Robots collaborating with humans

We are working on developing algorithms that allows robots to interact with humans. By interaction, I learn from humans, learn how to collaborate with humans. Our main focus is make robots better collaborators. What we are doing is the intersection of some areas of AI and some areas of control and some areas of robotics. The whole idea is if we make robots more intelligent, they would be able to understand the human and to be understood by the human. Our society, we are far away from robots being held in cages, in manufacturing lines. Now, humans are interacting with robots much more closely. There are a lot of occasions that humans need to teach the robot how to operate a task. In order to do that, we need to ensure that there is a safety and also the communication. One application could be a factory worker who wants to teach this robot how to assemble multiple components to make a product. The other application could be having assistive robots for people who are living with physical disabilities. Anywhere, any type of robotics can help humans to do tasks more efficiently and safety. Our research comes into play to help them to work together. With the growth in AI and machine learning, there are more capabilities coming out for robots. And then by itself, it brings more problems to solve. That drives me move forward to figure out what is the next best algorithm we can develop to make these robots more accessible, more understandable, and more supportive for humans.