I am a fourth year PhD candidate in the Robot Locomotion Group, part of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and advised by Professor Russ Tedrake.
I'm developing novel algorithms to help robots move faster, safer, and more elegantly. To accomplish this, my research has combined optimization, kinematics, and learning, building upon the rich mathematical structures that underlie robotic manipulation.
Recent News
Jul 2025
Gave an invited talk at ICCOPT 2025 about optimization on manifolds.
May 2024
"Constrained bimanual planning with analytic inverse kinematics" named Best
Paper in Robot Manipulation Award Finalist at ICRA 2024.
Jul 2023
"Non-Euclidean Motion Planning with Graphs of Geodesically-Convex Sets" named
Best Paper Award Finalist at RSS 2023.
Featured Publications *Denotes equal contribution.
Featured Videos
Full Publications & Preprints *Denotes equal contribution.
Preprints
arXiv 2026
@article{wei2026ambient,
title={Ambient Diffusion Policy: Imitation Learning from Suboptimal Data in Robotics},
author={Wei, Adam and Pfaff, Nicholas and Cohn, Thomas and Day{\i}, Arif Kerem and Daskalakis,
Constantinos and Daras, Giannis and Tedrake, Russ},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.12365},
year={2026}
}
arXiv 2026
@article{cohn2026aframework,
title={A Framework for Combining Optimization-Based and Analytic Inverse Kinematics},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Tang, Lihan and Amice, Alexandre and Tedrake, Russ},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.05092},
year={2026}
}
arXiv 2025 Accepted at
ICRA
2026
@article{foland2025how,
title={How Well do Diffusion Policies Learn Kinematic Constraint Manifolds?},
author={Foland, Lexi and Cohn, Thomas and Wei, Adam and Pfaff, Nicholas and Chen, Boyuan and
Tedrake, Russ},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.01404},
year={2025}
}
arXiv 2024 Accepted at
ISRR
2024
@article{werner2024faster,
title={Faster Algorithms for Growing Collision-Free Convex Polytopes in Robot Configuration
Space},
author={Werner, Peter and Cohn, Thomas and Jiang, Rebecca H. and Seyde, Tim and Simchowitz, Max
and Tedrake, Russ and Rus, Daniela},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.12649},
year={2024}
}
Peer-Reviewed Conference & Journal Proceedings
ICML 2026 Spotlight
@inproceedings{pfaff2026scenesmith,
title={SceneSmith: Agentic Generation of Simulation-Ready Indoor Scenes},
author={Pfaff, Nicholas and Cohn, Thomas and Zakharov, Sergey and Cory, Rick and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={ICML},
year={2026}
}
IJRR 2026
@article{werner2026faster,
title={Faster algorithms for growing collision-free convex polytopes in robot configuration
space},
author={Werner, Peter and Cohn, Thomas and Jiang, Rebecca H. and Seyde, Tim and Simchowitz, Max
and Tedrake, Russ and Rus, Daniela},
journal={The International Journal of Robotics Research},
year={2026}
}
IROS 2025
@inproceedings{cohn2025sampling,
title={Sampling-Based Motion Planning with Discrete Configuration-Space Symmetries},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={IROS},
pages={13119--13126},
year={2025}
}
IJRR 2025
@article{cohn2025noneuclidean,
title={Non-Euclidean motion planning with graphs of geodesically convex sets},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Petersen, Mark and Simchowitz, Max and Tedrake, Russ},
journal={The International Journal of Robotics Research},
volume={44},
number={10-11},
pages={1840--1862},
year={2025}
}
RA-L 2025
@article{garg2025planning,
title={Planning Shorter Paths in Graphs of Convex Sets by Undistorting Parametrized
Configuration Spaces},
author={Garg, Shruti and Cohn, Thomas and Tedrake, Russ},
journal={IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
year={2025}
}
ICRA 2024 Best Paper in Robot Manipulation
Award Finalist
@inproceedings{cohn2024constrained,
title={Constrained bimanual planning with analytic inverse kinematics},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Shaw, Seiji and Simchowitz, Max and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={ICRA},
pages={6935--6942},
year={2024}
}
RSS 2023 Best Paper Award Finalist
@inproceedings{cohn2023noneuclidean,
title={Non-Euclidean Motion Planning with Graphs of Geodesically-Convex Sets},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Petersen, Mark and Simchowitz, Max and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={RSS},
year={2023}
}
ICRA 2022
@inproceedings{cohn2022topologically,
title={Topologically-informed atlas learning},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Devraj, Nikhil and Jenkins, Odest Chadwicke},
booktitle={ICRA},
pages={3598--3604},
year={2022}
}
RA-L + IROS 2020
@article{cohn2020tsbp,
title={TSBP: Tangent Space Belief Propagation for Manifold Learning},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Jenkins, Odest Chadwicke and Desingh, Karthik and Zeng, Zhen},
journal={IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
volume={5},
number={4},
pages={6694--6701},
year={2020}
}
Workshop Papers
RSS 2026
Workshop: The Geometry of Motion: Physics-Informed Structures for Learning and Control
Best Contribution Runner Up
@inproceedings{cohn2026principled,
title={Principled Domain Extension for Analytic IK},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Shaw, Seiji and Roy, Nicholas and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={RSS Workshop on The Geometry of Motion},
year={2026}
}
RSS 2026 Workshop: Data-Centric
Robotics: What Data Do Robots Really Need?
