Dear all,

This is to announce a seminar on Thursday given by Dr. Morteza Lahijanian, from University of Oxford.

Time: Thursday 27^th April, 12.00

Place: S1.12, Strand Campus.

Speaker: Dr Morteza Lahijanian.

Title: Towards Robot Autonomy through Formal Methods: Automatic Control Generation from Task-Level Specifications in Uncertain Settings

Abstract

Robots are rapidly evolving from simple instruments for repetitive tasks to increasingly sophisticated machines capable of performing challenging operations in our daily environment. As they make their way out of custom-made workspaces in factories, intelligent algorithms are needed to enable robots to autonomously execute complex tasks in unstructured environments. The achievement of such algorithms requires interweaving and further development of the concepts and methods originated in various disciplines, namely control theory, motion planning, formal methods, and artificial intelligence. In this talk, I present our recent works that address the challenges in automatic control generation for robotic systems in unstructured environments.

The frameworks integrate formal methods, motion planning techniques, and stochastic control concepts to allow a robot with complex continuous dynamics to achieve a high-level task in uncertainty settings.

Short Bio:

Morteza Lahijanian is a research scientist at the Dept. of Computer Science at University of Oxford. He received his B.S. in Bioengineering from University of California, Berkeley, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, and Ph.D. in the field of systems and control theory with applications in robotics from Boston University (2013). He conducted research as a postdoc in the field of robotics in the Dept. of Computer Science at Rice University (2015). His research interests include dynamics, control theory, game theory, systems, and formal methods with applications in robotics, particularly motion planning, formal verification, formal synthesis, hybrid systems, and human-robot interaction.

Dr Daniele Magazzeni

Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, King's College London

Head, AI Planning Group

Editor-in-Chief, AI Communications

http://www.inf.kcl.ac.uk/staff/danmag