Institute for Robotics & Intelligent Machines at Georgia Tech

Why Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics & Intelligent Machines?

Through integrated research across many disciplines and campus units, Georgia Tech develops innovative solutions for manufacturing, healthcare and first responders, as well as for a variety of other critical areas, including defense and service applications. Using state-of-the-art facilities and working with strategic partners, we improve society by investigating novel robotic technologies that enhance the lives of everyone.

Core Research Areas

Mechanics

Innovations in mechanisms enhance motion control and intelligent sensing.

Control

Advances in control improve the safety, effectiveness and predictability of robots.

Perception

Research in perception refines techniques for object detection and tracking.

AI & Cognition

New approaches in AI improve discovery, recognition and planning technologies.

Interaction

Research in interaction enhances the capabilities of robots to work with people.

Systems

Advances in system design and integration improve performance and efficiency.

Industry Engagement

Education Highlights

Featured Labs

The focus of the Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Lab is centered on the concept of humanized intelligence, the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems. Specifically, researchers study how human-inspired techniques, such as soft computing methodologies, sensing, and learning, can be used to enhance the autonomous capabilities of intelligent systems, whether virtual or physical.
The Complex Rheology And Biomechanics (CRAB) Lab focuses on complex interactions of matter with solid and fluid materials. For example, how do lizards, crabs, and cockroaches cope with locomotion on complex terrestrial substrates such as sand, bark, leaves, and grass? Among other applications, this work leads to discoveries that can enhance robot agility on various substrates.
In the Laboratory for Neuroengineering (NeuroLab), interdisciplinary teams work together to combine wet-lab biomaterials, neurobiology, neuroimaging, electronics, modeling and multi-dimensional data analysis. The group advances the understanding of fundamental neural processes, including neural repair and regeneration, sensory-motor integration, hybrid neural systems and computational dynamics in the nervous system.
The Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems (GRITS) Lab conducts research in the general area of networked and hybrid control systems with applications for the control and coordination of mobile robots. The common theme behind its different research threads is providing theoretically sound solutions to practically motivated problems. Research in the lab is organized in three main areas: hybrid systems, networked control systems, and mobile robots.
The vision of the Socially Intelligent Machines Lab is to enable robots to function in dynamic human environments by allowing them to flexibly adapt their skill set via learning interactions with end users. The group calls this attribute socially guided machine learning (SG-ML), and they explore the ways in which machine learning agents can exploit principles of human social learning. Their work focuses on two research thrusts: interactive machine learning and natural interaction patterns for HRI.
The Healthcare Robotics Lab is an interdisciplinary lab with members from Biomedical, Mechanical, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as Interactive Computing. The lab’s research advances the capabilities of robots to provide valued assistance to people in unstructured environments. They work with semi-autonomous mobile robots that physically manipulate the world, and healthcare serves as an important motivating application area for most research.