Publications & preprints
I develop learning, planning, and control methods for autonomous systems operating under resource, information, communication, and sensing constraints.
Research threads
Communication and coordination methods that remain effective as agent populations grow.
SCoUT · scalable communication and coordination
CurrentScalable sparse multi-agent diffusion
Planning and learning under limited budgets, capacity, and partial observability.
IEEE Control Systems Letters · TMLR · IEEE RA-L
Robot control and planning that activate only the information and sensing needed for the task.
ComTraQ-MPC · B-COD / just-enough sensing
CurrentHeterogeneous-sensor multi-robot search and rescue
Planning and prediction when agents must resolve conflicts and act through uncertain occlusions.
Predicted Reachability · strategic planning and control
CurrentNash-bargaining foundation models for conflict resolution · game-theoretic long-tail trajectory prediction
Showing all publications.
@article{vora2024solving,
title = {Solving Truly Massive Budgeted Monotonic POMDPs with Oracle-Guided Meta-Reinforcement Learning},
author = {Vora, Manav and Liang, Jonas and Grussing, Michael N and Ornik, Melkior},
journal = {Transactions on Machine Learning Research},
year = {2026},
}
@article{vora2026scout,
title = {SCoUT: Scalable Communication via Utility-Guided Temporal Grouping in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning},
author = {Vora, Manav and Puthumanaillam, Gokul and Tsukamoto, Hiroyasu and Ornik, Melkior},
journal = {Reinforcement Learning Journal},
year = {2026},
volume = {7},
}
@inproceedings{casselman2026virtual,
title = {Virtual Force-Based Routing of Modular Agents on a Graph},
author = {Casselman, Adam and Vora, Manav and Ornik, Melkior},
booktitle = {10th IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications},
year = {2026},
}
@article{vora2024capacity,
title = {Capacity-Aware Planning and Scheduling in Budget-Constrained Multi-Agent MDPs: A Meta-RL Approach},
author = {Vora, Manav and Shomorony, Ilan and Ornik, Melkior},
journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
year = {2025},
volume = {10},
number = {11},
pages = {11944--11951},
doi = {10.1109/LRA.2025.3617726},
}
@inproceedings{puthumanaillam2025bcod,
title = {Belief-Conditioned One-Step Diffusion: Real-Time Trajectory Planning with Just-Enough Sensing},
author = {Puthumanaillam, Gokul and Penumarti, Aditya and Vora, Manav and Padrao, Paulo and Fuentes, Jose and Bobadilla, Leonardo and Shin, Jane and Ornik, Melkior},
booktitle = {Conference on Robot Learning},
year = {2025},
volume = {305},
pages = {68--92},
}
@inproceedings{zhang2025predicted,
title = {Motion Planning and Control with Unknown Nonlinear Dynamics through Predicted Reachability},
author = {Zhang, Zhiquan and Puthumanaillam, Gokul and Vora, Manav and Ornik, Melkior},
booktitle = {2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems},
year = {2025},
pages = {342--349},
doi = {10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11245807},
}
@inproceedings{dey2025counterdeceptiveness,
title = {Optimizing a Model-Agnostic Measure of Graph Counterdeceptiveness via Reattachment},
author = {Dey, Anakin and Ruggerio, Sam and Vora, Manav and Ornik, Melkior},
booktitle = {2025 IEEE 5th Cyber Awareness and Research Symposium},
year = {2025},
pages = {1--7},
doi = {10.1109/CARS67163.2025.11337469},
}
@article{puthumanaillam2024moral,
title = {A Moral Imperative: The Need for Continual Superalignment of Large Language Models},
author = {Puthumanaillam, Gokul and Vora, Manav and Thangeda, Pranay and Ornik, Melkior},
journal = {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.14683},
year = {2024},
}
@inproceedings{10801659,
author = {Puthumanaillam, Gokul and Vora, Manav and Ornik, Melkior},
booktitle = {2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
title = {ComTraQ-MPC: Meta-Trained DQN-MPC Integration for Trajectory Tracking with Limited Active Localization Updates},
year = {2024},
volume = {},
number = {},
pages = {13592-13598},
keywords = {Location awareness;Accuracy;Trajectory tracking;Trajectory planning;Decision making;Stochastic processes;Trajectory;State estimation;Intelligent robots;Predictive control},
doi = {10.1109/IROS58592.2024.10801659},
}
@inproceedings{puthumanaillam2024assured,
title = {Assured Collision Avoidance for Learned Controllers: A Case Study of ACAS Xu},
author = {Puthumanaillam, Gokul and Vora, Manav Ketan and Shafa, Taha and Li, Yangge and Ornik, Melkior and Mitra, Sayan},
booktitle = {AIAA SCITECH 2024 Forum},
pages = {1168},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.2514/6.2024-1168},
}
@article{vora2023welfare,
title = {Welfare Maximization Algorithm for Solving Budget-Constrained Multi-Component POMDPs},
author = {Vora, Manav and Thangeda, Pranay and Grussing, Michael N and Ornik, Melkior},
journal = {IEEE Control Systems Letters},
volume = {7},
pages = {1736--1741},
year = {2023},
publisher = {IEEE},
doi = {10.1109/LCSYS.2023.3280080},
}