I am a researcher at Apple, where I develop algorithms for augmented and virtual reality systems. I have over 10 years of experience in research, with a focus on computer vision, machine learning, and robotics. I have a proven track record of taking projects from concept to completion by solving challenging problems with innovative solutions.
Specialities : Computer vision  /  Deep learning  /  Point cloud registration  /  3D reconstruction  /  Data encryption and encoding  /  Color science  /  SLAM  /  Classical machine learning  /  Sensor design and calibration
Bio
Prior to joining Apple, I did my postdoc at the Robotics Institute in Carnegie Mellon University, where I explored deep learning techniques for 3D reconstruction, pose estimation and tracking. This research built on my PhD thesis work on probabilistic approaches for pose estimation. My research finds application in augmented reality, situational awareness in robotic surgery as well as manufacturing. In 2017, I was awarded a fellowship by the Centre for Machine Learning and Health.
In my Masters research, I was involved in the design, development and analysis of a novel parallel manipulator robot platform. I received the gold medal in 2012 from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
I also have an active interest in product development. I had a brief stint developing a product called Tangle , that keeps earphones from entangling. We ran an Indiegogo campaign and sold the product to 18 countries.
Working on various computer vision and machine learning algorithms for augmented and virtual reality. These algorithms find application in iPhones, iPads and the Apple Vision Pro. Seamlessly blending the physical world with digital content can be a powerful tool for a variety of tasks, including productivity, mindfulness, creativity, gaming, and entertainment.
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App Clip Codes
An App Clip is a lightweight version of your app that lets people perform everyday tasks quickly, without downloading and installing your app. The easiest way to launch an App Clip is by scanning an App Clip Code. Its distinct design is immediately recognizable, and people trust it to offer a fast, secure way to launch your App Clip.
We designed the App Clip Code to be more secure than conventional QR codes and offer superior scanning performance. App Clip Codes can also be used as spatial anchors for augmented reality applications.
App Clip Codes were announced in WWDC 2020 and the scanning has been supported by all iOS devices since 2020. App Clip Codes have been widely adopted by several companies around the world including Exxon, Macys, Panera Bread, etc.
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Deep learning for Point Cloud Registration
MaskNet: A Fully-Convolutional Network to Estimate Inlier Points Vinit Sarode, Animesh Dhagat, R. Arun Srivatsan, Nicolas Zevallos, Simon Lucey and Howie Choset In proceedings of IEEE International Conference on 3D Vision(3DV), 2020. PDF
Correspondence Matrices are Underrated Tejas Zodage, Rahul Chakwate, Vinit Sarode, R. Arun Srivatsan, and Howie Choset In proceedings of IEEE International Conference on 3D Vision(3DV), 2020. PDF
PCRNet: Point Cloud Registration Network using PointNet Encoding Vinit Sarode, Xueqian Li, Hunter Goforth, Yasuhiro Aoki, R. Arun Srivatsan, Simon Lucey and Howie Choset arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.07906, 2019. PDF
PointNetLK: Robust & Efficient Point Cloud Registration using PointNet Hunter Goforth, Yasuhiro Aoki, R. Arun Srivatsan and Simon Lucey In proceedings of IEEE conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2019. PDF | Video | Code
