Knowledge and Data Dependence in Decision-Making
Abstract: This thesis explores diverse decision-making strategies for autonomous agents by examining knowledge-dependent and data-dependent approaches in stationary and dynamic data environments. We address five core research problems across three thematic areas: knowledge-dependent, stationary data-dependent, and evolving data-dependent decision-making. We first investigate knowledge-driven decision-making within robotic swarms, characterizing vulnerabilities in systems governed by consistent rule-following [...]
Communication Efficient and Differentially Private Optimization
Abstract: In recent years, the integration of communication efficiency and differential privacy in distributed optimization has gained significant attention, motivated by large-scale applications such as Federated Learning (FL), where both data privacy and efficient communication are critical. This thesis explores the development of novel techniques to address these challenges, with a focus on distributed mean [...]
Towards a Universal Data Engine for Robotics and Beyond
Abstract: Robotics researchers have been attempting to extend data-driven breakthroughs in fields like computer vision and language processing into robot learning. However, unlike vision or language domains where massive amounts of data is readily available on the internet, training robotic policies relies on physical and interactive data collected via interacting with the physical world -- [...]
RI Seminar with Jeffrey Ichnowski
High-resolution cloth simulation in milliseconds: Efficient GPU Cloth Simulation with Non-distance Barriers and Subspace Reuse Interactions
Abstract: We show how to push the performance of high-resolution cloth simulation, making the simulation interactive (in milliseconds) for models with one million degrees of freedom (DOFs) while keeping every triangle untangled. The guarantee of being penetration-free is inspired by the interior-point method, which converts the inequality constraints to barrier potentials. Nevertheless, we propose a [...]
Better Standards for Trajectory Forecasting: Data, Evaluation, and Methods
Abstract: Ensuring pedestrian safety in dynamic environments is a key challenge for autonomous systems, particularly in dynamic, multi-agent environments. Trajectory forecasting plays a central role in enabling these systems to anticipate pedestrian behaviors and respond appropriately. This thesis addresses three core limitations in trajectory forecasting systems which impede safe and robust trajectory forecasting: inadequate evaluation protocols [...]
RI Faculty Business Meeting
Meeting for RI Faculty. Agenda was sent via a calendar invite.
Robotics Institute Winter Party
All Robotics Institute Faculty. Staff, Students, and Visitors are invited to attend this event. Please join us for food, beverages, and casual conversation with colleagues. A calendar invite including details will be sent closer to the event.