Spotlight
Best Workshop Paper Award
@inproceedings{wei2026ambient_workshop_friday,
title={Ambient Diffusion Policy: Imitation Learning from Suboptimal Data in Robotics},
author={Wei, Adam and Pfaff, Nicholas and Cohn, Thomas and Day{\i}, Arif Kerem and Daskalakis,
Constantinos and Daras, Giannis and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={RSS Workshop on Data-Centric Robotics},
year={2026}
}
RSS 2026 Workshop: It's the demos: A
Deep Look at the Role of Demonstration Quality in Imitation-Based Robot Manipulation
Spotlight
Most Useful Practical Information
Award
@inproceedings{wei2026ambient_workshop_monday,
title={Ambient Diffusion Policy: Imitation Learning from Suboptimal Data in Robotics},
author={Wei, Adam and Pfaff, Nicholas and Cohn, Thomas and Day{\i}, Arif Kerem and Daskalakis,
Constantinos and Daras, Giannis and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={RSS Workshop on Demonstration Quality in Imitation-Based Robot Manipulation},
year={2026}
}
@inproceedings{cohn2026planning,
title={Planning along Differentiable Charts of Constraint Manifolds with the Inverse Function
Theorem},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Shaw, Seiji and Roy, Nicholas and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={ICRA Workshop on Geometry in the Age of Data-Driven Robotics},
year={2026}
}
@inproceedings{cohn2026aframework_workshop,
title={A Framework for Combining Optimization-Based and Analytic Inverse Kinematics},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Tang, Lihan and Amice, Alexandre and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={ICRA Workshop on Frontiers of Optimization for Robotics},
year={2026}
}
IROS 2025 Workshop: RoDGE: Robotic
Data Generation and Evaluation
Best Poster Award
@inproceedings{foland2025how_workshop,
title={How Well do Diffusion Policies Learn Kinematic Constraint Manifolds?},
author={Foland, Lexi and Cohn, Thomas and Wei, Adam and Pfaff, Nicholas and Chen, Boyuan and
Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={IROS Workshop on RoDGE: Robotic Data Generation and Evaluation},
year={2025}
}
IROS 2025 Workshop:
Frontiers in Dynamic, Intelligent, and Adaptive Multi-Arm Manipulation
Best Workshop Paper Award
@inproceedings{cohn2025faster_workshop,
title={Faster Algorithms for Growing Collision-Free Regions of Constrained Bimanual
Configuration Spaces},
author={Cohn, Thomas and Werner, Peter and Tedrake, Russ},
booktitle={IROS Workshop on Frontiers in Dynamic, Intelligent, and Adaptive Multi-Arm
Manipulation},
year={2025}
}
Other Projects
6.8210 Final Project: Quadrotor Shared-Load Carrying (2023)
With Seiji Shaw.
Cooperative control (including stabilization and trajectory planning) of
multiple quadrotors, tethered to a slung load.
EECS 467 Final Project: Large Scale Mapping with Loop Closure (2022)
With John Rosner.
Robotic mapping with iterative closest point scan matching, automatic loop
closure detection, and pose graph optimization.
EECS 442 Final Project: Monocular SLAM (2021)
Constructing a sparse 3d map with a single camera, by extracting image features
and triangulating them.
EECS 442 (Computer Vision) Course Projects (2021)
Assorted class projects for EECS 442 at the University of Michigan, including
homography warping and semantic image segmentation.
EECS 498-005 Final Project: Head Pose Gesture Recognition (2021)
With Lance Ying.
Tracking head pose (as obtained via facial landmarks) for gesture recognition.
Coordinate Chart Particle Filter for Deformable Object Pose Estimation
(2020-2021)
Learning a low-dimensional manifold representation of deformable objects to
estimate pose with a particle filter.
EECS 367 (Intro to Autonomous Robotics) Course Projects (2020)
Assorted class projects for EECS 367 at UMich, including A* search, forward &
inverse kinematics, and RRT planning.
Interactive Piano Lights (2020)
A maker project that reads MIDI output from an electric keyboard, in order to
control LEDs.
Particle-Based Localization and Grasping of Grocery Bags (2018-2019)
Detecting handles of a paper grocery bag in video feed and triangulating 3D
locations with a particle filter for robot grasping.
Stats 406 Final Project: Hurricane Track Modeling via Manifold Learning (2019)
Modeling Atlantic hurricane tracks with manifold learning and nonparametric
kernel regression.
Interactive Drum Lights (2019)
A maker project that detects drum notes with a piezoelectric sensor, in order
to control LEDs.
SLAM with Iterative Closest Point (2016-2017)
Matching LIDAR scans with iterative closest point so a robot can map its
surroundings in an unknown environment.
Math Notes
I've partially or completely typeset my lecture notes for several of the math classes I have taken. I've included links to Google Drive folders containing the PDFs, and links to the git repositories containing the LaTeX source files. (Classes listed in reverse chronological order.)
- PDF Files • LaTeX Source • Math 635 (Riemannian Geometry) • Taught by Professor Alejandro Uribe in 2021.
- PDF Files • LaTeX Source • Math 591 (Differentiable Manifolds) • Taught by Professor Alejandro Uribe in 2020.
- PDF Files • LaTeX Source • Math 493 (Abstract Algebra/Group Theory) • Taught by Professor Andrew Snowden in 2019.
- PDF Files • LaTeX Source • Math 396 (Honors Analysis II) • Taught by Professor David Barrett in 2019.
- PDF Files • LaTeX Source • Math 565 (Graph Theory) • Taught by Dr. Danny Nguyen in 2018.
- PDF Files • LaTeX Source • Math 395 (Honors Analysis I) • Taught by Professor David Barrett in 2018.
- PDF Files • LaTeX Source • Math 217 (Proof-Based Linear Algebra) • Taught by Dr. David Fernández Bretón in 2016.
Interactive JavaScript Demos
I've created several interactive javascript demos, which you can try out online (no downloads required). I recommend you access these on a computer -- I can't guarantee they'll work on a mobile device.