SAR is a student-led, faculty-advised engineering organization at Michigan State University. We operate like a production robotics team: documented, measured, and accountable for what we ship.
Every controller, gait, and perception module lives first in simulation. We train policies in Isaac Lab, validate across domain-randomized scenes, then transfer to real hardware with measurable loss budgets. Nothing goes to the field without a simulated baseline.
We enforce strict documentation, code review, and multi-disciplinary sprint cycles. Every repository is public. Every commit is traceable. Every member — local or remote — is tracked on a Public Progress Dashboard. Favoritism isn't a process here.
Dr. Tan holds one of MSU's highest research designations. His mentorship anchors SAR's research credibility and provides a direct line to the College of Engineering's autonomous systems faculty. Partner organizations engage SAR with the confidence that the lab operates under sustained faculty oversight.
Headquartered in Michigan's engineering corridor, SAR sits at the convergence of automotive, aerospace, and defense pipelines. Our graduates move directly into roles at companies that require project-hardened engineers — not career-fair résumés. This geographic density is a recruiting asset our partners leverage from day one.