Pragna Mannam

PhD in Robotics @CMU. Previously ECE @CMU.

Pragna is passionate about developing robotic systems that intelligently interact with their environment. With over 10 years of expertise in robotics, she is a highly experienced researcher specializing in various aspects of robotic manipulation, including control, machine learning, sim-to-real, and sensing. Her work encompasses industrial robotic arm systems such as ABB, UR5, Falcon, Franka, and Xarm7. Pragna has a strong track record in the field, earning recognition as a Best Paper Finalist and Best Demo Finalist, and presenting her research at prestigious conferences like CORL, ICRA, RSS, IROS, ISER, RoboSoft, and Humanoids.

To know more about her, you can check out her CV.

Research

Theses

• PhD Thesis: Design Iteration of Dexterous Compliant Robotic Manipulators
  Pragna Mannam
  CMU Robotics Institute 2024 pdf | video
  

• Master’s Thesis: Model-free Sensorless Manipulation
  Pragna Mannam
  CMU Robotics Institute 2019 pdf
  

Conference Publications

• Design and Control Co-Optimization for Automated Design Iteration of Dexterous Anthropomorphic Soft Robotic Hands
  Pragna Mannam, Xingyu Liu, Ding Zhao, Jean Oh, Nancy Pollard
  RoboSoft 2024
  Best Demo Finalist
  arxiv | poster
  
  
  
  

• DEFT: Dexterous Fine-Tuning for Hand Policies
  Aditya Kannan, Kenneth Shaw, Shikhar Bahl, Pragna Mannam, Deepak Pathak
  CoRL 2023
  arxiv | website | poster
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Designing Anthropomorphic Soft Hands through Interaction
  Pragna Mannam, Kenneth Shaw, Dominik Bauer, Jean Oh, Deepak Pathak, Nancy Pollard
  Humanoids 2023
  Best Oral Paper Finalist
  arxiv | website | media feature
  
  
  
  

• DeltaZ: An Accessible Compliant Delta Robot Manipulator for Research and Education
  Sarvesh Patil, Samuel C. Alvares, Pragna Mannam, Oliver Kroemer, F. Zeynep Temel
  IROS 2022
  arxiv
  
  
  
  

• A Low-Cost Compliant Gripper Using Cooperative Mini-Delta Robots for Dexterous Manipulation
  Pragna Mannam, Avi Rudich, Kevin Zhang, Manuela Veloso, Oliver Kroemer, F. Zeynep Temel
  RSS 2021
  pdf | website
  
  
  
  

• Towards Robust Planar Translations using Delta-manipulator Arrays
  Skye Thompson, Pragna Mannam, F. Zeynep Temel, Oliver Kroemer
  ICRA 2021
  pdf
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Characterization of Compliant Parallelogram Links for 3D-Printed Delta Manipulators
  Pragna Mannam, Oliver Kroemer, F. Zeynep Temel
  ISER 2020
  pdf
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Sensorless Pose Determination Using Randomized Action Sequences
  Pragna Mannam, Alexander Volkov, Jr., Robert Paolini, Gregory Chirikjian, Matthew T. Mason
  Entropy 2019
  pdf | WQED feature
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Workshop Publications

• DEFT: Dexterous Fine-Tuning for Hand Policies
  Aditya Kannan, Kenneth Shaw, Shikhar Bahl, Pragna Mannam, Deepak Pathak
  Towards Generalist Robots Workshop at CoRL 2023
  Poster Presentation
  

• Sensorless Pose Determination Using Randomized Action Sequences
  Pragna Mannam, Alexander Volkov, Jr., Robert Paolini, Gregory Chirikjian, Matthew T. Mason
  Manipulation Intelligence Workshop at IROS 2018.
  Oral and Poster Presentation