Helping Hands

Research

We develop perception, planning, and control algorithms for robot manipulation, with a focus on symmetry and equivariance in robot learning.

Publications

78 papers, newest first. Lab members in bold.

  1. Pix2Act: Image-Space Manipulation Policies with Equivariant Augmentation

    Haojie Huang, Linfeng Zhao, Haotian Liu, Zhang Ye, Si-Yuan Huang, Mingxi Jia, Boce Hu, Fangzhou Lin, Yu Qi, Dian Wang, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    Preprint

    WebsitePDF

  2. Action Map Policy: Learning 3D Closed-loop Manipulation via Pixel Classification

    Haojie Huang, Zhang Ye, Linfeng Zhao, Boce Hu, Mingxi Jia, Yu Qi, Ahmed Agha, Dian Wang, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    Preprint

    WebsitePDF

  3. RAVEN: End-to-end Equivariant Robot Learning with RGB Cameras

    David Klee*, Boce Hu*, Andrew Cole, Heng Tian, Dian Wang, Robert Platt†, Robin Walters†

    ICLR 2026

    WebsitePDF

  4. EquAct: An SE(3)-Equivariant Multi-Task Transformer for 3D Robotic Manipulation

    Xupeng Zhu, Yu Qi, Yizhe Zhu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    ICLR 2026

    PDF

  5. Residual Rotation Correction using Tactile Equivariance

    Yizhe Zhu, Zhang Ye, Boce Hu, Haibo Zhao, Yu Qi, Dian Wang†, Robert Platt†

    RAL 2026

    WebsitePDF

  6. Equivariant Diffusion Policy for Sample-Efficient Robotic Manipulation

    Dian Wang, Stephen Hart, David Surovik, Tarik Kelestemur, Haojie Huang, Haibo Zhao, Mark Yeatman, Xupeng Zhu, Boce Hu, Mingxi Jia, Jiuguang Wang, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    IJRR 2026

    PDF

  7. Generalizable Hierarchical Skill Learning via Object-Centric Representation

    Haibo Zhao, Yu Qi, Boce Hu, Yizhe Zhu, Ziyan Chen, Xupeng Zhu, Owen Howell, Haojie Huang, Robin Walters, Dian Wang†, Robert Platt†

    RAL 2026

    WebsitePDF

  8. 3D Equivariant Visuomotor Policy Learning via Spherical Projection

    Boce Hu, Dian Wang, David Klee, Heng Tian, Xupeng Zhu, Haojie Huang, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    NeurIPS 2025Spotlight

    WebsitePDF

  9. A Practical Guide for Incorporating Symmetry in Diffusion Policy

    Dian Wang, Boce Hu, Shuran Song, Robin Walters†, Robert Platt†

    NeurIPS 2025

    WebsitePDF

  10. Bridging Equivariant GNNs and Spherical CNNs for Structured Physical Domains

    Colin Kohler, Purvik Patel, Nathan Vaska, Justin Goodwin, Matthew Jones, Robert Platt, Rajmonda Caceres, Robin Walters

    NeurIPS 2025

    PDF

  11. Clebsch-Gordan Transformer: Fast and Global Equivariant Attention

    Owen Lewis Howell, Linfeng Zhao, Xupeng Zhu, Yaoyao Qian, Haojie Huang, Lingfeng Sun, Wil Thomason, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    Preprint

    PDF

  12. Equivariant Goal Conditioned Contrastive Reinforcement Learning

    Arsh Tangri, Nichols Crawford Taylor, Haojie Huang, Robert Platt

    Preprint

    PDF

  13. Hierarchical Equivariant Policy via Frame Transfer

    Haibo Zhao*, Dian Wang*, Yizhe Zhu, Xupeng Zhu, Owen Howell, Linfeng Zhao, Yaoyao Qian, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    ICML 2025

    WebsitePDF

  14. Leveraging Fully-Observable Solutions for Improved Partially-Observable Offline Reinforcement Learning

    Chulabhaya Wijesundara, Andrea Baisero, Gregory David Castanon, Alan S Carlin, Robert Platt, Christopher Amato

    TMLR 2025

    PDF

  15. Push-Grasp Policy Learning Using Equivariant Models and Grasp Score Optimization

    Boce Hu*, Heng Tian*, Dian Wang, Haojie Huang, Xupeng Zhu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    RAL 2025

    WebsitePDF

  16. Learning Efficient and Robust Language-conditioned Manipulation using Textual-Visual Relevancy and Equivariant Language Mapping

