Autonomy Talks

Autonomy Talks are open to everyone and no registration is required. The goal of the talks is the exchange among different groups, inside and outside ETH Zurich, working on innovations in Robotics and Control. Autonomy Talks will take place virtually, on Zoom. Check out the official webpage for the details.

2023

August 15, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Nicola Bezzo, University of Virginia
Title: I know that you know that I know: Towards Epistemic Planning of Heterogeneous Robotic Systems


July 25, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Yue Yu, University of Texas at Austin
Title: Inverse Games: Inferring Motives from Interactions


July 18, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Chuchu Fan, MIT
Title: From Neural Certificates to Certificate-based RL in Large-Scale Autonomy Design


July 11, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Mathias Hudoba de Badyn, ETH Zurich
Title: Network science in control: From smart cities to a smart future


July 4, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Michelle Chong, TU Eindhoven
Title: Secure state estimation for cyber-physical systems


June 27, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Oya Celiktutan, King's College London
Title: Robot Learning From and For Human Interactions


June 20, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Angela Fontan, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Title: Collective decision-making on networked systems: from social networks to smart homes


June 13, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Inigo Incer, California Institute of Technology
Title: System Analysis and Design Using Assume-Guarantee Contracts


May 23, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Jamie Paik, EPFL
Title: Reconfigurable Robots for Real Intuitive Interactions


May 16, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Sanjiban Choudhury, Cornell University
Title: The Virtues of Laziness in Model-based RL


May 9, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Cathy Wu, MIT
Title: Intelligent Coordination for Sustainable Roadways – If Autonomous Vehicles are the Answer, then What is the Question?


May 2, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Juncal Arbelaiz, Princeton University
Title: Distributed Kalman filtering for systems with spatiotemporal dynamics


April 25, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Shreyas Kousik, Georgia Institute of Technology
Title: The Right Stuff: Representing Safety to Get Robots Out in the Real World


April 18, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Talia Moore, University of Michigan
Title: A symbiotic philosophy for bio-inspired robotics


April 11, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Pratik Chaudhari, University of Pennsylvania
Title: A Picture of the Prediction Space of Deep Networks


April 4, 2023
Speaker: Alessandro Zanardi, ETH Zurich
Title: Factorization of Multi-Agent Planning, from Sampling-based Methods to Dynamic Games


March 28, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Arash Ajoudani, IIT
Title: Learning and control for interactive robots


March 21, 2023
Speaker: Nicolas Lanzetti, ETH Zurich
Title: Dynamic Programming in Probability Spaces via Optimal Transport


March 7, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Lars Lindemann, University of Southern California
Title: Safe and Robust Data Enabled Autonomy


February 28, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Manxi Wu, Cornell University
Title: Spatiotemporal Pricing for Efficient Autonomous Carpooling Markets


February 21, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Ye Zhao, Georgia Institute of Technology
Title: Safe legged locomotion and navigation: robust motion planning and interactive decision-​making


February 14, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Giuseppe Loianno, New York University
Title: Learning Robot Super Autonomy


February 7, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Katie Driggs-Campbell, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Title: Towards Occlusion-Aware Autonomy using People as Sensors


January 31, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Bart Besselink, University of Groningen
Title: Modular analysis of linear systems using assume-guarantee contracts


January 24, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Michael Posa, University of Pennsylvania
Title: Multi Contact learning and real time control


January 17, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Kevin D. Smith, University of California, Santa Barbara
Title: Semicontracting Dynamical Systems


January 10, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Matthias Althoff, Technical University of Munich
Title: Formally Correct Motion Planning Through Online Verification


2022

December 20, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Maximilian Schiffer, Technical University of Munich
Title: Structured Learning Based Online Optimization for Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems


December 13, 2022
Speaker: Robin Brown, Stanford University
Title: Quantum computing for copositive optimization


December 6, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Matei Ciocarlie, Columbia University
Title: Mechanisms, Sensors and Policies for Dexterous Robotic Manipulation


November 29, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Georgia Chalvatzaki, TU Darmstadt
Title: Shaping Robotic Assistance through Structured Robot Learning


November 22, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Antoine Girard, CNRS
Title: Symbolic control of nonlinear systems: safety, optimization and learning


November 15, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Stelian Coros, ETH Zurich
Title: Physics-based Modeling and the Quest for Intelligent Robots


November 1, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Animesh Garg, Georgia Institute of Technology
Title: Building Blocks of Generalizable Autonomy: Duality of Discovery & Bias


October 25, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Deepak Pathak, Carnegie Mellon University
Title: Robotics in the Wirld: Continual Improvement by Watching and Practicing


October 18, 2022
Speaker: Annie Xie, Stanford University
Title: Towards Continual Robot Learning


October 11, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Nikolai Matni, University of Pennsylvania
Title: What Makes Learning to Control Easy or Hard?