Learning for Visual Place Recognition
MRS-VPR: a multi-resolution sampling based global visual place recognition method Peng Yin, R. Arun Srivatsan, Yin Chen, Xueqian Li, Hongda Zhang, Lingyun Xu, Lu Li, Zhenzhong Jia, Jiamin Ji and Yuqing He In proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, Canada, May 2019. PDF
A Multi-Domain Feature Learning Method for Visual Place Recognition Peng Yin, Lingyun Xu, Xueqian Li, Yin Chen, Yingli Li, R. Arun Srivatsan, Lu Li, Jiamin Ji and Yuqin He In proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, Canada, May 2019. PDF
Globally optimal registration of noisy point clouds R. Arun Srivatsan, Tejas Zodage and Howie Choset arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.08162, 2019. PDF
Probabilistic Pose Estimation Using a Bingham Distribution-Based Linear Filter R. Arun Srivatsan, Mengyun Xu, Nicolas Zevallos and Howie Choset in the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), vol. 37, 13-14: pp. 1610-1631, June 2018. PDF | Code
Bingham Distribution-Based Linear Filter for Online Pose Estimation R. Arun Srivatsan, Mengyun Xu, Nicolas Zevallos and Howie Choset in proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), MIT, Boston, 2017. PDF | Video
Estimating SE(3) elements using a dual-quaternion based linear Kalman filter R. Arun Srivatsan , Gillian T. Rosen, Feroze M. Naina and Howie Choset in the Proceedings of Robotics Science and Systems (RSS), Michigan, USA, June 2016. PDF | Video|
Code
Registration with a small number of sparse measurements R. Arun Srivatsan, Nicolas Zevallos, Prasad Vagdargi and Howie Choset International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 2019. PDF
Sparse Point Registration R. Arun Srivatsan, Prasad Vagdargi and Howie Choset in proceedings of International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR), 2017. PDF | Video
Multiple Start Branch and Prune Filtering Algorithm for Nonconvex Optimization R. Arun Srivatsan and Howie Choset in proceedings of the Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), San Francisco, USA, December 2016. PDF | Video
Approaches for Complementary Situational Awareness in Minimially Invasive Surgeries
Complementary Model Update: A Method for Simultaneous Registration and Stiffness Mapping in Flexible Environments R. Arun Srivatsan, Elif Ayvali, Long Wang, Rajarshi Roy, Nabil Simaan and Howie Choset In the proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Stockholm, Sweden, May 2016. PDF | Video
Simultaneous Registration and Stiffness mapping of a Flexible Environment using Stiffness and Geometric Prior R. Arun Srivatsan, Long Wang, Elif Ayvali, Nabil Simaan, and Howie Choset in the proceedings of the Hamlyn symposium on Medical Robotics, UK, June 2016. PDF
Multimodal Approach to Registration Using Stereo Imaging and Contact Sensing Prasad Vagdargi, R. Arun Srivatsan, Nicolas Zevallos, Feroze M. Naina and Howie Choset in Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Workshop on 'Revisiting Contact - Turning a problem into a solution', 2017. PDF
Registering Surgical Tool to a Soft Body using Mechanical Palpation R. Arun Srivatsan, Rajarshi Roy, Long Wang, Nabil Simaan, and Howie Choset Tech. report CMU-RI-TR-13, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, June, 2015. PDF
Hand-held stiffness measurement device for tissue analysis Tejas Zodage, Arkadeep N Chaudhury, R. Arun Srivatsan, Nicolas Zevallos and Howie Choset in the proceedings of the Hamlyn symposium on Medical Robotics, UK, June 2019.
