Vihaan Misra

Hi, I'm Vihaan Misra!

PhD Student, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

I am a PhD student at the Robotics Institute at CMU, working with Prof. Jean Oh in the Bot-Intelligence Group. Prior to joining CMU, I received my bachelor's in Electrical Engineering with a minor in AI from Netaji Subhas University of Technology.

My research focuses on improving spatial understanding in generative models — spanning image and video generation, VLMs, and vision-language-action models. I am interested in learning structured representations of spatial relations, and understanding how such representations transfer across generation, perception, and embodied action. This runs through my work on text-driven spatial arrangement under geometric constraints, cross-modal translation, and differentiable physical rendering — the common thread being systems that are not just visually plausible but physically grounded and controllable in meaningful ways.

In summer 2026 I was an Applied Scientist Intern II at Amazon (Fauna Robotics), working on generalizing robot task planning and execution to unseen environments.

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Research Interests:
Spatial Understanding & Reasoning Robotics & Embodied AI Multimodal Learning Creative AI & Generative Models 3D Vision & Graphics Foundation Models

Selected Publications

OnOff: Bridging Online and Offline Handwriting via Differentiable Physical Rendering

Seonmi Park, Seunghyun Shin, Vihaan Misra, Dongmin Shin, Ukcheol Shin, Jean Oh, Hae-Gon Jeon

European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2026)

Paper Website Code
ShapeShift

ShapeShift: Text-to-Mosaic Synthesis via Semantic Phase-Field Guidances

Vihaan Misra, Peter Schaldenbrand, Jean Oh

Under Review, SIGGRAPH 2026

Human-Robot Joint Painting

If I Move, Do You Move? Investigating the Role of Interpersonal Synchrony in Human-Robot Joint Painting

Abena Boadi-Agyemang, Peter Schaldenbrand, Vihaan Misra, Elizabeth J. Carter, Jean Oh, Aaron Steinfeld

IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2025) - Forthcoming

Robot Synesthesia

Robot Synesthesia: A Sound and Emotion Guided AI Painter

Vihaan Misra, Peter Schaldenbrand, Jean Oh

🏆 Best Arts 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

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

SN Computer Science (2024)

Paper
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)

Paper
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)

Paper
Robotics in Industry 4.0

Robotics in Industry 4.0

Ashwin Misra, Anuj Agrawal, Vihaan Misra

Handbook of Smart Materials, Technologies, and Devices, Springer (2021)

Chapter
Uncertainty Modeling

Improving non-deterministic uncertainty modelling in Industry 4.0 scheduling

Ashwin Misra, Ankit Mittal, Vihaan Misra

Preprint (2021)

Paper

Experience

Amazon
Applied Scientist Intern II, Fauna Robotics
May - August 2026
Worked on generalizing robot task execution to previously unseen environments, connecting vision-language grounding with spatial scene structure so that task competence transfers to novel layouts. Project details withheld under NDA.
Carnegie Mellon University
PhD Student in Robotics
August 2023 - Present
Working in the Bot-Intelligence Group under Prof. Jean Oh. Research focuses on spatial understanding in multimodal generative models, and on systems that create and manipulate visual content through language, sound, and emotion.
Mercedes-Benz R&D
Research Intern
January - August 2023
Built a lane-level perception pipeline for traffic line detection, sign recognition, and road element classification from street-view imagery, plus a map-matching module aligning spatial-temporal trajectory data to road network graphs for HD map construction.
University of Alberta
Research Assistant
2021 - 2022
Conducted rehabilitation robotics research, developing adaptive wheelchair routing algorithms based on surface classification using machine learning for improved mobility assistance.
IIIT Hyderabad
Research Intern
2021
Worked with the Robotics Research Center on computer vision and deep learning for visual perception systems in autonomous navigation through complex environments.
University of Miami
Research Collaborator
2021 - 2022
Collaborated on interdisciplinary AI and healthcare research, developing machine learning models for medical image analysis and diagnostic support systems.
Orient Electric
Research Consultant
2022
Provided technical consultation on IoT solutions and smart home technologies. Developed prototype systems for energy efficiency monitoring and automation in consumer appliances.
IIIT Delhi
Research Intern
2019 - 2020
Worked at the Technology Innovation Hub on AI applications, contributing to machine learning projects in computer vision and natural language processing.
NSUT Delhi
B.Tech EE (Minor: AI)
2019 - 2023
Completed Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering with minor in Artificial Intelligence. Conducted research in robotics and AI, participated in technical competitions and innovation projects.