October 4, 2022
Speaker: Sarah Li, University of Washington
Title: Sustainable and Safe Co-existence: Large-scale Autonomy under Resource Disruptions


September 27, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Johannes Betz, University of Pennsylvania
Title: Learning to Handle Autonomous Vehicles at the Limit - Experiences from Roborace and the Indy Autonomous Challenge


September 20, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Ketan Savla, University of Southern California
Title: Microscopic Traffic Flow Control


September 13, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Igor Gilitschenski, University of Toronto
Title: Interactive Navigation for Robust Autonomy


September 6, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Sabine Hauert, University of Bristol
Title: Swarms for People


August 30, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Stephen James, Dyson Robot Learning Lab
Title: Sample-Efficient Robot Learning


August 23, 2022
Speaker: Juraj Kabzan, Motional
Title: Learning with every Mile Driven: nuPlan Motion Planning Challenge


August 16, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Fei Miao, University of Connecticut
Title: Learning and Control for Safety, Efficiency & Security of Cyber-Physical Systems


August 9, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Robert Katzschmann, ETH Zurich
Title: Rethink how we make robots to explore the world


August 2, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Zac Manchester, Carnegie Mellon University
Title: Composable Optimization for Contact-Rich Motion Planing and Control


July 26, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Spring Berman, Arizona State University
Title: Scalable Control of Robotic Swarms in Uncertain Environments


July 19, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Laura Ferranti, TU Delft
Title: An Optimization-Based Framework for Local (Multi-) Robot Motion Planning


July 12, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Michael Hyland, University of California, Irvine
Title: New and Old Network Models for Design and Analysis of Shared Mobility Systems


July 5, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Franziska Mathis-Ullrich, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Title: Cognition Guided Robotics and Embedded AI for Surgeons


June 28, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Takashi Tanaka, University of Texas at Austin
Title: Minimum-Information Kalman-Bucy Filtering and Fundamental Limitation of Continuous-Time Data Compression


June 21, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Gammell, University of Oxford
Title: Measuring and Planning Motion in Robotics


June 14, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Anirudha Majumdar, Princeton University
Title: Safety and Generalization Guarantees for Learning Based Control of Robots


June 7, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Cynthia Sung, University of Pennsylvania
Title: Computational Design of Compliant, Dynamical Robots


May 31, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Stephen L. Smith, University of Waterloo
Title: Learning Motion Plans and User Preferences for Robot Autonomy


May 17, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Lerrel Pinto, New York University
Title: Rethinking Representations for Robotics


May 10, 2022
Speaker: Prof. David Fridovich-Keil, University of Texas at Austin
Title: Learning Mixed Strategies in Lifted Trajectory Games


Speaker: Dr. Sumeet Singh, Google Brain Robotics NYC
Title: Structure for Learning to Control


April 19, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Jeannette Bohg, Stanford University
Title: On the question of representations in robotics


April 12, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Giacomo Como, Politecnico of Torino
Title: Heterogeneities and Dynamic Pricing in Dynamic Traffic Flow Networks


March 29, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Giuseppe Belgioioso, ETH Zurich
Title: Online Feedback Equilibrium Seeking: Stability and Tracking


March 22, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Matthew Walter, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago
Title: Learning Better Ways to Measure and Move: Joint Optimization of an Agent's Physical Design and Computational Reasoning


March 15, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Giorgia Ramponi, ETH Zurich
Title: Inverse Reinforcement Learning from a Gradient-based Learner


March 8, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Tom Van Mele, ETH Zurich
Title: A Framework Approach to Computational Structural Design and Digital Fabrication


March 1, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Kenan Zhang, ETH Zurich
Title: Games and Control on Traffic Networks


February 22, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Ugo Rosolia, California Institute of Technology
Title: Learning MPC: A data ​efficient model ​based reinforcement learning strategy for iterative tasks


February 15, 2022
Speaker: Maria Bauza Villalonga, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: Learning to interact with the world: when generality meets precision


February 8, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Jules Hedges, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Title: Lenses as a recurring pattern in optimisation and learning


February 1, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Oren Salzman, Israel Institute of Technology
Title: Algorithmic motion planning meets minimally-invasive robotic surgery


January 25, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Andreas Malikopoulos, University of Delaware
Title: Separation of Learning and Control for Cyber-Physical Systems


January 18, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Kyriakos Vamvoudakis, Georgia Institute of Technology
Title: Bounded Rationality Methods in Reinforcement Learning-driven Autonomy


