Distinguished Lecturers

Dr. Malika Meghjani is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Design Pillar at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). She directs the Multi-Agent Robot Vision and Learning (MARVL) Lab, with the focus on algorithm design for efficient, reliable and scalable robots that can work independently and collaboratively with humans. Her research interests are in planning under uncertainty, reinforcement learning, computer vision, deep learning, and game theory. The applications of her work are in field robotics ranging from marine robots specifically, underwater and surface vehicles to self-driving cars and other ground vehicles in unstructured environments. Malika has been cited by Analytics Insight in 2020 as one of the World's 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics. She is also 2017 SMART Postdoctoral Scholar, 2015 McGill Scarlet Key recipient, 2013 IEEE Canada Women in Engineering Prize awardee and 2013 Google Anita Borg Scholar.

Talk #1

Human-Centric Multi-Robot Systems

In this talk, I will present multi-robot systems in real-world environments that coordinate and collaborate with humans. Specifically, heterogeneous fleet of autonomous mobility-on-demand vehicles that coordinate with each other and human passengers to seamlessly connect the journey from first mile to last mile. A pair of unmanned aerial vehicles that collaborate with human operators for search and rescue operations. Lastly, a heterogeneous group of robots that collaborate with marine biologists for repetitive environment monitoring.

Paolo Robuffo Giordano is a CNRS senior research scientist head of the Rainbow group at IRISA/Inria, Rennes, France. He holds a PhD degree in Systems Engineering obtained in 2008 at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. From January 2007 to July 2007 and from November 2007 to October 2008, he was a research scientist at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany, and from October 2008 to November 2012 he was a senior research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and scientific leader of the group “Human-Robot Interaction”. His scientific interests include motion control for mobile robots and mobile manipulators, visual control of robots, active sensing, bilateral teleoperation, shared control, multi-robot estimation and control, aerial robotics.

Primary Keywords: Aerial Systems: Mechanics and Control; Aerial Systems: Perception and Autonomy; Calibration and Identification; Multi-Robot Systems; Optimization and Optimal Control; Robust/Adaptive Control of Robotic Systems; Reactive and Sensor-Based Planning; Sensor Fusion; Sensor-based Control; Visual Servoing; Wheeled Robots
Secondary Keywords: Compliance and Impedance Control; Localization; Mobile Manipulation; Motion and Path Planning; Nonholonomic Mechanisms and Systems; Nonholonomic Motion Planning; Visual-Based Navigation; Telerobotics and Teleoperation

January 1, 2019 – December 31, 2024