Title: Multi-Modal and Multi-Robot Coordination in Challenging Environments

 Sebastian Scherer | The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon

Abstract: Robustness in AI and robotics shows great promise if systems can transition from the lab to real-world environments, moving beyond the single-operator per robot paradigm. However, the unstructured nature of the real-world demands nuanced decision-making from robots. In this talk, Prof. Scherer will outline approaches, progress, and results in multi-modal sensing, nuanced perception inputs, navigation in difficult terrain, and extensions to multi-robot teams, as well as future research directions.

Bio: Sebastian Scherer is an Associate Research Professor at the Robotics Institute (RI) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His research focuses on enabling autonomy in challenging environments and previously led CMU’s entry to the SubT challenge. He and his team have shown several firsts for autonomy for flying robots and off-road driving . Dr. Scherer received his B.S. in Computer Science, M.S. and Ph.D. in Robotics from CMU in 2004, 2007, and 2010.