Ryan Diaz Earns CRA Honorable Mention for Work with Robotic Manipulation Tasks

Department of Computer Science & Engineering undergraduate Ryan Diaz earned an honorable mention for the 2024-25 Computing Research Association’s (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award for his work in robotic manipulation tasks. Diaz’s research allowed for more robotic assistance in unstructured environments, making them more robust to the possible variations that can arise in a household.

Multisensory robot manipulation deals with systems that use image information to complete tasks, using multi-camera setups to input data. Diaz’s objective is to equip robots with additional types of sensors, such as tactile sensors, or contact microphones for audio, to be able to enhance their perception of the world. 

Diaz’s work was inspired by a previous project with Professor Karthik Desingh. The project explored an image-only based pipeline, which involved looking at tasks performed by a dual arm robot holding two cubes. This project mirrored household tasks, such as picking up and screwing a cap onto a water bottle. Diaz found that this task could only be completed some of the time, concluding that an image-only or camera-based setup was not enough to achieve the precision needed to complete the task.

“That project is what led me down the rabbit hole of multi-sensory manipulation and expanding the perceptual abilities of a robot beyond just vision by adding in touch and hearing,” said Diaz.

Diaz credits Professor Desingh and Professor Maria Gini, as well as the members of the Robotics: Perception and Manipulation Lab as his inspiration to work on his own projects and stay involved with robotics research. His work would not be possible without his mentors and advisor, as well as the financial support from the University of Minnesota. Diaz has earned an Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the U of M and participates in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. 

Diaz's ultimate research goal is to deploy robots in household environments and have them help people with everyday tasks, or aid individuals that struggle to perform daily tasks, including folks in assisted living or elderly care. His next steps are to continue developing these systems and integrating more types of sensors, and eventually doing real world deployments of these systems in actual household environments. 

“It feels really good to be recognized for the work that I’ve done and all the effort that I’ve put into my work,” said Diaz. “It sort of serves to inspire me as I go on to graduate school.”

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