Vihaan Misra

Vihaan Misra

PhD Student in Robotics | Carnegie Mellon University

I am a second-year PhD student in Robotics at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in the Bot-Intelligence Group. I completed my Master's in Robotics at CMU in August 2025 with my thesis on Natural Language-Driven Shape Arrangement Synthesis. Prior to CMU, I received my bachelor's in electrical engineering with a minor in AI from Netaji Subhas University of Technology.

My research focuses on integrating foundational models with robotic systems through the lens of 3D computer vision and graphics. I develop frameworks that enable robots to understand and manipulate their environment using multimodal inputs, bridging the gap between high-level semantic understanding and physical manipulation. Specifically, I create generative AI tools that transform abstract concepts into spatially-aware 2D and 3D representations, allowing robots to perform complex visual reasoning and physical interactions.

Research Interests

🤖

Robotics

Developing intelligent robotic systems that can perceive, learn from, and interact with the physical world.

🧠

Multimodal AI

Developing AI systems that can process and generate content across different modalities like vision, sound, and language.

🎨

Creative AI

Building AI tools that can generate innovative visual content by incorporating various inputs like emotions and sounds.

📊

Foundational Models

Researching and developing large-scale models that serve as foundations for various downstream applications.

Publications

Robot Synesthesia

ShapeShift: Towards Text-to-Shape Arrangement Synthesis with Content-Aware Geometric Constraints

Vihaan Misra, Peter Schaldenbrand, Jean Oh

Preprint, 2025

Paper
Robot Synesthesia

Robot Synesthesia: A Sound and Emotion Guided AI Painter

Vihaan Misra, Peter Schaldenbrand, Jean Oh

🏆 Best Entertainment and Amusement Paper Award

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2024)

Paper Website
AdaGen

AdaGen: Adaptive Generalized Knowledge Transfer Framework for Sensor-based Surface Classification for Wheelchair Routing

Vihaan Misra, Shivshankar S Menon, Snehanshu Saha, Archana Mathur, Haoxiang Yu, Vaskar Raychoudhary

SN Computer Science (2024)

Paper Abstract
Robot Painting

Robot Painting: Art for Robotics

Peter Schaldenbrand*, Gerry Chen, Vihaan Misra, Yunhao Lorie Chen, Ken Goldberg, Jean Oh

ICRA @ 40 (2024)

Video
Sketch-to-Image

Sketch-to-Image Synthesis using Semantic Priors

Vihaan Misra, Peter Schaldenbrand, Jean Oh

RISS Working Papers' Journal | Robotics Institute Summer Scholars Journal (2022)

PDF
WASH Awareness

A Machine Learning Application for Raising WASH Awareness in the Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

Rohan Pandey, Vihaan Misra et al.

Scientific Reports | Nature Publications (2022)

PDF
Robotics in Industry 4.0

Robotics in Industry 4.0

Ashwin Misra, Anuj Agrawal, Vihaan Misra

Handbook of Smart Materials, Technologies, and Devices: Applications of Industry 4.0 | Springer (2021)

Chapter Link
Uncertainty Modeling

Improving non-deterministic uncertainity modelling in Industry 4.0 scheduling

Ashwin Misra, Ankit Mittal, Vihaan Misra

Preprint (2021)

Preprint