Distributed Control and Dynamical Systems
Distributed control and risk analysis of stochastic networked systems with applications to robot coordination and social networks. Most recent work includes visual perception and planning of robots.
Topological Methods in Robotics
Our research interests are centered around motion planning and control of autonomous, intelligent systems. More specifically, in applications of topological and geometric methods (algebraic/differential topology, differential/discrete geometry) to the design and analysis of algorithms in robot motion planning, coverage, sensor networks, distributed systems and control. In general, interested in diverse topics involving control theory, graph theory, topology, geometry and applied mathematics.
Robot Swarms
Robot swarms have the potential to self-recover from failures and self-adapt to changing environments. Cooperative work and modularity can also increase the capabilities of the robot swarm. We work on designing new robots and developing coordination algorithms, including modular aerial systems. Our main research areas are control for modular dynamical systems; self-reconfiguration and self-recovering algorithms, and distributed coordination for large multi-robot networks.
Robot Manipulation
For robots to be most useful, they have not only to sense the world 
around them, but also to manipulate objects. Manipulation is challenging because it often requires robots to make and break contact with objects and to control the contact forces that arise. For example, imagine a robot with a multi-fingered hand unscrewing a burned out lightbulb from a lamp. In our group, we design algorithms to produce control policies and motion plans for manipulation that learn from data while also leveraging traditional motion planning methods and physical models of contact. Our long-term goal is to develop methods that are adaptive to task uncertainties, extensible to new classes of tasks, and produce results that are explainable.