Welcome!
The Human-Centered Robotics Lab is directed by Dr. Hao Zhang and is dedicated to cutting-edge research on lifelong collaborative autonomy,
with the goal of enabling robots to operate and adapt over long periods of time (e.g., across days and seasons, and eventually over the robots' lifetimes), and to naturally collaborate with humans and adaptively work with other robots as teammates, in order to take over tasks where our current society has shortcomings and where intelligent robots can be a promising solution or a critical component.
Our research lies at the intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning,
with specific research topics focusing on robot adaptation and human-robot/swarm teaming in dynamic, unstructured, novel, and potentially adversarial environments.
Our work is computational, in that we develop innovative algorithms, approaches, and software architectures that have provable properties to enable lifelong collaborative autonomy.
We focus on both theoretical and applied research that leads to fundamentally new concepts and systems that can be demonstrated on real robots in real-world applications, including manufacturing, connected autonomous driving,
robot-assisted inspection and repair, environment exploration and monitoring,
Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT), among others where robots are a promising solution or a critical component.
Our research leads to new robotics solutions with solid algorithmic foundations to address environmental, social and economic issues, impacting the state of national health, education, safety, productivity, efficiency, and the economy.
We are looking for highly self-motivated students who are interested in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. If you are interested in our research and would like to join the Human-Centered Robotics Lab, please send Dr. Zhang an email with your CV, transcripts and publications.