Tissue Stiffness Mapping Strategies
Trajectory-Optimized Sensing for Active Search of Tissue Abnormalities in Robotic Surgery Hadi Salman, Elif Ayvali, R. Arun Srivatsan, Yifei Ma, Nicolas Zevallos, Rashid Yasin, Long Wang, Nabil Simaan and Howie Choset In the proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, Australia, 2018. PDF |Code | Video
Using Bayesian Optimization to Guide Probing of a Flexible Environment for Simultaneous Registration and Stiffness Mapping Elif Ayvali, R. Arun Srivatsan, Long Wang, Rajarshi Roy, Nabil Simaan, and Howie Choset the proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Stockholm, Sweden, May 2016. PDF | Video
Augmented Reality for Surgical Applications
A Real-time Augmented Reality Surgical System for Overlaying Stiffness Information Nicolas Zevallos, R. Arun Srivatsan, Hadi Salman, Lu Li, Jianing Qian, Saumya Saxena, Mengyun Xu, Kartik Patath and Howie Choset in proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Pittsburgh, PA, 2018. PDF | Code | Video
A surgical system for automatic registration, stiffness mapping and dynamic image overlay Nicolas Zevallos, R. Arun Srivatsan, Hadi Salman, Lu Li, Jianing Qian, Saumya Saxena, Mengyun Xu, Kartik Patath and Howie Choset in proceedings of 2018 International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR), Atlanta, GA, 2018. (Best paper finalist) PDF | Video
Dynamic Texture Mapping of 3D models for Stiffness Map Visualization Kartik Patath, R. Arun Srivatsan, Nicolas Zevallos and Howie Choset workshop on medical imaging, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Vancouver, Canada, 2017. PDF
Miniature Force Sensor Development
Development of an Inexpensive Tri-axial Force Sensor for Minimally Invasive Surgery Lu Li, Bocheng Yu, Chen Yang, Prasad Vagdargi, R. Arun Srivatsan and Howie Choset in proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2017. PDF | Video
Using Lie algebra for shape estimation of medical snake robots R. Arun Srivatsan, Matthew Travers and Howie Choset in the proceedings of the 27th IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Chicago, USA, September 2014. PDF | Video1 | Video2
Deep Q Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Navigation of Surgical Snake Robot in Confined Spaces Stam Athiniotis, R. Arun Srivatsan and Howie Choset in the proceedings of the Hamlyn symposium on Medical Robotics, UK, June 2019.
Kinematics, design and analysis of parallel manipulators
Computation of the safe working zones of parallel manipulators Murali Karnam, Aravind Baskar, R. Arun Srivatsan, and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay accepted for publication in Robotica, 2019.
Determination of the safe working zone of a parallel manipulator R. Arun Srivatsan, and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop of Computational Kinematics (CK), May 2013, Series: Mechanisms and Machine Science, Volume 15. PDF
On the position kinematic analysis of MaPaMan: a reconfigurable three-degrees-of-freedom spatial parallel manipulator R. Arun Srivatsan, and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay Mechanism and Machine Theory, Volume 62, Pages150-165, 2013, DOI 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2012.11.008 PDF | Video
Analysis of the degrees-of-freedom of spatial parallel manipulators in regular and singular configurations R. Arun Srivatsan, Sandipan Bandyopadhyay and , Ashitava Ghosal Mechanism and Machine Theory, Volume 69, November 2013, Pages 127-141. PDF
Analysis of constraint equations and their singularities R. Arun Srivatsan and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay in the proceedings of 14th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics (ARK), Slovenia, June 2014. PDF
Coupler-curve synthesis of a planar four-bar mechanism using a genetic algorithm based optimization method Jaideep Badduri, R. Arun Srivatsan, G. Saravana Kumar and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay in the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Simulated Evolution And Learning (SEAL), December 2012, Volume 7673, pp 460-469, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-34859-4_46. PDF
Coupler-curve synthesis via multi-objective optimisation using NSGA-II Jaideep Badduri, R. Arun Srivatsan, G. Saravana Kumar and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay In proceedings of iNaCoMM, December 2013. PDF
Computational geometry
Analytical Determination of the Proximity of Two Right-circular Cylinders in Space Saurav Agarwal, R. Arun Srivatsan, and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay ASME. J. Mechanisms Robotics. 2016; 8(4):041010-041010-10. doi:10.1115/1.4032211. PDF
An analytical formulation for finding the proximity of two arbitrary cylinders in space R. Arun Srivatsan, and Sandipan Bandyopadhyay in the Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Advances in Robotics (AIR), July 2013. PDF
Minimum area enclosure and alpha hull of a set of freeform planar closed curves A. V. Vishwanath, R. Arun Srivatsan, and M. Ramanathan Computer-Aided Design, Volume 45, Issue 3, 2013, Pages 751–763, DOI 10.1016/j.cad.2012.12.001 PDF