{"680875":{"#nid":"680875","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Securing Tomorrow\u2019s Autonomous Robots Today","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEvery year, people in California risk their lives battling wildfires, but in the future, machines powered by artificial intelligence will be on the front lines, not firefighters.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, this new generation of self-thinking robots will 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 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/glenchou.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGlen Chou\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E hopes to accomplish by developing algorithms that will enable autonomous systems to learn and adapt while acting with safety and security assurances.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe plans to launch research initiatives, in collaboration with the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ae.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDaniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, to secure this new technological frontier as it develops.\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\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/new-algorithm-teaches-robots-through-human-perspective\u0022\u003E[RELATED: New Algorithm Teaches Robots Through Human Perspective]\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChou said this research will be helpful 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 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/trustworthyrobotics.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETrustworthy Robotics Lab\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E 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 the 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.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe was a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science \u0026amp; Artificial Intelligence Laboratory before joining Georgia Tech in November 2024. He received 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\u003EThe Trustworthy Robotics Lab is a new interdisciplinary venture led by School of Cybersecurity \u0026amp; Privacy Assistant Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EGlen\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EChou\u003C\/strong\u003E. The lab\u0027s mission is to enable robots and autonomous systems to operate safely with humans while remaining resilient to real-world challenges.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Trustworthy Robotics Lab enables robots and autonomous systems to operate safely with humans while remaining resilient to real-world challenges."}],"uid":"32045","created_gmt":"2025-03-04 16:55:18","changed_gmt":"2025-03-26 01:18:28","author":"Ben Snedeker","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-03-04T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2025-03-04T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"676448":{"id":"676448","type":"image","title":"Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Glen Chou with the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy works through an equation on a transparent writing board.","body":"\u003Cp\u003EAssistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/glenchou.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGlen Chou\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E is launching research initiatives to develop algorithms enabling autonomous systems to learn and adapt while acting with safety and security assurances. Photo by Terence Rushin, College of Computing\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1741107406","gmt_created":"2025-03-04 16:56:46","changed":"1741107406","gmt_changed":"2025-03-04 16:56:46","alt":"Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Glen Chou with the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy works through an equation on a transparent writing board.","file":{"fid":"260240","name":"Glen-Header-Image.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/03\/04\/Glen-Header-Image.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/03\/04\/Glen-Header-Image.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":25313,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/03\/04\/Glen-Header-Image.jpeg?itok=MAoJRnb5"}}},"media_ids":["676448"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"78271","name":"IRIM"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJ.P. Popham, Communications Officer\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity \u0026amp; Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003Ejohn.popham@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}