Robert Platt

Perception, planning, and control for robotic manipulation

PhD in Computer Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Robert Platt is an associate professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Boston. He is also affiliated with the College of Engineering.

Platt's work primarily focuses on perception, planning, and control for robotic manipulation, with the goal of enabling robots to perform manipulation tasks in the context of real-world perceptual uncertainties. This area of study is essential to performing robotic assembly or repair tasks, or simply grasping and lifting objects in everyday environments. Platt expects robust robotic manipulation will have a range of future applications in the home, health care, manufacturing, hazardous environments, and the military.

Before joining Northeastern, Platt was a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a robotics engineer at NASA.

Published: September 2, 2025
On-Robot Reinforcement Learning with Goal-Contrastive Rewards

Citation: Ondrej Biza, Thomas Weng, Lingfeng Sun, Karl Schmeckpeper, Tarik Kelestemur, Yecheng Jason Ma, Robert Platt , Jan-Willem van de Meent, Lawson L. S. Wong. (2025). On-Robot Reinforcement Learning with Goal-Contrastive Rewards ICRA, 4797-4805. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA55743.2025.11128466
Published: September 2, 2025
Match Policy: A Simple Pipeline from Point Cloud Registration to Manipulation Policies

Citation: Haojie Huang, Haotian Liu, Dian Wang , Robin Walters , Robert Platt . (2025). Match Policy: A Simple Pipeline from Point Cloud Registration to Manipulation Policies ICRA, 16907-16914. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA55743.2025.11128725
Published: July 23, 2025
Hierarchical Equivariant Policy via Frame Transfer

Citation: Haibo Zhao, Dian Wang , Yizhe Zhu, Xupeng Zhu, Owen Lewis Howell, Linfeng Zhao, Yaoyao Qian, Robin Walters , Robert Platt . (2025). Hierarchical Equivariant Policy via Frame Transfer ICML. https://openreview.net/forum?id=nAv5ketrHq
Published: August 8, 2024
Symmetric Models for Visual Force Policy Learning

Citation: Colin Kohler, Anuj Shrivatsav Srikanth, Eshan Arora, Robert Platt . (2024). Symmetric Models for Visual Force Policy Learning ICRA, 3101-3107. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA57147.2024.10610728
Published: January 16, 2024
Fourier Transporter: Bi-Equivariant Robotic Manipulation in 3D

Citation: Haojie Huang, Owen Howell, Dian Wang , Xupeng Zhu, Robert Platt , Robin Walters . (2024). Fourier Transporter: Bi-Equivariant Robotic Manipulation in 3D ICLR. https://openreview.net/forum?id=UulwvAU1W0
Published: July 4, 2023
SEIL: Simulation-augmented Equivariant Imitation Learning

Citation: Mingxi Jia, Dian Wang , Guanang Su, David Klee, Xupeng Zhu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt. (2023). SEIL: Simulation-augmented Equivariant Imitation Learning ICRA, 1845-1851. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161252
Published: July 4, 2023
Edge Grasp Network: A Graph-Based SE(3)-invariant Approach to Grasp Detection

Citation: Haojie Huang, Dian Wang , Xupeng Zhu, Robin Walters, Robert Platt. (2023). Edge Grasp Network: A Graph-Based SE(3)-invariant Approach to Grasp Detection ICRA, 3882-3888. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160728
Published: February 27, 2023
Image to Sphere: Learning Equivariant Features for Efficient Pose Prediction

Citation: David Klee, Ondrej Biza, Robert Platt, Robin Walters. (2023). Image to Sphere: Learning Equivariant Features for Efficient Pose Prediction ICLR. https://openreview.net/pdf?id=_2bDpAtr7PI
Published: November 16, 2022
The Surprising Effectiveness of Equivariant Models in Domains with Latent Symmetry

Citation: Dian Wang , Jung Yeon Park, Neel Sortur, Lawson L. S. Wong, Robin Walters, Robert Platt. (2023). The Surprising Effectiveness of Equivariant Models in Domains with Latent Symmetry ICLR. https://openreview.net/pdf?id=P4MUGRM4Acu
Published: July 1, 2022
Sample Efficient Grasp Learning Using Equivariant Models

Citation: Xupeng Zhu, Dian Wang , Ondrej Biza, Guanang Su, Robin Walters, Robert Platt. (2022). Sample Efficient Grasp Learning Using Equivariant Models Robotics: Science and Systems. https://doi.org/10.15607/RSS.2022.XVIII.071
Published: July 1, 2022
Equivariant Transporter Network

Citation: Haojie Huang, Dian Wang , Robin Walters, Robert Platt. (2022). Equivariant Transporter Network Robotics: Science and Systems. https://doi.org/10.15607/RSS.2022.XVIII.007