Safe Contact in Autonomous Robots

The Focus Group “Safe Contact in Autonomous Robots” consists of Hans Fischer Fellow Prof. Aaron Johnson (Carnegie Mellon University) and his host Prof. Majid Khadiv (AI Planning in Dynamic Environments, TUM School of Computation, information and Technology).

It is considering the research question, how can a robot safely reason about incidental contact in order to allow it to succeed in cluttered, unstructured environments? To do this, we are developing methods that allow robots to not be afraid of incidental contact and to determine which contacts are problematic and which are safe. Then, we will use this information to allow the robot to plan behaviors that may or may not make incidental contact. The project will use a combination of hybrid system analysis, motion planning and MPC, as well as machine learning approaches. The expected outcomes are robot behaviors that are safe and less conservative in cluttered natural and human spaces. In addition, the project will work to complete the online textbook and organize international workshops.

Prof. Johnson holds a TUM-IAS Hans Fischer Fellowship funded by Siemens AG.