January 11, 2022
Speaker: Prof. Sylvia Herbert, University of California, San Diego
Title: Connections between Hamilton-Jacobi Reachability Analysis and Control Barrier Functions for Safety Analysis


2021

December 20, 2021
Speaker: Luca Ballotta, University of Padova
Title: Performance Tradeoffs and Optimal Design in Distributed Systems


December 13, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Mark Mueller, University of California, Berkeley
Title: Tightly Integrated Design and Control of Aerial Robots


December 6, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Amanda Prorok, Cambridge University
Title: Learning Communication for Decentralized Coordination in Multi-Robot Systems


November 29, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Dominic Liao-McPherson, ETH Zurich
Title: Suboptimality and Supervision of Model Predictive Controllers


November 22, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Samitha Samaranayake, Cornell University
Title: Algorithmic foundations for demand-responsive transit systems


November 15, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Andrea Zanelli, ETH Zurich
Title: Efficient inexact numerical methods for nonlinear model predictive control with feasibility guarantees with applications to autonomous racing


November 8, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Anne Collin, Motional
Title: Plane and Sample: Maximizing Information about Autonomous Vehicle Performance using Submodular Optimization


November 1, 2021
Speaker: Erdem Biyik, Stanford University
Title: Learning how to Route Autonomous Vehicles on Shared Roads


October 25, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Francesca Parise, Cornell University
Title: Overcoming Uncertainty of Interactions in Static and Dynamic Multiagent Settings


October 18, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Negar Mehr, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Title: Socially Aware Autonomy: Game Theoretic Planning and Control For Multi Agent Interactions


October 4, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Roberto Galeazzi and Thomas Enevoldsen, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Title: Informed Sampling-based Motion Planning for Collision and Grounding Avoidance of Autonomous Ships


September 27, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Guillaume Sartoretti, National University of Singapore
Title: Distributed Learning Based Scalable Collaboration in Robotic Multi Agent Systems


September 20, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Jana Tumova, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Title: Formal Methods for Preferred Motion Planning


August 23, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Sebastian Hoerl, IRT SystemX, Paris
Title: Exploring the system impact of automated taxis via agent based simulation


August 16, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Wilko Schwarting, MIT/ Tech Lead at ISEE AI
Title: Learning and Control for Interactions in Mixed Human-Robot Environments


August 9, 2021
Speaker: Yingzhao Lian, EPF Lausanne
Title: New Perspectives on Advanced Building Control: Data driven and self ​triggered methods


August 2, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Alexandra Nilles, Cornell University
Title: Is Less More? Characterizing Resource Trade-offs for Simple Mobile Robots with Embodied Intelligence


July 26, 2021
Speaker: Carlo Sferrazza, ETH Zurich
Title: Data driven, vision based tactile sensing: design, simulation, and applications to robot control


July 5, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Carlo Cenedese, ETH Zurich
Title: Highway Traffic Control via Smart Emobility


June 28, 2021
Speaker: Margarita Grinvald, ETH Zurich
Title: Dense Object-Level Mapping


June 21, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Kaidi Yang, Stanford University
Title: Operation of AV-enabled Future Mobility Systems


June 14, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Nan Li, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Title: Game Theoretic Methods for Safe Autonomous Vehicles On Shared Roads


June 7, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Cody Fleming, Coordinated Systems Lab, Iowa State University
Title: Physics and Learning in Prediction and Control


May 31, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Simone Schuerle-Finke, Responsive Biomedical Systems Lab, ETH Zurich
Title: Individual and swarms of microrobots for tissue probing and enhanced drug transport


May 18, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Sawyer Fuller, Autonomous Insect Robotics Lab, University of Washington, Seattle
Title: Flying, Autonomous, Insect Sized Robots


May 11, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Tichakorn (Nok) Wongpiromsarn, Iowa State University
Title: Formal Methods for Control Synthesis of Autonomous Systems


May 5, 2021
Speaker: Kristoffer Bergman, Linkoeping University
Title: Tightly Combining Sampling-based Motion Planning and Direct Optimal Control


May 3, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Morteza Lahijanian, University of Colorado Boulder
Title: Data-driven Formal Synthesis for Partially-known Stochastic Systems


April 26, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Jen Jen Chung, Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zurich
Title: Safe robot navigation in dense human crowds


April 19, 2021
Speaker: Marko Bjelonic, Robotic Systems Lab, ETH Zurich
Title: Planning and Control for Hybrid Locomotion of Wheeled ​Legged Robots


April 12, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Matthew Kvalheim, Kod Lab, University of Pennsylvania
Title: Hierarchical Composition via Collapse of Dimension in Dynamical Systems


April 6, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Vasileios Tzoumas, Controls Group, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Title: Algorithmic Foundations of Resilient Collaborative Autonomy: From Non ​Convex Optimization to Perception and Control


