Campbell and students win Best Paper at 2011 AIAA GNC

Professor Mark Campbell and his students won the AIAA Best Paper from the 2011 Guidance Navigation and Control Conference. The paper was entitled "Decentralized Information-Rich Planning and Hybrid Sensor Fusion for Uncertainty Reduction in Human-Robot Missions". The work was led by Dr. Nisar Ahmed (PhD ME 2011) and was conducted in collaboration with Professor Jonathan How's research group at MIT.

The research focuses on developing and implementing algorithms for teams of humans and robots working symbiotically together on common goals. Example tasks include search and rescue missions, scientific exploration, defense and surveillance activities, and collaborative tasks in the home. This research develops a unified framework for information exchange between humans and robots, and cooperative decision making between humans and robots. Information exchange focuses on natural exchanges, such as `there is nothing over in the corner of the room' and `see if there is anything through that doorway.' This information is then translated into a probabilistic model that the robot makes decisions on, such as where to drive and what to look at. The work was validated in a series of experiments with humans and robots conducting a mock search mission.