made the carousel better with proj videos, added stagecraft and work…

_data/alumni_msc.yml

@@ -33,6 +33,36 @@
   # info:
   # website:
 
+- name: Kartikay Pangaonkar
+  graduated: Spring 2026
+  # info:
+  website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kartikay-pangaonkar-7594a8204/
+
+- name: Bhavya Shah
+  graduated: Spring 2026
+  # info:
+  # website:
+
+- name: Ryan Sam Varghese
+  graduated: Spring 2026
+  # info:
+  website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-sam-varghese
+
+- name: Swagat Padhan
+  graduated: Spring 2026
+  # info:
+  # website:
+
+- name: Lakshya Jain
+  graduated: Spring 2026
+  # info:
+  # website:
+
+- name: Anudeep Gottapu
+  graduated: Spring 2026
+  # info:
+  # website:
+
 
 
 # - name: Koen M Bastiaans, Spring 2015

_data/news.yml

@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
-- date: Feb 1 2026  
+- date: July 14 2026
+  headline: Omkar Patil and Nakul Gopalan are organizing the workshop on [Compositional and Modular Learning in the Era of Scaling in Robotics](https://compositional-robotics.github.io/) at IROS 2026 in Pittsburgh!
+
+- date: July 14 2026
+  headline: "[StageCraft](https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20659), our work on execution-aware mitigation of distractor and obstruction failures in VLA models, has been accepted to IROS 2026!"
+
+- date: Feb 1 2026
   headline: Two papers from the lab [FDP](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.16830) and [PokeNet](https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02741) have been accepted to ICRA 2026!
 
 - date: Jan 27 2025  

_data/publist.yml

@@ -1,11 +1,20 @@
+- title: "StageCraft: Execution Aware Mitigation of Distractor and Obstruction Failures in VLA Models"
+  image: stagecraft.png
+  description: "Vision Language Action models often fail at execution time due to distractor objects and physical obstructions. StageCraft is a training-free approach that uses vision-language model reasoning over policy rollout videos and success labels to identify which objects to reposition before execution, preventing anticipated failures. It improves performance by roughly 40% across three real-world task domains, adapting its interventions to the strength of the underlying policy."
+  authors: Kartikay Milind Pangaonkar, Prabin Rath, Omkar Patil, Nakul Gopalan
+  link:
+    url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20659
+    display: 2026 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
+  highlight: 1
+
 - title: "PokeNet: Learning Kinematic Models of Articulated Objects from Human Observations"
   image: anmol.png
   description: "Articulation modeling enables robots to learn how an object’s joints move so they can manipulate it effectively. PokeNet is an end-to-end framework that learns articulation models from a single human demonstration without prior object knowledge. From point cloud sequences, it predicts joint parameters, infers manipulation order, and tracks joint states over time."
   authors: Anmol Gupta, Weiwei Gu, Omkar Patil, Jun Ki Lee, Nakul Gopalan
   link:
     url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02741
     display: 2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
-  highlight: 1
+  highlight: 0
 
 - title: Factorizing Diffusion Policies for Observation Modality Prioritization
   image: dist-rw.png
@@ -14,7 +23,7 @@
   link:
     url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.16830
     display: 2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
-  highlight: 1
+  highlight: 0
 
 - title: XMoP- Whole-Body Control Policy for Zero-shot Cross-Embodiment Neural Motion Planning
   image: prabin_xmop.png

_data/students.yml

@@ -59,50 +59,12 @@
 #   number_educ: 0
 #   education1:
 
-- name: Kartikay Pangaonkar
-  website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kartikay-pangaonkar-7594a8204/
-  photo: s6.jpg
-  info: Master student
-  number_educ: 0
-  education1:
-
 - name: Prabhath Adireddi
   photo: s4.jpg
   info: Master student
   number_educ: 0
   education1:
 
-- name: Bhavya Shah
-  photo: s6.jpg
-  info: Master student
-  number_educ: 0
-  education1:
-
-- name: Anudeep Gottapu
-  photo: s6.jpg
-  info: Master student
-  number_educ: 0
-  education1:
-
-- name: Ryan Sam Varghese
-  website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-sam-varghese
-  photo: ryan_varghese.jpg
-  info: Master student
-  number_educ: 0
-  education1:
-
-- name: Swagat Padhan
-  photo: s6.jpg
-  info: Master student
-  number_educ: 0
-  education1:
-
-- name: Lakshya Jain
-  photo: s6.jpg
-  info: Master student
-  number_educ: 0
-  education1:
-
 # - name: Yu-Lun Liu
 #   photo: s6.jpg
 #   info: Master student