March 29, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Yuxiao Chen, AMBER Lab, California Institute of Technology
Title: Towards Safe Multiagent Autonomy


March 22, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Johannes Koehler, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich
Title: Robust control for nonlinear constrained systems combining predictive control and incremental stability


March 15, 2021
Speaker: Yashwanth Nakka, Graduate Aerospace Laboratories, California Institute of Technology
Title: Chance Constrained Trajectory Optimization for Safe Exploration and Learning of Nonlinear Systems


March 8, 2021
Speaker: Prof. Sandeep Chinchali, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, The University of Texas at Austin
Title: Collaborative Perception and learning Between Robots and the Cloud


March 1, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Quentin Boehler and Simone Gervasoni, Multi-scale Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich
Title: Magnetic actuation: a fantastic voyage between magnetism and the human body


February 22, 2021
Speaker: James Harrison, Autonomous Systems Lab, Stanford University
Title: Bayesian Models for Adaptive Learning and Control


February 15, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Diego Romeres, Principal Research Scientist at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL)
Title: Reinforcement Learning for Robotics


February 8, 2021
Speaker: Enrico Mion, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich
Title: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and Coaching on Driving Simulators


February 1, 2021
Speaker: Matthias Hofer, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich
Title: Development of an Inflatable Robotic Arm: Design, Learning Control and Vision-​based Sensing


Jauary 25, 2021
Speaker: Pasquale Antonante, Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: Monitoring and Diagnosability of Perception Systems


January 18, 2021
Speaker: Kim Wabersich, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich
Title: A Predictive Safety Filter for Learning Based Control of Constrained Dynamical Systems


January 11, 2021
Speaker: Georgios Bakirtzis, Coordinated Systems Lab, University of Virginia
Title: Compositional Cyberphysical Systems Theory


2020

December 23, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Abolfazl Lavei, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich
Title: Automated Verification and Control of Large-​Scale Stochastic Cyber-​Physical Systems: Compositional Techniques


December 21, 2020
Speaker: Benoit Landry, Autonomous Systems Lab, Stanford University
Title: Differentiable Optimization in Nonlinear Control


December 14, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Holger Caesar, Data Curation Team Lead, Motional, Singapore
Title: Data ​Driven Development for Autonomous Driving


December 7, 2020
Speaker: Andrea Bajcsy, Hybrid Systems Lab, University of California, Berkeley
Title: Introspective Human Motion Prediction for Safe Robot Autonomy


December 2, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Saverio Bolognani, Automatic Control Lab, ETH Zurich
Title: Autonomous Optimization for Real Time Power System Operation


November 30, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Kiril Solovey, Autonomous Systems Lab, Stanford University
Title: Large Scale Multi Robot Systems: From Algorithmic Foundations to Smart Mobility Applications


November 23, 2020
Speaker: Antonio Loquercio, Robotics and Perception Group, UZH and ETH Zurich
Title: Agile Autonomy: High-Speed Flight with On ​Board Sensing and Computing


November 16, 2020
Speaker: Andrew Spielberg, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: The Future of Robot Design


November 9, 2020
Speaker: Pol Duhr, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich
Title: Energy Management Optimization for the Hybrid Electric Formula 1 Race Car


November 2, 2020
Speaker: Karen Leung, Autonomous Systems Lab, Stanford University
Title: On Using Reachability Analysis and Temporal Logic for Safe and Robust Planning Under Uncertainty


October 27, 2020
Speaker: Julian Zilly, Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich
Title: Plasticity in Sequential Deep Neural Network Learning: On how neural networks are shaped through training


October 19, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Riccardo Bonalli, Autonomous Systems Lab, Stanford University
Title: Composable Geometric Motion Policies using Multitask Pullback Bundle Dynamical Systems


October 12, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Patrick Schmuck, Vision for Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich
Title: Collaborative Perception for Robotic Teams: Enhancing Visual SLAM through Shared Information


October 5, 2020
Speaker: Prof. Dario Paccagnan, Department of Computing, Imperial College London
Title: Efficient Operation of Socio Technical Systems: Optimal Incentives in Congestion Games


September 28, 2020
Speaker: Dr. Michael Muehleback, Real Time Intelligent Secure Explainable Systems Lab, University of California, Berkeley
Title: Optimization with Momentum: Dynamical, Control- Theoretic, and Symplectic Perspectives


September 21, 2020
Speaker: Nicolo Pagan, Automatic Control Lab, ETH Zurich
Title: Game Theoretical Inference of Human Behavior in Social Networks


September 9, 2020
Speaker: Prof. Nils Napp, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University
Title: Abstractions Barriers for Physically Embodied Algorithms