    Mingxi Jia, Haojie Huang, Zhewen Zhang, Chenghao Wang, Linfeng Zhao, Dian Wang, Jason Xinyu Liu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt, Stefanie Tellex

    RAL 2025Best Paper Award Honorable Mention

    WebsitePDF

  17. On-Robot Reinforcement Learning with Goal-Contrastive Rewards

    Ondrej Biza, Thomas Weng, Lingfeng Sun, Karl Schmeckpeper, Tarik Kelestemur, Yecheng Jason Ma, Robert Platt, Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lawson L. S. Wong

    ICRA 2025

    PDF

  18. Coarse-to-Fine 3D Keyframe Transporter

    Xupeng Zhu, David Klee*, Dian Wang*, Boce Hu, Haojie Huang, Arsh Tangri, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    Preprint

    PDF

  19. MATCH POLICY: A Simple Pipeline from Point Cloud Registration to Manipulation Policies

    Haojie Huang, Haotian Liu, Dian Wang, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    ICRA 2025

    PDFCodeVideoWebsite

  20. OrbitGrasp: SE(3)-Equivariant Grasp Learning

    Boce Hu, Xupeng Zhu, Dian Wang, Zihao Dong, Haojie Huang, Chenghao Wang, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    CoRL 2024

    PDFCodeVideoWebsite

  21. ThinkGrasp: A Vision-Language System for Strategic Part Grasping in Clutter

    Yaoyao(Freax) Qian, Xupeng Zhu, Ondrej Biza, Shuo Jiang, Linfeng Zhao, Haojie Huang, Yu Qi, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2024

    PDFWebsite

  22. Equivariant Diffusion Policy

    Dian Wang, Stephen Hart, David Surovik, Tarik Kelestemur, Haojie Huang, Haibo Zhao, Mark Yeatman, Jiuguang Wang, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2024Outstanding Paper Award Finalist

    PDFWebsite

  23. Leveraging Mutual Information for Asymmetric Learning under Partial Observability

    Hai Huu Nguyen, Christopher Amato, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2024

    WebsitePDF

  24. IMAGINATION POLICY: Using Generative Point Cloud Models for Learning Manipulation Policies

    Haojie Huang, Karl Schmeckpeper, Dian Wang, Ondrej Biza, Yaoyao Qian, Haotian Liu, Mingxi Jia, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    CoRL 2024

    PDFCodeVideoWebsite

  25. Equivariant Offline Reinforcement Learning

    Arsh Tangri, Ondrej Biza, Dian Wang, David Klee, Owen Howell, Robert Platt

    Preprint

    PDF

  26. Symmetric Models for Visual Force Policy Learning

    Colin Kohler, Anuj Shrivatsav Srikanth, Eshan Arora, Robert Platt

    ICRA 2024

    PDF

  27. Fourier Transporter: Bi-Equivariant Robotic Manipulation in 3D

    Haojie Huang, Owen Howell, Dian Wang, Xupeng Zhu, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    ICLR 2024

    PDFCodeVideoWebsite

  28. Leveraging Symmetries in Pick and Place

    Haojie Huang, Dian Wang, Arshi Tangri, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    IJRR 2024

    PDFCode

  29. A General Theory of Correct, Incorrect, and Extrinsic Equivariance

    Dian Wang, Xupeng Zhu, Jung Yeon Park, Mingxi Jia, Guanang Su, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    NeurIPS 2023

    PDF

  30. One-shot Imitation Learning via Interaction Warping

    Ondrej Biza, Skye Thompson, Kishore Reddy Pagidi, Abhinav Kumar, Elise van der Pol, Robin Walters, Thomas Kipf, Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lawson L.S. Wong, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2023

    PDFCode

  31. Invariant Slot Attention: Object Discovery with Slot-Centric Reference Frames

    Ondrej Biza, Sjoerd van Steenkiste, Mehdi S. M. Sajjadi, Gamaleldin F. Elsayed, Aravindh Mahendran, Thomas Kipf

    ICML 2023

    PDFCode

  32. Equivariant Reinforcement Learning under Partial Observability

    Hai Nguyen, Andrea Baisero, David Klee, Dian Wang, Robert Platt, Christopher Amato

    CoRL 2023

    PDFCodeWebsite

  33. On Robot Grasp Learning Using Equivariant Models

    Xupeng Zhu, Dian Wang, Guanang Su, Ondrej Biza, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    Autonomous Robots