_pages/home.md

@@ -6,29 +6,48 @@ sitemap: false
 permalink: /
 ---
 
-**News: Two papers from the lab have been accepted into ICRA 2026!** 
+**News: [StageCraft](https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20659) has been accepted into IROS 2026, where we are also organizing a [workshop on compositional and modular learning](https://compositional-robotics.github.io/)!** 
 
 
-<div markdown="0" id="carousel" class="carousel slide" data-ride="carousel" data-interval="4000" data-pause="hover" >
+<div markdown="0" id="carousel" class="carousel slide" data-ride="carousel" data-interval="5000" data-pause="hover" >
     <!-- Menu -->
     <ol class="carousel-indicators">
         <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="0" class="active"></li>
         <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="1"></li>
         <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="2"></li>
-        <!-- <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="3"></li> -->
-        <!-- <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="4"></li>
+        <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="3"></li>
+        <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="4"></li>
         <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="5"></li>
-        <li data-target="#carousel" data-slide-to="6"></li> -->
     </ol>
     <div class="carousel-inner" markdown="0">
-        <div class="item active">
-            <img src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/images/slider7001400/IMG_SWRS.jpg" alt="Slide 1" />
-        </div>
-        <div class="item">
+        <div class="item active" data-interval="5000">
             <img src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/images/slider7001400/IMG_20230713_162520.jpg" alt="Slide2" />
         </div>
-        <div class="item">
-            <img src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/images/slider7001400/IMG_6287.jpg" alt="Slide 3" />
+        <!-- Each video slide holds for its own clip length; see data-interval. -->
+        <div class="item" data-interval="18500">
+            <video class="carousel-video" muted playsinline preload="metadata">
+                <source src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/videos/stagecraft_pi05.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
+            </video>
+        </div>
+        <div class="item" data-interval="12000">
+            <video class="carousel-video" muted playsinline preload="metadata">
+                <source src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/videos/stagecraft_real.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
+            </video>
+        </div>
+        <div class="item" data-interval="17500">
+            <video class="carousel-video" muted playsinline preload="metadata">
+                <source src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/videos/sawyer_14.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
+            </video>
+        </div>
+        <div class="item" data-interval="13500">
+            <video class="carousel-video" muted playsinline preload="metadata">
+                <source src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/videos/sawyer_23.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
+            </video>
+        </div>
+        <div class="item" data-interval="6500">
+            <video class="carousel-video" muted playsinline preload="metadata">
+                <source src="{{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/videos/fdp_distractor.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
+            </video>
         </div>
     </div>
   <a class="left carousel-control" href="#carousel" role="button" data-slide="prev">
@@ -41,6 +60,67 @@ permalink: /
   </a>
 </div>
 
+<style>
+/* Slides carry different aspect ratios (4:3 photos, 16:9 video), so every slide is
+   pinned to one 16:9 box to stop the carousel resizing as it advances. Media is
+   letterboxed rather than cropped, so nothing gets cut out of the group photos. */
+.carousel-inner > .item {
+    aspect-ratio: 16 / 9;
+    background-color: #000;
+}
+.carousel-inner > .item > img,
+.carousel-inner > .item > .carousel-video {
+    display: block;
+    width: 100%;
+    height: 100%;
+    object-fit: contain;
+    line-height: 1;
+}
+</style>
+
+<script>
+// Deferred to window load: jQuery and bootstrap.js are pulled in by the footer,
+// which is further down the page than this script.
+window.addEventListener('load', function () {
+    // Videos are only played once their slide is showing, and restarted from the top,
+    // so a clip is never caught mid-way through.
+    var $carousel = jQuery('#carousel');
+
+    function setIntervalForItem(itemEl) {
+        var carousel = $carousel.data('bs.carousel');
+        if (!carousel) return;
+        var intervalAttr = itemEl && itemEl.getAttribute && itemEl.getAttribute('data-interval');
+        var interval = intervalAttr ? parseInt(intervalAttr, 10) : NaN;
+        if (!isNaN(interval)) {
+            carousel.options.interval = interval;
+            carousel.pause();
+            carousel.cycle();
+        }
+    }
+
+    function playActive() {
+        $carousel.find('video').each(function () {
+            try { this.pause(); } catch (e) {}
+            try { this.currentTime = 0; } catch (e) {}
+        });
+
+        var $activeItem = $carousel.find('.item.active');
+        setIntervalForItem($activeItem[0]);
+
+        var video = $activeItem.find('video')[0];
+        if (video) {
+            var p = video.play();
+            if (p && typeof p.catch === 'function') p.catch(function () {});
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Apply the interval to the next slide before the transition starts.
+    $carousel.on('slide.bs.carousel', function (e) { setIntervalForItem(e.relatedTarget); });
+    $carousel.on('slid.bs.carousel', playActive);
+    playActive();
+});
+</script>
+
 
