Robotics: Perception and Manipulation (RPM) Lab

Welcome to the Robotics: Perception and Manipulation (RPM) Lab at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.

We focus on addressing the fundamental question of “What should/does/can a physical object in our environment mean to a robot?” thus leading to the following research questions.

  • How can a robot perceive and reason about objects in the human environment?
  • How can a robot interact with these objects?
  • How can a robot compose its interactive skills into performing meaningful tasks?
  • How can a robot learn to do all of the above toward seamless interaction and task execution?

We are interested in application domains (healthcare, climate change, agriculture, etc.) where our research solutions can make a huge impact.

We are looking for passionate new students to join the team (more info) !

News

10. Feb 2023

Karthik gave a talk titled - Perception for General-purpose Robot Manipulation, in the New Faculty Highlights session at the AAAI-23 Conference in Washington, DC.

24. Jan 2023

Congratulations to Ryan Diaz, for being awarded with the Undergraduate Research Scholarship (URS)!

20. Jan 2023

Karthik and Prof. Kang receive MnRI Seed Grant for conducting research at the intersection of language and robot manipulation.

20. Jan 2023

Karthik receives MnDRIVE UMII Seed Grant for the research on sensing, perceiving and manipulating recyclable objects.

06. Jan 2023

RPM Lab’s research is featured in the MnRI newsletter.

30. Nov 2022

Spot Robot from Boston Dynamics arrived. Here is the blurb and the unboxing video.

... see all News