    PDFCodeWebsite

  34. The Surprising Effectiveness of Equivariant Models in Domains with Latent Symmetry

    Dian Wang, Jung Yeon Park, Neel Sortur, Lawson L.S. Wong, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    ICLR 2023

    PDFVideoWebsiteTalk

  35. Image to Sphere: Learning Equivariant Features for Efficient Pose Prediction

    David Klee, Ondrej Biza, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    ICLR 2023

    PDFWebsite

  36. SEIL: Simulation-augmented Equivariant Imitation Learning

    Mingxi Jia*, Dian Wang*, Guanang Su, David Klee, Xupeng Zhu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    ICRA 2023

    PDFVideoWebsite

  37. Edge Grasp Network: A Graph-Based SE(3)-invariant Approach to Grasp Detection

    Haojie Huang, Dian Wang, Xupeng Zhu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    ICRA 2023

    PDFCodeVideoPosterWebsite

  38. On-Robot Learning With Equivariant Models

    Dian Wang, Mingxi Jia, Xupeng Zhu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2022

    PDFVideoWebsite

  39. Image to Icosahedral Projection for SO(3) Object Reasoning from Single-View Images

    David Klee, Ondrej Biza, Robert Platt, Robin Walters

    PMLR

    PDFWebsite

  40. Grasp Learning: Models, Methods, and Performance

    Robert Platt

    Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, Vol 6

    PDF

  41. BulletArm: An Open-Source Robotic Manipulation Benchmark and Learning Framework

    Dian Wang, Colin Kohler, Xupeng Zhu, Mingxi Jia, Robert Platt

    ISRR 2022

    PDFCodeWebsite

  42. Leveraging Fully Observable Policies for Learning under Partial Observability

    Hai Nguyen, Andrea Baisero, Dian Wang, Christopher Amato, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2022

    PDFCodeWebsite

  43. Learning Symmetric Embeddings for Equivariant World Models

    Jung Yeon Park, Ondrej Biza, Linfeng Zhao, Jan Willem van de Meent, Robin Walters

    ICML 2022

    PDFCode

  44. Visual Foresight With a Local Dynamics Model

    Colin Kohler, Robert Platt

    ISRR 2022

    PDFCodeWebsite

  45. Understanding the Mechanism behind Data Augmentation's Success on Image Based RL

    David Klee, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    RLDM 2022

    PDFPoster

  46. Graph-Structured Policy Learning for Multi-Goal Manipulation Tasks

    David Klee, Ondrej Biza, Robert Platt

    IROS 2022

    PDFWebsite

  47. Binding Actions to Objects in World Models

    Ondrej Biza, Robert Platt, Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lawson L. S. Wong, Thomas Kipf

    ICLR 2022 WOSC

    PDFCode

  48. SO(2) Equivariant Reinforcement Learning

    Dian Wang, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    ICLR 2022

    PDFCodeVideoWebsite

  49. Equivariant Transporter Network

    Haojie Huang, Dian Wang, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    RSS 2022

    PDFCodeWebsite

  50. Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning under Mixed Observability

    Hai Nguyen, Zhihan Yang, Andrea Baisero, Xiao Ma, Robert Platt, Christopher Amato

    WAFR 2022

    PDFWebsite

  51. Sample Efficient Grasp Learning Using Equivariant Models

    Xupeng Zhu, Dian Wang, Ondrej Biza, Guanang Su, Robin Walters, Robert Platt

    RSS 2022

    PDFCodeWebsite

  52. Binding Actions to Objects in World Models

    Ondrej Biza, Thomas Kipf, David Klee, Robert Platt, Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lawson L. S. Wong

    Preprint

    PDF

  53. Tactile Pose Estimation and Policy Learning for Unknown Object Manipulation

    Tarik Kelestemur, Robert Platt, Taskin Padir

    AAMAS 2022

    PDFWebsite

  54. Policy Learning for Visually Conditioned Tactile Manipulation

    Tarik Kelestemur, Taskin Padir, Robert Platt

    IROS 2021

    PDFVideoWebsite

  55. Equivariant Q Learning in Spatial Action Spaces

    Dian Wang, Robin Walters, Xupeng Zhu, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2021

