Leveraging Vision, Compliance, and Learning for Robust Robotic Manipulation in Unstructured Environments

Title: Leveraging Vision, Compliance, and Learning for Robust Robotic Manipulation in Unstructured Environments
Speaker: Berk Çallı (Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI))
Time/Date: 11:00 / 10.04.2026
Location: VYKM-2 Seminar Room, 5th Floor, Faculty of Engineering, South Campus

Abstract: Robotic manipulation is essential for enabling robots to operate in unstructured environments. This talk begins with environmental robotics applications such as ship breaking and recycling sorting, where real-world complexity demands interdisciplinary approaches that integrate robotics, domain knowledge, and system-level design. These applications expose key challenges in perception and physical interaction. Motivated by these challenges, the talk then focuses on fundamental problems in robotic manipulation, particularly grasping and vision-based control, highlighting how tighter integration of mechanism design, perception and control can improve robustness and adaptability.

Bio: Berk Calli is an Associate Professor in the Robotics Engineering Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where he leads the Manipulation and Environmental Robotics (MER) Laboratory. His research focuses on addressing environmental challenges through robotics, alongside fundamental problems in robotic manipulation. His work spans robotic grasping, in-hand manipulation, soft robot control, robot learning, and active vision strategies. He received the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2024. He is a lead organizer of the Climate Robotics Summit, the COMPARE community ecosystem, and the ICRA Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Competition. Prior to joining WPI, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale University GRAB Lab. He received his PhD from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and his MS and BS degrees in Mechatronics Engineering from Sabancı University, Turkey.