Research Assistant

Arghya Chatterjee is a Ph.D. student in Intelligent Systems and Robotics at UWF and Graduate Research Assistant at IHMC advised by Dr. Robert Griffin. He has completed his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from BUET, Bangladesh. He works at the intersection of AI, robotic perception, and autonomy, with a focus on applying foundation models (e.g., Vision-Language Models (VLM)) to humanoids for manipulation, navigation, and collaboration in cluttered real-world environments. His research areas for humanoids include:

• Foundation Models for Object Detection & Pose Estimation
• Physics Engine, Diff. Sim, Rendering of Objects & Robots
• Learning driven Dexterous Object Manipulation
• Hierarchical Task and Motion Planning for Manipulation
• SLAM & Scene Graph for Manipulation & Navigation

At IHMC, he works on advancing both model-based and model-free approaches for humanoid manipulation using Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, and developing scene knowledge graphs to enable active navigation for autonomous interactive manipulation, indoor building exploration, and outdoor terrestrial as well as space exploration missions.

Before joining IHMC, Arghya worked on the DARPA SubT Challenge with NASA JPL, developing SLAM, object detection, and multi-robot exploration systems for legged, wheeled, and aerial robots in complex underground and industrial environments. During his PhD, he interned at NASA JPL, contributing to the DARPA RACER Challenge on augmenting perception sensors for faster traversability estimation and long-horizon planning in an off-road setting with high-speed autonomous rovers for the US Army.

His hobbies include gardening, swimming, singing, traveling, and YouTubing.