MSR Speaking Qualifier
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Vision-based Aircraft Detection and Tracking for Detect-and-Avoid

NSH 4305

Abstract: Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) capabilities are critical for autonomous operations of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). Traditionally DAA systems for large aircraft have been ground and radar-based. Due to the size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints of sUAS, current DAA systems rely mainly on vision-based sensors and ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) transponders. However, not all flying [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
Extern
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Teaching Agent Reward Functions via Demonstrations for Human Inverse Reinforcement Learning

NSH 4305

Abstract: For intelligent agents (e.g. robots) to be seamlessly integrated into human society, humans must be able to understand their decision making. For example, the decision making of autonomous cars must be clear to the engineers certifying their safety, passengers riding them, and nearby drivers negotiating the road simultaneously. As an agent's decision making can [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Learning to perform dynamic and interactive tasks using structural and algorithmic priors

NSH 3002

Abstract: Everyday human tasks such as picking up an object in one smooth motion, pushing a heavy door using the momentum of our bodies or pushing off a wall to quickly turn a corner involve complex dynamic interactions between the human and the environment, as well as switching dynamics when the robot makes and breaks [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Simple Shape Descriptors for Retinal Surface Estimation using a Laser-Aiming Beam

Abstract: Retinal surgery procedures like epiretinal membrane peeling and retinal vein cannulation require surgeons to manipulate very delicate structures in the eye with little room for error. Many robotic surgery systems have been developed to help surgeons and enforce safeguards during these demanding procedures. One essential piece of information that is required to create and [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Affective Robot Behavior Improves Learning in a Sorting Game

GHC 4405

Abstract: Nonverbal communication in the field of education can allow teachers to emotionally support their students and improve educational experience and performance. Robot nonverbal movements have been shown to improve both subjective experiences and task performance, and this work investigates whether affective robot behavior can improve human learning. This is tested using an online sorting [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Policy Decomposition: Approximate Optimal Control with Suboptimality Estimates

NSH 3305

Abstract: Optimal Control is a formulation for designing controllers for dynamical systems by posing it as an optimization problem, whereby the desired long-term behavior of the system is expressed using a cost function. The objective is to compute a policy, i.e. a mapping from the state of the system to its control inputs, that minimizes [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Audience-Aware Legibility for Social Navigation

Abstract: Robots often need to communicate their goals to humans when navigating in a shared space to assist observers in anticipating the robot’s future actions. These human observers are often scattered throughout the environment, and each observer only has a partial view of the robot and its movements. A path that non-verbally communicates with multiple [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

On Sample-Efficient Reinforcement Learning for Nuclear Fusion

NSH 4305

Abstract: In many practical applications of reinforcement learning (RL), it is expensive to observe state transitions from the environment. For example, in the problem of plasma control for nuclear fusion, determining the next state for a given state-action pair requires querying an expensive transition function which can lead to many hours of computer simulation or [...]

PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Learning Strategies to Solve Real-World Physics Puzzles

Abstract: In this talk, I focus on efficient online learning for solving real-world physics puzzles. I discuss challenges associated with learning in this domain and how those challenges inform certain design decisions. In particular, learning from scratch in the real world would be difficult. I present a practical mixture of experts framework for learning strategies [...]

PhD Thesis Defense
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Towards Modular and Differentiable Autonomous Driving

NSH 4305

Abstract: The classical "modular and cascaded" autonomy stack (object detection, tracking, trajectory prediction, then planning and control) has been widely used for interactive autonomous systems such as self-driving cars due to its interpretability and fast development cycle. In this thesis, we advocate the use of such a modular stack but improve its accuracy and robustness [...]