Automation & Control
Automation & Control combines engineering with machine-learning in order to provide industrial systems with the information necessary to work in an automatic and controlled manner. Research areas include: atomic force microscopy, bio-inspired control, discrete-event systems, formal languages for robot mission specification, hybrid systems, image-guided surgery, networked control systems, robot path planning and control, robotic swarms, and UAV flight control.
Unified Vision-Based Motion Estimation and Control for Multiple and Complex Robots
The project enables teams of robots to collaborate on physical tasks, such as assembling a building from prefabricated components under the direction of a human worker. In such settings, each robot might be equipped with cameras to orient itself and have some limitations on how it can move. To achieve the robotic team’s goals, each […]
FRR: Towards Robust and Perceptual Inclusive Mobile Robots
As prototypical intelligent mobile systems, from autonomous vehicles to delivery robots, move from their controlled development labs into the real-world, their impact on individuals with disabilities becomes discernible. An intelligent system that fails to account for diverse reactions and mobility characteristics among individuals can have dire consequences. For example, a delivery robot may inadvertently cause […]
New Technology Could Predict When Someone’s Mobility is Declining
CISE Faculty Affiliate Roberto Tron uses Visual-Inertial Filtering for Clinically-Relevant Human Walking Quantification As we age, the likelihood of falling and getting injured increases. But what if we could prevent these accidents from happening? CISE faculty affiliate Roberto Tron is working on preventing injuries by monitoring mobility through cameras, sensors, machine learning, and estimation algorithms […]
Collaborative Research: CPS: Medium: An Online Learning Framework for Socially Emerging Mixed Mobility
Emerging mobility systems, e.g., connected and automated vehicles and shared mobility, provide the most intriguing opportunity for enabling users to better monitor transportation network conditions and make better decisions for improving safety and transportation efficiency. However, different levels of vehicle automation in the transportation network can significantly alter transportation efficiency metrics (travel times, energy, environmental […]
CISE awarded $8.8M to develop the next-generation robotics and autonomous systems workforce
The Boston University Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE) received an $8.8 million award to fund a new center called the BU Robotics and Autonomous Systems Teaching and Innovation Center (BU-RASTIC). The award, including $4.4M from the Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) and $4.4M matching funds from Boston University, will serve to […]
Advancing Smart Cities with the Internet of Cars
Quicker, Safer and Greener Intersections Intersections with Dynamic Traffic Control In road transport engineering, an intersection is defined as at-grade junction where two or more roads or streets meet or cross. Statistically, it has been evidenced that intersections present a major hurdle in traffic control as they account for the lion’s share of accidents and of […]
NEXTCAR Self-driving Car in Action Advances the Future Internet of Cars
Traffic congestion around the world is worsening, according to transport data firm INRIX. In the U.S. alone, Americans wasted an average of 97 hours in traffic in 2018 – that’s two precious weekends worth of time. Captivity in traffic also costs them nearly $87 billion in 2018, an average of $1,348 per driver. Clearly, the […]
Neuro-Autonomy: Neuroscience-inspired Perception, Navigation, and Spatial Awareness for Autonomous Robots
State-of-the-art Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are trained for specific, well-structured environments and, in general, would fail to operate in unstructured or novel settings. This project aims at developing next-generation AVs, capable of learning and on-the-fly adaptation to environmental novelty. These systems need to be orders of magnitude more energy efficient than current systems and able to pursue complex goals in […]
Decentralized Optimal Control of Cooperating Networked Multi-agent Systems
Multi-agent systems encompass a broad spectrum of applications, ranging from connected autonomous vehicles and the emerging internet of cars, where the spatial domain may be hundreds of miles with time horizons over hours of days, to micro-air vehicles which operate over meter length and minute time scales, and down to nano-manipulation with nanometer spatial microsecond […]
Highway US-33 – Honda and Cassandras Team Up
Self-driving smart cars used to be something that was seen in the movies; an idea that was too far away to even consider a possible reality. Yet, today we are closer to realizing this dream than ever. Most smart cars on the market come equipped with detectors to alert the driver another vehicle is in […]