Caelan Garrett

Research Scientist
Seattle Robotics Research Lab
NVIDIA
[first-name]@csail.mit.edu

Research

I am a Research Scientist at NVIDIA's Seattle Robotics Research Lab, which is led by Professor Dieter Fox. I was a PhD student in the Learning and Intelligent Systems Group (LIS) within MIT's Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). My advisors were Professors Tomás Lozano-Pérez and Leslie Pack Kaelbling. I research Task and Motion Planning (TAMP): the intersection of Classical Planning from Artificial Intelligence and Motion Planning from Robotics. My goal is to develop fast algorithms for planning in high dimensional, continuous spaces that can be applied to autonomous systems to perform human-like tasks such as cleaning a room or cooking a meal.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy in EECS - MIT (2015 - 2021)
    Thesis: Sampling-Based Task and Motion Planning for Robots in the Real World. [paper]
  • Master of Engineering in EECS - MIT (2014 - 2015)
    Thesis: Heuristic Search for Manipulation Planning. [paper]
  • Bachelor of EECS and Bachelor of Mathematics - MIT (2011 - 2015)
    Thesis: FFRob: An efficient heuristic for task and motion planning. [paper]
  • Advanced High School Diploma - Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (2007 - 2011)
    Thesis: An Image Processing Algorithm for Enhancing Perceptual Visibility of Imagery.

Journal Publications

  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Rohan Chitnis, Rachel Holladay, Beomjoon Kim, Tom Silver, Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Tomás Lozano-Pérez. Integrated Task and Motion Planning, Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, 2021. [arXiv] [e-print] [doi]
  • Yijiang Huang, Caelan Garrett, Ian Ting, Stefana Parascho, Caitlin Mueller. Robotic additive construction of bar structures: Unified sequence and motion planning, Construction Robotics, 2021. [arXiv]
  • Zi Wang*, Caelan Reed Garrett*, Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Tomás Lozano-Pérez. Learning compositional models of robot skills for task and motion planning, The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2020. [arXiv] [doi]
  • Yijiang Huang, Caelan Reed Garrett, Caitlin T. Mueller. Automated sequence and motion planning for robotic spatial extrusion of 3D trusses, Construction Robotics, 2018. [arXiv] [doi]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. Sampling-Based Methods for Factored Task and Motion Planning, The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2018. [arXiv] [doi]
  • Fabien Lagriffoul, Neil T Dantam, Caelan Garrett, Aliakbar Akbari, Siddharth Srivastava, Lydia E Kavraki. Platform-Independent Benchmarks for Task and Motion Planning IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2018. [paper]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. FFRob: Leveraging Symbolic Planning for Efficient Task and Motion Planning, The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2017. [arXiv] [doi]

Conference Publications

  • Aidan Curtis*, Xiaolin Fang*, Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Caelan Reed Garrett. Long-Horizon Manipulation of Unknown Objects via Task and Motion Planning with Estimated Affordances, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2022. [arXiv]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. PDDLStream: Integrating Symbolic Planners and Blackbox Samplers via Optimistic Adaptive Planning, International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS), 2020. [arXiv]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Chris Paxton, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Dieter Fox. Online Replanning in Belief Space for Partially Observable Task and Motion Problems, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020. [arXiv]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett*, Yijiang Huang*, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Caitlin T. Mueller. Scalable and Probabilistically Complete Planning for Robotic Spatial Extrusion, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2020. [arXiv] [RSS]
  • Zi Wang, Caelan Reed Garrett, Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Tomás Lozano-Pérez. Active model learning and diverse action sampling for task and motion planning, International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2018. [arXiv]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. Sample-Based Methods for Factored Task and Motion Planning, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2017. [paper] [RSS]
  • Michael X. Grey, Caelan Reed Garrett, C. Karen Liu, Aaron D. Ames, and Andrea L. Thomaz. Humanoid Manipulation Planning using Backward-Forward Search, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016. [paper]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. Learning to Rank for Synthesizing Planning Heuristics (Ordinal Regression for Learning Planning Heuristics), International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2016. [arXiv]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. Backward-Forward Search for Manipulation Planning, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015. [paper] [arXiv]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. FFRob: An Efficient Heuristic for Task and Motion Planning, International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), 2014. [paper] [Springer]
  • Mark A. Livingston, Caelan Reed Garrett, Zhuming Ai. Image Processing for Human Understanding in Low-visibility, ASNE Human Systems Integration Symposium, 2011. [paper]

Workshop Publications

  • Caelan Reed Garrett*, Yijiang Huang*, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Caitlin T. Mueller. Scalable Planning for Robotic Spatial Extrusion, IROS Workshop on Building Construction and Architecture Robotics, 2020.
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. STRIPS Planning in Infinite Domains, RSS Workshop on Task and Motion Planning, 2017. [paper]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. STRIPS Planning in Infinite Domains, ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob), 2017. [arXiv]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. STRIPS Planning in Infinite Domains, ICRA Workshop on AI Planning and Robotics, 2017. [paper]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Michael X. Grey, C. Karen Liu, Aaron D. Ames, Andrea L. Thomaz. Humanoid Task and Motion Planning using Backward-Forward Search, RSS Workshop on Task and Motion Planning, 2016. [paper] [video]
  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Tomás Lozano-Pérez, Leslie Pack Kaelbling. Heuristic Search for Task and Motion Planning, ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob), 2014. [paper]

