Welcome to the Autonomous Systems Laboratory

The Autonomous Systems Lab (ASL) develops algorithms and control methods for autonomous systems operating in uncertain environments.ÌýSystems include autonomous ground and aerial vehicles, multi-robot systems, autonomous driving, and robots that interact with humans.

The following are some current areas of focus:

  • Robot motion planning:Ìýmethods for planning robot motion to efficiently complete complex tasks.
  • Learning planning policies:Ìýlearning robot behaviors and policies through repeated task executions.ÌýÌý
  • Planning under uncertainty:Ìýplanning and sensing for operation in unknown environments.
  • Persistent monitoring and scene reconstruction:Ìýmonitoring and building real-time maps for complex 3D environments.
  • Future transportation systems:Ìýcoordinating and dispatching vehicles for ride-sharing and urban transportation.
  • Active preference learning:Ìýcoordinating robots to work with humans in task specification and collaborative assembly.
  • Distributed and submodular optimization:Ìýcollective decision making strategies for objectives that exhibit diminishing returns.
  • Autonomous driving:Ìý Generating safe and efficient motion in real-world environments.
  • Other areas of interest include dynamic vehicle routing, informative path planning, task allocation, formation control, consensus/rendezvous and ocean sampling.

News

We recently presented the following papers at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control held in Cancun, Mexico in December, 2022.

  • A. Downie, B. Gharesifard, and S. L. Smith. A Programming Approach for Worst-case Studies in Distributed Submodular Maximization. [] []
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  • C. Wang, Y. Meng, S. L. Smith, and J. Liu. Data-Driven Learning of Safety-Critical Control with Stochastic Control Barrier Functions. [] []
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  • F. Wang, C. Nielsen, and S. L. Smith. A Pursuit Evasion Approach for Avoiding an Inattentive Human in the Presence of a Static Obstacle. [] []
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  • R. Li, J. W. Simpson-Porco, and S. L. Smith. Data-Driven Model Predictive Control for Linear Time-Periodic Systems. [] []
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  • S. Dutta, N. Wilde, and S. L. Smith. Informative Path Planning in Random Fields via Mixed Integer Programming. [] []
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  • Y. Cai, A. Dahiya, N. Wilde, and S. L. Smith. Scheduling Operator Assistance for Shared Autonomy in Multi-Robot Teams. [] [] []
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  • A. Downie, B. Gharesifard, and S. L. Smith. Optimistic Greedy Strategies for Partially Known Submodular Functions. [] []
Friday, April 8, 2022

Recently Accepted Papers

  • Our paper onÌýÌýappeared in IEEE Open Journal on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
  • Our paper onÌýÌýappeared in IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems.
  • Our paper onÌýÌýappeared in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.