Events Calendar

CS Seminar: Jim Boerkoel (Harvey Mudd) - Temporal Planning for Robust Human-Robot Teamwork

Speaker: Jim Boerkoel, Harvey Mudd

Talk Title: Temporal Planning for Robust Human-Robot Teamwork

Series: CS Seminar Series

Abstract: Our work explores what it takes for teams of robots and humans to schedule robust interactions in the messiness of the real world.Temporal planning enables robots to automatically coordinate when the activities in their schedule should occur. In general, we want temporal plans that are adaptable to events that are beyond the direct control of agents; e.g., a robot may experience slippage or sensor failures. To do this, we must answer two questions: (1) how and when do new or unexpected events arise in practice?, and (2) how "good" is the temporal plan at adapting to unexpected events that might otherwise invalidate the plan? We have proposed a new metric called robustness, which assesses the likelihood that a multi-robot plan succeeds. We have shown that robustness is a better measure of multi-robot plan quality and that we can generate plans that optimize for robustness.

We also explore how to plan and schedule robots' interactions with humans on shared activities so that the exchanges are fluid and intuitive. For instance, one of our ongoing projects considers whether an agent can learn about the experiences of its human teammate in order to nudge them towards more optimal behavior. Another considers the roles that trust and cooperation play in human-robot interactions and how these differ from how humans trust and cooperate with each other.

Learn more: https://www.cs.hmc.edu/HEAT/


Host: Sven Koenig

Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 322

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Assistant to CS chair