RI Seminar

Abstract: Enthusiasm has been skyrocketing for humanoids based on recent advances in "end-to-end" large robot action models. Initial results are promising, and several collaborative efforts are underway to collect the needed demonstration data. But is data really all you need? Although end-to-end Large Vision, Language, Action (VLA) Models have potential to generalize and reliably solve [...]

Abstract: Dexterous tool manipulation is a dance between tool motion, deformation, and force transmission choreographed by the robot's end-effector. Take for example the use of a spatula. How should the robot reason jointly over the tool’s geometry and forces imparted to the environment through vision and touch? In this talk, I will present our recent [...]

Abstract: Robots are expected to execute increasingly complex tasks in increasingly complex and a priori unknown environments. A key prerequisite is the ability to understand the geometry and semantics of the environment in real time from sensor observations. This talk will present techniques for learning metric-semantic environment models from RGB and depth observations. Specific examples include [...]

Abstract: When will robots be able to clean my house, dishes, and take care of laundry? While we source labor primarily from automated machines in factories, the penetration of physical robots in our daily lives has been slow. What are the challenges in realizing these intelligent machines capable of human level skill? Isn’t AI advanced [...]