$ whoami
Charles Shaju — Embedded Systems Engineer @ i4 Marine Technologies (Part-Time)
MCA Student, Rajagiri College of Social Science · Kalamassery, Cochin, Kerala
$ cat role.txt
I build the firmware and control systems behind autonomous marine vehicles and ROVs —
hardware that navigates open water with minimal human input. Real-time constraints,
harsh environments, and no room for bugs when your system is 2 km offshore.
$ cat work.log
→ Firmware for motor controllers and sensor arrays on autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs)
→ IoT telemetry pipelines streaming real-time data from marine hardware to shore dashboards
→ Pixhawk / ArduPilot integration for waypoint navigation and autonomous control
→ Edge AI exploration — deploying lightweight ML on embedded hardware for smarter autonomy
→ Patent holder in embedded systems innovation
$ cat side_projects.txt
Voice assistants · Chatbot interfaces · Experimental AI-IoT integrations (all on GitHub)Open to: Collaborations · Research Projects · Embedded / Robotics Engineering Roles
ESP32 · Pixhawk · ArduPilot · PlatformIO · FreeRTOS · I2C · SPI · UART · MQTT · PWM · ADC
| Domain | Proficiency | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Firmware & RTOS | ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ | Real-time firmware in C/C++, FreeRTOS task scheduling, interrupt-driven I/O, motor control |
| Autonomous Systems | ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜ | ArduPilot/Pixhawk stacks, waypoint navigation, ASV & ROV control architecture |
| IoT & Telemetry | ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜ | MQTT pipelines, sensor fusion, real-time data streaming to shore-side dashboards |
| Edge AI | ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜ | TFLite/ONNX on microcontrollers, on-device inference for marine robotics |
| Machine Learning | ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜ | TensorFlow intent classification, voice recognition, NLP pipelines |
| Embedded Security | ⬛⬛⬛⬜⬜ | Hardware-isolated execution, secure firmware update flows, OTA design |
Intelligent Voice Assistant
A TensorFlow-powered voice assistant that classifies natural language commands through a trained neural intent model and dispatches the appropriate action — fully offline, no cloud dependency.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Stack | Python · TensorFlow · neuralintents · SpeechRecognition · pyttsx3 |
| Scale | Extensible to arbitrary command vocabularies via retrainable intent datasets |
| Performance | Sub-second intent classification with real-time audio input processing |
| Security | Fully local inference — no data leaves the device |
| Impact | 3 GitHub stars · 1 fork · Foundation for AI-IoT hardware integrations |
| Repository | charles-shaju/Intelligent-Voice-Assistant |
A neural network trained on custom intent datasets maps spoken input to classified intent handlers. Architecture is modular — new commands are added without full retraining, making it a practical embedded AI building block.
Smart Altimeter (IoT)
A precision IoT altimeter with accurate Mean Sea Level altitude measurement, built for field deployment in embedded, aerial, and marine systems.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Stack | C/C++ · Barometric Pressure Sensor · ESP32 / Arduino · Serial Output |
| Scale | Field-deployable — ruggedized for outdoor and marine environments |
| Performance | Calibrated MSL calculation with noise filtering and sensor compensation |
| Security | Hardware-isolated, no network dependency, deterministic sensor reads |
| Impact | Applicable to UAVs, marine vehicles, and atmospheric monitoring systems |
| Repository | charles-shaju/Smart_Altimeter |
Implements barometric pressure-to-altitude conversion with custom calibration routines tuned for MSL accuracy. Designed under embedded constraints — minimal memory footprint, fast sampling, and stable behavior in harsh outdoor conditions.
OBM-IoT
Embedded IoT system in C++ targeting onboard marine hardware integration — developed as part of the autonomous marine vehicle engineering work at i4 Marine Technologies.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Stack | C++ · Embedded MCU · IoT Protocols · UART / I²C / SPI |
| Scale | Production-grade marine hardware deployment |
| Performance | Real-time sensor interfacing via interrupt-driven I/O with deterministic latency |
| Security | Hardware-isolated execution, minimal exposed attack surface |
| Impact | Directly powers autonomous marine vehicle onboard systems |
| Repository | charles-shaju/OBM-IoT |
Low-level C++ embedded system targeting marine sensor integration, motor feedback loops, and actuator control for autonomous surface vehicles operating in open-water environments with zero tolerance for runtime failure.
CNC Plotter
A fully functional 2-axis CNC pen plotter built from scratch — custom G-code interpreter, motion control, and stepper firmware all implemented in C++.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Stack | C++ · Arduino/AVR · Stepper Motor Drivers · Custom G-code Parser |
| Scale | Desktop 2-axis motion system with configurable work area |
| Performance | Smooth motion via custom acceleration profiles and step interpolation |
| Security | Isolated embedded execution, fully deterministic real-time control loop |
| Impact | End-to-end embedded mechatronics — from hardware wiring to final firmware |
| Repository | charles-shaju/CNC-Plotter |
G-code parser drives stepper motors through a custom firmware layer covering motion planning, step timing, and 2-axis coordination. A complete embedded systems project demonstrating hardware/firmware co-design from the ground up.
i4 Marine Technologies | Current
Designing and deploying firmware and control systems for autonomous marine vehicles and ROVs that operate in open-water environments with minimal human intervention.
- Writing production firmware in C/C++ for motor controllers, ESCs, and sensor arrays on autonomous surface vehicles
- Building MQTT-based IoT telemetry pipelines transmitting real-time sensor data to shore-side monitoring dashboards
- Integrating Pixhawk / ArduPilot stacks for autonomous waypoint navigation and dynamic mission control
- Investigating edge AI deployment — on-device inference on resource-constrained hardware for smarter marine autonomy
- Engineering under harsh-environment constraints — waterproofing, vibration tolerance, and fail-safe firmware design
C C++ Python ESP32 Raspberry Pi Pixhawk ArduPilot MQTT FreeRTOS IoT Firmware
| Recognition | Details |
|---|---|
| Patent Holder | Holds a patent for innovation in embedded systems hardware |
| Marine Robotics Engineer | Building production firmware for real-world ROVs and ASVs at i4 Marine |
| Open Source Builder | 24 public repositories across embedded systems, AI, and IoT |
| Dual Track | Professional embedded engineer while completing MCA at Rajagiri College |
| Edge AI Pioneer | Deploying AI inference on microcontrollers for autonomous marine systems |
# Current engineering focus — updated regularly
firmware:
- Autonomous navigation firmware for ASVs operating in open water
- Sensor fusion (IMU + GPS + depth) for robust marine positioning
edge_ai:
- TFLite model deployment on ESP32 and Raspberry Pi
- On-device inference for real-time marine environment perception
learning:
- ROS2 integration for marine robotics middleware
- Autonomous path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms
building:
- AI-IoT integrations — voice interfaces, chatbot hardware bridges
- Experimental embedded intelligence for autonomous systems
open_to:
- Embedded / Robotics Engineering Roles
- Autonomous Systems & Marine Tech Collaborations
- Edge AI Research Projects
- Open Source Hardware Contributions
"The most dangerous software is the kind that has to work the first time — I write firmware for machines in the middle of the ocean."