Summary
The Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) conducts research and provides unique educational opportunities to address local and global needs in autonomy, embedded artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics.
Our interdisciplinary activities take a holistic approach to growing technological demands by combining computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering, systems engineering, psychology, philosophy, and policy education and research.
Working in conjunction with our other research affiliates and technology partners has created a proven and repeatable technology development program, uniting faculty, students, government agencies, and corporate sponsors.
Source: Website
Mason CEC – 15/04/2024 (00:12)
The Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center officially opened to invited guests on April 10, 2024. Research professors and graduate students demonstrated their projects in robotics and AI.
OnAir Post: Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC)
About
Approach
Innovative Design
Creating new and innovative autonomous and robotic systems to enhance human endeavors.
Validate and Verify
Developing new approaches, tools and techniques to ensure autonomous and robotic systems with AI are safe.
Deploy Responsibly
Holistically assessing the sociotechnical aspects of autonomous and robotic systems deployment.
People
Missy Cummings, director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC)
GMU webpage
Jesse Kirkpatrick, co-director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC)
GMU webpage
MARC has 50+ faculty members and dedicated PhD students who make strides in research and education that connect us with sponsors from across the public and private sectors.
Don E. Kash Postdoctoral Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
Professor, Associate Chair, Department of Computer Science
Associate Professor; John Toups Faculty Fellow, Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering
I-Corps Program Manager, George Mason University
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Affiliate Faculty in Bioengineering
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Source: Website
Web Links
Publications
Archive
Source: Website
Faculty at the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) publish articles in some of the most prominent journals in engineering and computing. Their work has been featured in the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and more.
See link above for publications.
Research
Designing Autonomous Systems That Are Smarter, Safer, and Solvable
Visitors and sponsors for MARC can expect high-quality research that targets the efficiency, accuracy, and safety of autonomous systems and robots. Our faculty partners with students and external agencies on projects ranging from responsible robotics to real-world systems.
We understand the possibilities and limits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the need for testing tech for better usability.
Fields
Source: Website
Our research encompasses many areas of autonomy and robotics including:
- Human-Robot Interaction
- Sensors
- Distributed Intelligence
- Swarm Robots
- Multi-robot systems
- Computational Statistics
- Data Analytics
- Artificial Intelligence
- Neuromorphic Learning
- Biomedical Robots
- Defense Systems
- Underwater Robotics
Featured Research Projects
Source: website
This project aims to build robotic agents that can robustly operate in dynamic and contested environments using sensor-actuator pairs that are distributed in the system. The effectiveness of the developed agents is tested and demonstrated by competing in the Defend The Republic competition, which is a Navy-sponsored aerial soccer-game type competition.
Faculty associated with this project: Daigo Shishika and Ningshi Yao.
Studying Human and Robot Co-learning through Human-Blimp Interaction
Presenting the first HRI demonstration between an uninstrumented human and a robotic blimp. Developed a natural interaction between a human and a robotic blimp via human face detection and hand gesture recognition using deep learning.
Faculty associated with this project: Ningshi Yao and Daigo Shishika.
Verti-Wheelers
Improve wheeled mobility in those non-flat environments with vertically challenging terrain, by presenting two-wheeled platforms with little hardware modification compared to conventional wheeled robots. Collect datasets of the wheeled robots crawling over previously non-traversable, vertically challenging terrain to facilitate data-driven mobility. Also, present algorithms and their experimental results show that conventional wheeled robots have the previously unrealized potential of moving through vertically challenging terrain.
Faculty associated with this project: Xuesu Xiao.
Social Robot Navigation
To address this challenge, imitation learning is a promising framework, since it is easier for humans to demonstrate the task of social navigation rather than to formulate reward functions that accurately capture the complex multi-objective setting of social navigation.
Faculty associated with this project: Xuesu Xiao.
Enabling Emergent Behaviors in Unmanned Robotic System Systems (2018-2020)
Rigorously analyze existing distributed algorithms designed for robotic swarm systems and determine whether collisions disrupt the intended behavior of the swarm. The main objective of this project is to determine how robust currently available distributed algorithms are for swarming behaviors when adding the physical property of collisions. A large portion of this project will be dedicated to a search of algorithms designed for physical swarm systems and determining whether enabling collisions inhibits the swarm from achieving its intended emergent behavior.
Faculty associated with this project: Cameron Nowzari.
Rapid Design, Development, and Deployment of Robot Swarms via “Good-Enough” Simulations (2022 – Present)
This project takes a bottom-up approach toward the development and deployment of collectively intelligent self-organized robot swarms. Rather than the traditional goal of forcing a particular emergent behavior to occur in an engineered system, we seek to characterize the types of emergent behaviors extremely simple agents naturally exhibit in different environments. More specifically, we will identify real-world verifiable conditions under which certain types of agents in certain types of environments naturally solve different kinds of problems. All theoretical methods and simulations formulated in this project will be in direct support of deploying physical robots in real-world environments.
Faculty associated with this project: Cameron Nowzari, Maryam Parsa, and Sean Luke
Neuromorphic Learning and Control of Robot Swarms (2023-present)
A transformational breakthrough in the design of robust, adaptable learning algorithms by bridging ideas from neuroscience, brain-inspired machine learning, and swarm robotics. This vision will be realized by establishing a digital simulation-physical experiment connection and showing how this combination of theories can be used to address learning in different dynamic and uncertain environments.
Faculty associated with this project: Cameron Nowzari and Maryam Parsa.
Education
The Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center offers a rich curriculum where students learn about the creation, advancement, and innovation of AI and robotics technology. We have faculty who teach a variety of courses in multiple programs including computer science and systems engineering.
“We’re [Mason] going teach you how to build them, how to set systems up to design them, how to interpret them, how to recognize when you need guardrails.”
Missy Cummings, director of MARC
Unique Educational Offerings
Source: Website
Graduate Certificate in Responsible AI
- This graduate certificate program will teach students how to design, test, and deploy AI systems. Students will also learn about the ethical and social impact of using AI technologies. Courses will be taught by full-time faculty in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC).
- Learn more about the graduate certificate.
- Please contact marc@gmu.edu for more information about the graduate certificate.
Concentration in Technology Policy
- Within the Bachelor’s in Applied Computer Science degree program
- Open to undergraduate students
Departments with Related Courses in Autonomy and Robotics
Information Sciences and Technology
Computer Science
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Systems Engineering and Operations Research
