IRIM Fall 2025 Seminar | Force Intelligence: The Missing Piece in Building Useful Robots

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss how a force-centric view of building robotic systems, in contrast to the currently dominant position-centric view, leads to robots that are faster, more reliable, and more ready for real-world deployment. I will illustrate my viewpoint with the help of examples spanning legged locomotion and dexterous manipulation. Lastly, I will touch upon our recent progress in building systems that continue learning during deployment instead of only learning during training. 

Bio: Pulkit Agrawal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He earned his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and co-founded Eka Robotics Inc., and SafelyYou Inc. Pulkit completed his bachelor’s from IIT Kanpur and was awarded the Director’s Gold Medal. His work has received multiple Best Paper Awards, the IEEE Early Career Award in Robotics and Automation, the IIT Kanpur Young Alumnus Award, the Sony Faculty Research Award, the Salesforce Research Award, the Amazon Research Award, the Signatures Fellow Award, the Fulbright Science and Technology Award, and others.