Nicholas  Pfaff

Nicholas Pfaff

Scholar Title

Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scholar

Research Title

Real2Sim

Cohort

2022–2023

Department

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Research Areas
  • Robotics
Supervisor

Russell L. Tedrake

Abstract

This project will focus on finding novel state representations for deformable objects and using these representations to improve downstream manipulation performance. The initial focus will be on a selection of fruit and vegetable items that must be prepared for cooking. Such state representations should have desirable properties, including being entirely obtained through vision, being task-agnostic, and being fully learned through self-supervision. These representations should also be efficient with respect to the information required for achieving manipulation tasks; preparing a salad does not require detailed information about the state of each of its leaves. Can we obtain both efficient and task-agnostic representations?

Quote

Through this SuperUROP, I want to gain research experience to balance the industrial experience I acquired from my past internships. I spent nine months working on robotic manipulation at Ocado Technology and am excited to help advance the field through research. I hope to expand my robotic manipulation knowledge, gain research experience for my future PhD, and publish a paper on my research.

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