Institute · 04

🤖  Robotics

The Institute for Robotics & Autonomous Systems pioneers embodied intelligence — from dexterous manipulation to self-driving systems operating in open-world environments. Our laboratories span the full sensing-to-action stack.

Breakthrough · 1,000-Qubit Coherence AchievedCareers · 12 Postdoc Positions OpenAward · Best Paper IEEE S&P 2025Partnership · CERN CollaborationEvent · AI Safety Summit June 2025Grant · $18M NSF Award Green ComputingPublication · Nature Photonics All-Optical NNBreakthrough · 1,000-Qubit Coherence AchievedCareers · 12 Postdoc Positions OpenAward · Best Paper IEEE S&P 2025Partnership · CERN CollaborationEvent · AI Safety Summit June 2025Grant · $18M NSF Award Green ComputingPublication · Nature Photonics All-Optical NN
3Laboratories
24+Researchers
180+Publications
$32MFunding

Laboratories

Three Specialized Laboratories

Each lab operates independently with dedicated staff, shared institute infrastructure, and its own research agenda.

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EAM

Embodied AI & Manipulation Laboratory

Dir: Dr. Dominick Rizk

Learning manipulation policies from demonstration and interaction. Research on dexterous hands, tactile sensing, sim-to-real transfer, and generalizable robotic skills.

Diffusion Policy LearningTactile ManipulationFew-Shot Robot LearningBi-Manual Coordination
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AVN

Autonomous Vehicles & Navigation Lab

Dir: Dr. Dominick Rizk

Perception, planning, and control for autonomous ground and aerial vehicles. Certification methods for safety-critical autonomy in unstructured environments.

Occupancy World ModelsMulti-Agent PlanningFormal Safety CertificatesUrban Scene Understanding
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MASR

Multi-Agent & Swarm Robotics Lab

Dir: Dr. Dominick Rizk

Decentralized coordination, emergent collective behavior, and communication protocols for large-scale robot swarms and multi-agent systems.

Swarm Task AllocationEmergent CommunicationDistributed SLAMBio-Inspired Flocking
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Selected Publications

Recent Research

2025
Flagship 2025 Result — Landmark Contribution to Robotics Science
Lead Author et al. · Robotics
Nature / Science 2025
Featured Article
2025
Advanced Methods from Robotics — Theory and Empirical Study
Senior Researcher, C. · Robotics
Top Conference 2025
Best Paper
2024
Foundational Work Establishing New Paradigms in Robotics Research
Institute Faculty · Robotics
Flagship Journal 2024
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