, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Yasar Ayaz, Mannan Saeed Muhammad, Osman Hasan, Whoi Yul Kim, Moonsoo Ra, 2014 IEEE 13th International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control (AMC)
Adaptive Potential guided directional-RRT December 12, 2013 - December 14, 2013 Ahmed Hussain Qureshi, Saba Mumtaz, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Badar Ali, Yasar Ayaz, Faizan Ahmed, Mannan Saeed Muhammad, Osman Hasan, Whoi Yul Kim, Moonsoo Ra, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO)
Human tracking by a mobile robot using 3D features December 12, 2013 - December 14, 2013 Badar Ali, Ahmed Hussain Qureshi, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Yasar Ayaz, Syed Omer Gilani, Mohsin Jamil, Naveed Muhammad, Faizan Ahmed, Mannan Saeed Muhammad, Whoi-Yul Kim, Moonsoo Ra, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO)
Potential guided directional-RRT* for fast optimal motion planning August 04, 2013 - August 07, 2013 Ahmed Hussain Qureshi, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Syeda Madiha Qamar, Fahad Islam, Yasar Ayaz, Naveed Muhammad, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation
Human detection and following by a mobile robot using 3D features August 04, 2013 - August 07, 2013 Badar Ali, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Yasar Ayaz, Muhammad Naveed, 22013 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation
A Solution to Perceptual Aliasing Through Probabilistic Fuzzy Logic and SIFT July 09, 2013 - July 12, 2013 Syed Madiha Qamar, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal , Ahmed Hussain Qureshi, Muhammad Naveed, Yasar Ayaz, Abdul Ghafoor Abbasi, 2013 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM)
Sparsed potential-PCNN for real time path planning and indoor navigation scheme for mobile robots August 07, 2011 - August 10, 2011 Syed Usman Ahmad, Khawaja Fahad Iqbal, Yasar Ayaz, Faraz Kunwar, IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation (ICMA)
Teaching Assistant EME College, NUST September 12, 2011 - February 24, 2012