    PDFCodeVideoPosterWebsite

  56. GASCN: Graph Attention Shape Completion Network

    Haojie Huang, Ziyi Yang, Robert Platt

    3DV 2021

    PDF

  57. Design Guidelines for Human-Robot Interaction with Assistive Robot Manipulation Systems

    Alexander Wilkinson, Michael Gonzales, Patrick Hoey, David Kontak, Dian Wang, Noah Torname, Amelia Sinclaire, Zhao Han, Jordan Allspaw, Robert Platt, Holly Yanco

    Paladyn

    PDF

  58. Deep Transformer Q-Networks for Partially Observable Reinforcement Learning

    Kevin Esslinger, Robert Platt, Christopher Amato

    Preprint

    PDFCode

  59. Robotic Pick-and-Place With Uncertain Object Instance Segmentation and Shape Completion

    Marcus Gualtieri, Robert Platt

    RA-L

    PDFCodeVideoSupplementary Results

  60. Action Priors for Large Action Spaces in Robotics

    Ondrej Biza, Dian Wang, Robert Platt, Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lawson L. S. Wong

    AAMAS 2021

    PDFCode

  61. Efficient and Accurate Candidate Generation for Grasp Pose Detection in SE(3)

    Andreas ten Pas, Colin Keil, Robert Platt

    IROS 2021

    PDF

  62. Learning Discrete State Abstractions With Deep Variational Inference

    Ondrej Biza, Robert Platt, Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lawson L. S. Wong

    AABI 2021

    PDFCode

  63. Learning bayes filter models for tactile localization

    Tarik Kelestemur, Colin Keil, John P Whitney, Robert Platt, Taskin Padir

    IROS 2020

    PDF

  64. Policy learning in SE(3) action spaces

    Dian Wang, Colin Kohler, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2020

    PDFCodeVideoWebsiteTalk

  65. Belief-Grounded Networks for Accelerated Robot Learning under Partial Observability

    Hai Nguyen, Brett Daley, Xinchao Song, Christopher Amato, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2020

    PDFCodeWebsite

  66. Learning Manipulation Skills Via Hierarchical Spatial Attention

    Marcus Gualtieri, Robert Platt

    T-RO

    PDFCodeVideo

  67. Towards Assistive Robotic Pick and Place in Open World Environments

    Dian Wang, Colin Kohler, Andreas ten Pas, Maozhi Liu, Holly Yanco, Alexander Wilkinson, Robert Platt

    ISRR 2019

    PDFVideoWebsite

  68. Learning 6-DoF Grasping and Pick-Place Using Attention Focus

    Robert Platt, Colin Kohler, Marcus Gualtieri

    AAAI 2019

    PDFVideo

  69. Online Abstraction with MDP Homomorphisms for Deep Learning

    Ondrej Biza, Robert Platt

    AAMAS 2019

    PDFCode

  70. Learning 6-DoF Grasping and Pick-Place Using Attention Focus

    Marcus Gualtieri, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2018

    PDFCodeVideoSlides

  71. Pick and Place Without Geometric Object Models

    Marcus Gualtieri, Andreas ten Pas, Robert Platt

    ICRA 2018

    PDFVideo

  72. Learning a visuomotor controller for real world robotic grasping using simulated depth images

    Ulrich Viereck, Andreas ten Pas, Kate Saenko, Robert Platt

    CoRL 2017

    PDFVideo

  73. Grasp Pose Detection in Point Clouds

    Andreas ten Pas, Marcus Gualtieri, Kate Saenko, Robert Platt

    IJRR

    PDFCodeUR5 VideoBaxter Video

  74. Open World Assistive Grasping Using Laser Selection

    Marcus Gualtieri, James Kuczynski, Abraham M. Shultz, Andreas ten Pas, Robert Platt

    ICRA 2017

    PDFVideo

  75. Viewpoint Selection for Grasp Detection

    Marcus Gualtieri, Robert Platt

    IROS 2017

    PDFVideo

  76. High precision grasp pose detection in dense clutter

    Marcus Gualtieri, Andreas ten Pas, Kate Saenko, Robert Platt

    IROS 2016

    PDFCodeUR5 VideoBaxter Video

  77. Using Geometry to Detect Grasp Poses in 3D Point Clouds.

    Andreas ten Pas, Robert Platt

    ISRR 2015

    PDFVideoROS

  78. Localizing Handle-Like Grasp Affordances in 3D Point Clouds

    Andreas ten Pas, Robert Platt

    ISER 2014

    PDFROSBaxter VideoRobonaut Video

Code

Talks & Videos

Workshop on Symmetries in Robot LearningRSS 2023
Equivariant Learning for Robotic ManipulationGuest lecture by Dian Wang