{"680526":{"#nid":"680526","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Securing Tomorrow\u2019s Autonomous Robots Today","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMen and women in California put their lives on the line when battling wildfires every year, but there is a future where machines powered by artificial intelligence are on the front lines, not firefighters.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, this new generation of self-thinking robots would need security protocols to ensure they aren\u2019t susceptible to hackers. To integrate such robots into society, they must come with assurances that they will behave safely around humans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt begs the question: can you guarantee the safety of something that doesn\u2019t exist yet? It\u2019s something Assistant Professor Glen Chou hopes to accomplish by developing algorithms that will enable autonomous systems to learn and adapt while acting with safety and security assurances.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe plans to launch research initiatives, in collaboration with the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, to secure this new technological frontier as it develops.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTo operate in uncertain real-world environments, robots and other autonomous systems need to leverage and adapt a complex network of perception and control algorithms to turn sensor data into actions,\u201d he said. \u201cTo obtain realistic assurances, we must do a joint safety and security analysis on these sensors and algorithms simultaneously, rather than one at a time.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis end-to-end method would proactively look for flaws in the robot\u2019s systems rather than wait for them to be exploited. This would lead to intrinsically robust robotic systems that can recover from failures.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChou said this research will be useful in other domains, including advanced space exploration. If a space rover is sent to one of Saturn\u2019s moons, for example, it needs to be able to act and think independently of scientists on Earth.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAside from fighting fires and exploring space, this technology could perform maintenance in nuclear reactors, automatically maintain the power grid, and make autonomous surgery safer. It could also bring assistive robots into the home, enabling higher standards of care.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis is a challenging domain where safety, security, and privacy concerns are paramount due to frequent, close contact with humans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis will start in the newly established Trustworthy Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech, which Chou directs. He and his Ph.D. students will design principled algorithms that enable general-purpose robots and autonomous systems to operate capably, safely, and securely with humans while remaining resilient to real-world failures and uncertainty.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChou earned dual bachelor\u2019s degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences as well as mechanical engineering from University of California Berkeley in 2017, a master\u2019s and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Michigan in 2019 and 2022, respectively. He was a postdoc at MIT Computer Science \u0026amp; Artificial Intelligence Laboratory prior to joining Georgia Tech in November 2024. He is a recipient of the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowship program, NSF Graduate Research fellowships, and was named a Robotics: Science and Systems Pioneer in 2022.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAssistant Professor Glen Chou is leading research to ensure the security and safety of future autonomous robots, which could one day fight wildfires, explore space, and assist in critical environments like nuclear reactors and hospitals. His work at Georgia Tech\u2019s Trustworthy Robotics Lab focuses on developing algorithms that allow robots to learn, adapt, and operate securely in uncertain real-world conditions. By integrating safety and security analyses, Chou aims to create resilient robotic systems that can proactively address vulnerabilities. His research, conducted in collaboration with cybersecurity and aerospace engineering experts, could revolutionize autonomous technology across multiple domains.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Assistant Professor Glen Chou is leading research to ensure the security and safety of future autonomous robots, which could one day fight wildfires, explore space, and assist in critical environments like nuclear reactors and hospitals."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2025-02-17 13:42:40","changed_gmt":"2025-02-17 13:53:01","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-02-14T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2025-02-14T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"676301":{"id":"676301","type":"image","title":"Glen Header Image.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1739799782","gmt_created":"2025-02-17 13:43:02","changed":"1739799782","gmt_changed":"2025-02-17 13:43:02","alt":"Man writing on glass with a marker ","file":{"fid":"260058","name":"Glen Header Image.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/02\/17\/Glen%20Header%20Image.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/02\/17\/Glen%20Header%20Image.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1811476,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/02\/17\/Glen%20Header%20Image.jpeg?itok=Cuy2sVvz"}}},"media_ids":["676301"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"187991","name":"go-robotics"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"188776","name":"go-research"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"182941","name":"cc-research; ic-cybersecurity; ic-hcc"},{"id":"1404","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"181920","name":"cc-research; ic-ai-ml; ic-robotics"},{"id":"182191","name":"areospace systems analysis"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"193657","name":"Space Research Initiative"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJohn (JP) Popham\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer II\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Computing | School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}