 Welcome to the Logos Robotics Lab. We are a robotics research group based within the [School of Augmented Intelligence](https://scai.engineering.asu.edu/) at [Arizona State University](https://www.asu.edu/). Our aim is to make robots adept at collaborating with people while augmenting human capabilities. 
 We achieve these goals by making robots autonomous, collaborative and interactive by solving fundamental problems in Robot Learning, Language Grounding, Task and Motion Planning and Perception.      
@@ -60,6 +140,61 @@ We are grateful for funding from Leiden University, [LMU ](https://www.lmu.de) [
 
  <!-- **We are  looking for passionate new PhD students, Postdocs, and Master students to join the team** [(more info)]({{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/vacancies) **!** -->
 
+<div markdown="0" class="connect">
+  <span class="connect-label">Connect with us</span>
+  <a class="connect-link connect-linkedin" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/logos-robotics-lab/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">
+    <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="15" height="15" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidden="true">
+      <path d="M0 1.146C0 .513.526 0 1.175 0h13.65C15.474 0 16 .513 16 1.146v13.708c0 .633-.526 1.146-1.175 1.146H1.175C.526 16 0 15.487 0 14.854V1.146zm4.943 12.248V6.169H2.542v7.225h2.401zm-1.2-8.212c.837 0 1.358-.554 1.358-1.248-.015-.709-.52-1.248-1.342-1.248-.822 0-1.359.54-1.359 1.248 0 .694.521 1.248 1.327 1.248h.016zm4.908 8.212V9.359c0-.216.016-.432.08-.586.173-.431.568-.878 1.232-.878.869 0 1.216.662 1.216 1.634v3.865h2.401V9.25c0-2.22-1.184-3.252-2.764-3.252-1.274 0-1.845.7-2.165 1.193v.025h-.016l.016-.025V6.169h-2.4c.03.678 0 7.225 0 7.225h2.4z"/>
+    </svg>
+    LinkedIn
+  </a>
+  <a class="connect-link connect-x" href="https://x.com/logosrobotics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">
+    <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="14" height="14" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidden="true">
+      <path d="M12.6.75h2.454l-5.36 6.142L16 15.25h-4.937l-3.867-5.07-4.425 5.07H.316l5.733-6.57L0 .75h5.063l3.495 4.633L12.601.75zm-.86 13.028h1.36L4.323 2.145H2.865l8.875 11.633z"/>
+    </svg>
+    X
+  </a>
+</div>
+
+<style>
+.connect {
+    display: flex;
+    align-items: center;
+    flex-wrap: wrap;
+    gap: 10px;
+    margin: 30px 0 10px;
+    padding-top: 18px;
+    border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5;
+}
+.connect-label {
+    margin-right: 4px;
+    color: #777;
+    font-size: 14px;
+}
+.connect-link {
+    display: inline-flex;
+    align-items: center;
+    gap: 6px;
+    padding: 5px 12px;
+    border: 1px solid #ddd;
+    border-radius: 3px;
+    color: #555;
+    font-size: 14px;
+    line-height: 1.4;
+    text-decoration: none;
+    transition: color .15s ease, border-color .15s ease, background-color .15s ease;
+}
+.connect-link:hover,
+.connect-link:focus {
+    color: #fff;
+    text-decoration: none;
+}
+.connect-linkedin:hover,
+.connect-linkedin:focus { background-color: #0a66c2; border-color: #0a66c2; }
+.connect-x:hover,
+.connect-x:focus { background-color: #000; border-color: #000; }
+</style>
+