Past Event: Center for Autonomy Seminar

Towards Safe and Trustworthy Autonomy

Dr. Lu Feng, University of Virginia

Abstract

Autonomous systems are rapidly transforming various sectors such as transportation and manufacturing by offering innovative solutions that enhance quality of life. However, these advancements bring significant challenges related to safety and trustworthiness. In this talk, I will present my group’s research on addressing some of these challenges. I will start by introducing our approach to planning in autonomous systems, which considers human trust in automation by employing a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) to model human-autonomy interactions. I will then highlight our recent developments in safe POMDP online planning, which provide probabilistic safety assurances in dynamic environments. Lastly, I will delve into our work on multi-agent systems, showcasing our efforts to ensure safety and explainability in multi-agent reinforcement learning.

Biography

Lu Feng is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. She is also a member of the Link Lab - the center of research excellence in Cyber-Physical Systems. Her research focuses on assuring the safety and trustworthiness of cyber-physical systems, with applications ranging from medical devices, to autonomous robots, to smart cities.