Balakumar Sundaralingam ![](/sites/default/files/person/bala_pp%20%282%29.jpg) Balakumar Sundaralingam is a Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA. His research interests are in enabling robots to fluidly navigate and interact in unstructured environments while sharing the space with humans. His work involves combining perception, machine learning, numerical optimization, control theory, and robot software-hardware interfaces. He received his Ph.D. in Computing (Robotics) from the University of Utah under the supervision of Prof. Tucker Hermans. His Ph.D. research focused on planning and tactile perception for in-hand manipulation leveraging trajectory optimization, learned models, and structured inference. Previously, he has worked on mobile robots, specifically on mapping with LIDAR and reactive collision avoidance methods. He also has expertise in building robotic systems ranging from mobile robots to dexterous manipulation systems. \[[Personal Website](https://balakumar-s.github.io/)\] Research Area(s) [Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning ](/index.php/research-area/machine-learning-artificial-intelligence) [Computer Vision](/index.php/research-area/computer-vision) [Robotics](/index.php/research-area/robotics) Main Field of Interest [Robotics](/index.php/research-area/robotics) Google Scholar [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tgm2Y7oAAAAJ&hl=en](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tgm2Y7oAAAAJ&hl=en) ### Publications ### 2025 [VT-Refine: Learning Bimanual Assembly with Visuo-Tactile Feedback via Simulation Fine-Tuning](/publication/2025-09_vt-refine-learning-bimanual-assembly-visuo-tactile-feedback-simulation-fine) Binghao Huang, [Jie Xu](/person/jie-xu), [Iretiayo Akinola](/person/iretiayo-akinola), [Wei Yang](/person/wei-yang), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Rowland O'Flaherty](/person/rowland-oflaherty), Dieter Fox, Xiaolong Wang, Arsalan Mousavian, [Yu-Wei Chao](/person/yu-wei-chao), Yunzhu Li [Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 2025](https://www.corl.org) [Inference-Time Policy Steering through Human Interactions](/publication/2025-05_inference-time-policy-steering-through-human-interactions) Yanwei Wang, Lirui Wang, Yilun Du, [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Xuning Yang](/person/xuning-yang), [Yu-Wei Chao](/person/yu-wei-chao), [Claudia Pérez D’Arpino ](/person/cdarpino), Dieter Fox, Julie Shah [IEEE ICRA 2025](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.16627) ### 2023 [VaPr: Variable-Precision Tensors to Accelerate Robot Motion Planning](/publication/2023-10_vapr-variable-precision-tensors-accelerate-robot-motion-planning) Yu-Shun Hsiao, [Siva Hari](/person/siva-hari), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Jason Yik, Thierry Tambe, [Charbel Sakr](/person/charbel-sakr), [Steve Keckler](/person/stephen-keckler), Vijay Janapa Reddi [IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2023)](https://ieee-iros.org/) [Meta-Policy Learning over Plan Ensembles for Robust Articulated Object Manipulation](/publication/2023-07_meta-policy-learning-over-plan-ensembles-robust-articulated-object-manipulation) Constantinos Chamzas, [Caelan Garrett](/person/caelan-garrett), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Lydia Kavraki, Dieter Fox [RSS 2023 Workshop on Learning for Task and Motion Planning](https://openreview.net/forum?id=68N8Dj6KVv) [DeXtreme: Transfer of Agile In-Hand Manipulation from Simulation to Reality](/publication/2023-06_dextreme-transfer-agile-hand-manipulation-simulation-reality) Ankur Handa, Arthur Allshire, Viktor Makoviychuk, Aleksei Petrenko, Ritvik Singh, Jingzhou Liu, Denys Makoviichuk, Karl Van Wyk, Alexander Zhurkevich, [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Yashraj Narang](/person/yashraj-narang), Jean-Francois Lafleche, Dieter Fox, Gavriel State [CuRobo: Parallelized Collision-Free Robot Motion Generation](/publication/2023-05_curobo-parallelized-collision-free-robot-motion-generation) [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Siva Hari](/person/siva-hari), Adam Fishman, [Caelan Garrett](/person/caelan-garrett), Karl Van Wyk, [Valts Blukis](/person/valts-blukis), Alexander Millane, Helen Oleynikova, Ankur Handa, [Fabio Ramos](/person/fabio-ramos), Nathan Ratliff, Dieter Fox [IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)](https://www.icra2023.org/) [RGB-Only Reconstruction of Tabletop Scenes for Collision-Free Manipulator Control ](/publication/2023-05_rgb-only-reconstruction-tabletop-scenes-collision-free-manipulator-control) Zhenggang Tang, [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Jonathan Tremblay](/person/jonathan-tremblay), [Bowen Wen](/person/bowen-wen), [Ye Yuan](/person/ye-yuan), [Stephen Tyree](/person/stephen-tyree), [Charles Loop](/person/charles-loop), Alexander Schwing, [Stan