Hi All, Our first seminar of the spring term will be from Cristina Wilson of the University of Pennsylvania. ----- Title: A cognitive science approach to addressing bottlenecks in human-robot teaming during spatiotemporal search Speaker: Dr. Cristina Wilson Date/Time: Friday, April 1, 10-11 am https://oregonstate.zoom.us/j/93908195212?pwd=cEdoQVdac0JxMUpOSS9xVzZjVG5xUT... Abstract: Robots are taking on increasingly important roles in human spatiotemporal search problems, e.g., planetary exploration, search and rescue, wildfire management. However, state-of-the-art robots are still struggling to support human experts’ reasoning and decision making in the type of complex and uncertain environments that characterize search problems. In this talk, I identify the common bottlenecks in human-driven search and share my work on how collaborative robots can ameliorate bottlenecks through improved cognitive interfacing with human teammates. For example, a bottleneck in the integration of new information from the environment with existing abstract search objectives can lead to inflexible and maladaptive decisions about where to explore next. Computational models that translate abstract human objectives into quantitative actions (rendered as scripts) allow mobile robot assistants to aid in real-time information search. In this manner, understandings of human cognition and behavior expectations are used to inform and complement machine intelligence, endowing robots with representations of human reasoning and decision processes, so robots can, in turn, produce explainable search behaviors to the satisfaction of human teammates. About the speaker: Dr. Wilson is currently a postdoctoral fellow studying collaborative human-robot teaming in the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in cognitive psychology in 2018 from Washington State University, developing expertise in the study of human cognition and behavior. Dr. Wilson’s research emphasizes the human mind in human-robot teaming, designing robotic systems that can understand human objectives and support adaptive decision making. She works closely with domain expert end-users to understand the cognitive challenges to effective robot teaming, thereby enhancing robot systems application in their domains. =========== Ross L. Hatton Associate Professor, Robotics and Mechanical Engineering Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute Oregon State University coris.oregonstate.edu research.engr.oregonstate.edu/lram/ rosslhatton.com ross.hatton@oregonstate.edu