Other "Publications"

  • Caelan Reed Garrett, Clement Gehring, Gustavo Goretkin, Zelda Mariet, Zi Wang*. Motion Planning using Naturally Annoying Grammars (NAGs), SIGTBD, 2016. [paper]

Patents

  • Mark A. Livingston and Caelan Reed Garrett. System and Method of Image Processing Perceptual Visibility of Imagery. The United States of America, as Represented by the Secretary of the Navy (Washington, DC), assignee. Patent 8,705,857. 04 Apr. 2014. [link]

Software

News

  • Replanning for Success, Lauren Finkle, NVIDIA Blog, May 2020. [link]

Employment

Internships

  • NVIDIA Seattle Robotics Research Lab (2019) - Robotics Research Intern
  • AmazonRobotics (2018) - Planning and Scheduling Research Intern
  • Optimus Ride (2017) - Computer Vision and Perception
  • Google (2014) - AdQuality
  • Twitter (2013) - Revenue Analytics
  • Lockheed Martin (2012) - Simulation, Training, and Support Internal Research Lab
  • Naval Research Laboratory (2010) - Information Technology Division

Presentations

  • Modularity and Compositionality in Multi-Step Robot Manipulation, DRL Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, May 2021.
  • Modularity and Compositionality in Multi-Step Robot Manipulation, Autonomous Agents and Intelligent Robots Lab at Arizona State University, February 2021.
  • Lazy Belief-Space Task and Motion Planning for Robots Acting in Partially Observable Environments, Learning & Intelligent Systems Lab at TU Berlin, June 2020.
  • Lazy Belief-Space Task and Motion Planning for Robots Acting in Partially Observable Environments, University of Washington Robotics Colloquium, Seattle, WA, January 2020. [slides] [video]
  • Task and Motion Planning, MIT Intelligent Robot Manipulation (6.881), Boston, MA, November 2019. [slides]
  • Task and Motion Planning, NVIDIA Seattle Research Lab, Seattle, WA, August 2019. [slides]
  • Task and Motion Planning, 3rd Summer School on Cognitive Robotics, Los Angeles, CA, July 2019. [slides] [video]
  • Robot Task and Motion Planning using Domain-Independent Algorithms, University of New Hampshire's Robotics Seminar, Durham, NH, April 2019. [slides]
  • Task and Motion Planning, MIT Intelligent Robot Manipulation (6.881), Boston, MA, November 2018. [slides]
  • Sampling-Based Methods for Factored Task and Motion Planning, MIT Research Qualifying Exam (RQE), Boston, MA, May 2018. [slides]
  • STRIPS Planning in Infinite Domains, RSS Workshop on Task and Motion Planning, Boston, MA, July 2017. [poster]
  • Sample-Based Methods for Factored Task and Motion Planning, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Boston, MA, July 2017. [slides] [poster]
  • STRIPS Planning in Infinite Domains, ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics (PlanRob), Singapore, May 2017. [slides]
  • Learning to Rank for Synthesizing Planning Heuristics, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, New York, NY, July 2016. [slides] [poster]
  • Humanoid Task and Motion Planning Using Backward Forwards Search, RSS Workshop on Task and Motion Planning, Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 2016. [poster]
  • Backward-Forward Search for Manipulation Planning, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hamburg, Germany, October 2015. [slides]
  • Heuristic Search for Fast Robotic Manipulation Planning, MIT Corporation Partners Robotics@MIT Event, Boston, MA, Dec. 2014. [slides]
  • Heuristic Search for Fast Robotic Manipulation Planning, MIT EECS Department Presentation, Boston, MA, Oct. 2014. [slides]
  • FFRob: An efficient heuristic for task and motion planning. International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), Istanbul, Turkey, Aug. 2014. [slides] [poster]
  • Heuristic Search for Task and Motion Planning. ICAPS Workshop on Planning and Robotics, Portsmouth, NH, Jun. 2014. [slides] [poster]
  • Heuristic Search for Task and Motion Planning. MIT EECScon, Boston, MA, Apr. 2014. [poster]
  • Constraint Based Methods for Integrated Task and Motion Planning. MIT SuperUROP Conference. Boston, MA, Dec. 2014. [poster]
  • A Data Structure for Rapidly Testing Reachability for Robotic Motion Planning. MIT EECScon, Boston, MA, Apr. 2013. [poster]
  • An Image Processing System for Enhancing Perceptual Visibility of Imagery. Siemens Competition National Finals, Washington DC, Dec. 2010.

Teaching

  • MIT Intelligent Robot Manipulation (6.881) - Guest Lecturer (Fall 2018, Fall 2019)
  • 3rd Summer School on Cognitive Robotics (Task and Motion Planning) - Invited Lecturer (July 2019)
  • MIT Introduction to EECS (6.01) - Teaching Assistant (Spring 2015)
  • MIT Introduction to Algorithms (6.006) - Tutor (Fall 2013 - Fall 2014)
  • TJHSST Introduction to Computer Science - Teaching Assistant (Summer 2009)

Awards

Websites

Pups

I am a parent of two Siberian Husky mixes: Rey and Niko. They are insane.

Other

I sang in and was president of the MIT Chorallaries, MIT's first coed a cappella group.