Birchfield](/person/stan-birchfield) [ICRA 2023](https://www.icra2023.org/) ### 2022 [Learning Perceptual Concepts by Bootstrapping from Human Queries](/index.php/publication/2022-10_learning-perceptual-concepts-bootstrapping-human-queries) Andreea Bobu, Chris Paxton, [Wei Yang](/index.php/person/wei-yang), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/index.php/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Yu-Wei Chao](/index.php/person/yu-wei-chao), Maya Cakmak, Dieter Fox [RA-L / IROS 2022](https://iros2022.org/) [Correcting Robot Plans with Natural Language Feedback](/publication/2022-06_correcting-robot-plans-natural-language-feedback) Pratyusha Sharma, [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Valts Blukis](/person/valts-blukis), Chris Paxton, [Tucker Hermans](/person/tucker-hermans), Antonio Torralba, Jacob Andreas, Dieter Fox [Robotics Science and Systems (RSS) 2022](http://www.roboticsproceedings.org/rss18/index.html) [HandoverSim: A Simulation Framework and Benchmark for Human-to-Robot Object Handovers](/index.php/publication/2022-05_handoversim-simulation-framework-and-benchmark-human-robot-object-handovers) [Yu-Wei Chao](/index.php/person/yu-wei-chao), Chris Paxton, Yu Xiang, [Wei Yang](/index.php/person/wei-yang), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/index.php/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Tao Chen, [Adithya Murali](/index.php/person/adithya-murali), Maya Cakmak, Dieter Fox [IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022](https://www.icra2022.org) [Model Predictive Control for Fluid Human-to-Robot Handovers](/publication/2022-04_model-predictive-control-fluid-human-robot-handovers) [Wei Yang](/person/wei-yang), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Chris Paxton, [Iretiayo Akinola](/person/iretiayo-akinola), [Yu-Wei Chao](/person/yu-wei-chao), Maya Cakmak, Dieter Fox [IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022](https://www.icra2022.org/) [DefGraspSim: Physics-Based Simulation of Grasp Outcomes on 3D Deformable Objects](/index.php/publication/2022-03_defgraspsim-physics-based-simulation-grasp-outcomes-3d-deformable-objects) Isabella Huang, [Yashraj Narang](/index.php/person/yashraj-narang), Clemens Eppner, [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/index.php/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Miles Macklin, Ruzena Bajcsy, [Tucker Hermans](/index.php/person/tucker-hermans), Dieter Fox [IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9735347) ### 2021 [Interpreting and predicting tactile signals for the SynTouch BioTac](/index.php/publication/2021-12_interpreting-and-predicting-tactile-signals-syntouch-biotac) [Yashraj Narang](/index.php/person/yashraj-narang), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/index.php/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Karl Van Wyk, Arsalan Mousavian, Dieter Fox [International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR) 2021](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02783649211047634?journalCode=ijra) [STORM: An Integrated Framework for Fast Joint-Space Model-Predictive Control for Reactive Manipulation](/publication/2021-11_storm-integrated-framework-fast-joint-space-model-predictive-control-reactive) Mohak Bhardwaj, [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Arsalan Mousavian, Nathan Ratliff, Dieter Fox, [Fabio Ramos](/person/fabio-ramos), Byron Boots [Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 2021](https://sites.google.com/robot-learning.org/corl2021) Selected for Oral Presentation [Joint Space Control via Deep Reinforcement Learning](/publication/2021-09_joint-space-control-deep-reinforcement-learning) Visak Kumar, David Hoeller, [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), [Jonathan Tremblay](/person/jonathan-tremblay), [Stan Birchfield](/person/stan-birchfield) [IROS 2021](https://www.iros2021.org/) [Sim-to-Real for Robotic Tactile Sensing via Physics-Based Simulation and Learned Latent Projections](/index.php/publication/2021-06_sim-real-robotic-tactile-sensing-physics-based-simulation-and-learned-latent) [Yashraj Narang](/index.php/person/yashraj-narang), [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/index.php/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Miles Macklin, Arsalan Mousavian, Dieter Fox [International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2021](https://www.ieee-ras.org/conferences-workshops/fully-sponsored/icra) ### 2019 [Robust Learning of Tactile Force Estimation through Robot Interaction](/index.php/publication/2019-05_robust-learning-tactile-force-estimation-through-robot-interaction) [Balakumar Sundaralingam](/index.php/person/balakumar-sundaralingam), Alexander Lambert, Ankur Handa, Byron Boots, [Tucker Hermans](/index.php/person/tucker-hermans), [Stan Birchfield](/index.php/person/stan-birchfield), Nathan Ratliff, Dieter Fox ICRA 2019