MSR Thesis Talk – Matt Martone

Newell-Simon Hall 3305

Title: Design and Control of a Large Modular Hexapod   Abstract: Legged robotic systems have made great strides in recent years, but unlike wheeled robots, limbed locomotion does not scale well.  Long legs demand huge torques, driving up actuator size and onboard battery mass.  This relationship results in massive structures that lack the safety, portability, [...]

Improving Robot and Deep Reinforcement Learning via Quality Diversity and Open-Ended Algorithms

Gates Hillman Center 6115

Abstract: Quality Diversity (QD) algorithms are those that seek to produce a diverse set of high-performing solutions to problems. I will describe them and a number of their positive attributes. I will then summarize our Nature paper on how they, when combined with Bayesian Optimization, produce a learning algorithm that enables robots, after being damaged, to adapt in 1-2 minutes [...]