Robotics & Multi-Agent Systems
Robotics and Multi-Agent Systems involves the concepting, building, and
implementation of robots, as well as the collaborative programming of multiple robots, to perform certain tasks.
How a Low-Cost Soft Robot Is Learning to Perform Surgery Inside a Beating Heart
In a leap for minimally invasive medicine, a soft robot is learning to perform delicate procedures inside a living, beating heart—something no human hand could ever achieve. For Assistant Professor Tommaso Ranzani (ME, MSE, BME), who leads this project, it’s the culmination of years of design and experimentation. His team’s latest breakthrough marks one of […]
“Build-Teach-Learn” Workspace: How RASTIC has become a hub for robotics innovation among students
At the end of the spring 2025 semester, the Robotics & Autonomous Systems Teaching and Innovation Center (RASTIC) did not close for six days straight. “We were open 24/7, [and it was] as nonstop as it gets, because there was just so much energy and excitement and so many things going on,” said Dr. Kenneth […]
CISE Student, Akua Kodie Dickson, Featured by BU College of Engineering for Autonomy Research
CISE student Akua Kodie Dickson (SE Ph.D. candidate) is working to advance safety and trust in robotics. During her Ph.D., Dickson began working with robotic controllers and motion planning. This led her to find a passion for safe autonomy — robots doing autonomous tasks and helping humans solve problems in a safe way. “One of […]
CISE Faculty Recognized for Groundbreaking AI Research with AIRR Awards
Recognized for their cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence, 11 CISE faculty affiliates have been honored with AI Research Resource (AIRR) awards. This Hariri Institute program supports AI research at Boston University by giving researchers access to the New England Research Cloud (NERC), a regional computing infrastructure that provides cloud-based resources tailored to academic research. A […]
CAREER: Physically-Aware Accelerator Design Flows for Motion Planning
A focus of modern computer engineering is designing customized computer processors (accelerators) in order to meet the timing and power needs of emerging applications, and one critical application space that can benefit from customized accelerators is autonomous systems, e.g., robots that can walk and grasp objects. Robots must complete heavy computational workloads fast enough to […]
Koopman in the Field: Feedback, Teaching, and Adaptation for Real World Mechanical Systems
Teaching autonomous machines to perform complex tasks currently requires advanced expertise in mechanical systems and specialized algorithms, making these technologies inaccessible to many. This limits who can use them, where they can be deployed, and how effectively they operate over time. Emerging technologies such as soft robots are inexpensive, easy to deploy, and hold great […]
Intracardiac beating heart tricuspid valve repair via robotics
Summary About 2.5% of the US population has a valvular heart disease. While neglected for a long time, problems related to the tricuspid valve affect more than 70 million people worldwide. Among these, more than 1.6 million are in the US. The yearly incidence is about 200,000 with a 1-year mortality rate of 36.1%. The […]
CISE Hosts Learning to Trust Autonomy Workshop to Foster Collaboration in Autonomous Systems
In March 2024, Roscoe, a Massachusetts State Police robot dog produced by Boston Dynamics, was shot three times while engaged in a standoff in Cape Cod. During the standoff, Roscoe cleared the building before police officers entered, demonstrating how robotics can help and protect humans. The rapid advancement in autonomous systems and robotics has impacted […]
Sketching for Efficient and Robust Top-Down Autonomous Navigation
The award supports a research project that introduces a novel approach that robots can use to navigate (individually or as part of a team) in unknown environments in a way that is closer to how humans approach the same task. The main project novelty is represented by the high-level reasoning used by the robots (which […]
CISE Students Win CSS TC 2024 Outstanding Student Paper Prize
The committee for the Outstanding Student Paper Prize 2024 announced this year’s prestigious award recipients. Among six national nominations, one paper written by two CISE students stood out for its innovative contributions to the field of smart cities. Ehsan Sabouni and H.M. Sabbir Ahmad and their collaborators are exemplars of academic excellence and collaborative spirit. […]