Shivam Vats

Shivam Vats
  • Position:
    Research / Technical Staff

    Research Scientist
  • Education:
    Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, 2024
  • Research Areas:
  • External Links:
Shivam's Quick Links

  • Biography

    Shivam's research focuses on robust decision-making for robot manipulation in unknown environments. During his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University, he developed algorithms for manipulation skill learning and search-based planning under data and computational constraints. Before joining MERL, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University and a research affiliate at MIT.

  • MERL Publications

    •  Vats, S., Harithas, S., Akbulut, M., Raghunathan, A., Konidaris, G., "Deliberate Practice: Learning Robot Skills under a Budget", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop, October 2026.
      BibTeX TR2026-147 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Vats2026oct,
      • author = {Vats, Shivam and Harithas, Sudarshan and Akbulut, Mete and Raghunathan, Arvind and Konidaris, George},
      • title = {{Deliberate Practice: Learning Robot Skills under a Budget}},
      • booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) Workshop},
      • year = 2026,
      • month = oct,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2026-147}
      • }
    •  Vats, S., Harithas, S., Akbulut, M., Raghunathan, A., Konidaris, G., "Deliberate Practice: Learning Robot Skills under a Budget", arXiv, August 2026.
      BibTeX arXiv
      • @article{Vats2026aug,
      • author = {Vats, Shivam and Harithas, Sudarshan and Akbulut, Mete and Raghunathan, Arvind and Konidaris, George},
      • title = {{Deliberate Practice: Learning Robot Skills under a Budget}},
      • journal = {arXiv},
      • year = 2026,
      • month = aug,
      • url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.13415}
      • }
    •  Vats, S., Jha, D.K., Likhachev, M., Kroemer, O., Romeres, D., "RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation", IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), DOI: 10.1109/​IROS60139.2025.11245856, October 2025.
      BibTeX TR2025-152 PDF Video
      • @inproceedings{Vats2025oct,
      • author = {Vats, Shivam and Jha, Devesh K. and Likhachev, Maxim and Kroemer, Oliver and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {{RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation}},
      • booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
      • year = 2025,
      • month = oct,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11245856},
      • issn = {2153-0866},
      • isbn = {979-8-3315-4393-8},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-152}
      • }
    •  Vats, S., Jha, D.K., Likhachev, M., Kroemer, O., Romeres, D., "RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation", R3: Reasoning for Robust Robot Manipulation in the Open World Workshop at R:SS 2025, June 2025.
      BibTeX TR2025-091 PDF Video
      • @inproceedings{Vats2025jun,
      • author = {Vats, Shivam and Jha, Devesh K. and Likhachev, Maxim and Kroemer, Oliver and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {{RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation}},
      • booktitle = {R3: Reasoning for Robust Robot Manipulation in the Open World Workshop at R:SS 2025},
      • year = 2025,
      • month = jun,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-091}
      • }
    •  Vats, S., Jha, D.K., Likhachev, M., Kroemer, O., Romeres, D., "RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation", arXiv, October 2024.
      BibTeX arXiv
      • @article{Vats2024oct,
      • author = {Vats, Shivam and Jha, Devesh K. and Likhachev, Maxim and Kroemer, Oliver and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {{RecoveryChaining: Learning Local Recovery Policies for Robust Manipulation}},
      • journal = {arXiv},
      • year = 2024,
      • month = oct,
      • url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.13979}
      • }

  • MERL Issued Patents

    • Title: "System and Method for Controlling a Robotic Manipulator Based on Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning of Control Policies"
      Inventors: Jha, Devesh; Vats, Shivam; Romeres, Diego
      Patent No.: 12,479,090
      Issue Date: Nov 25, 2025
    See All Patents for MERL