Autonomous Systems

Autonomous systems have been established as a key technology in developing many intelligent systems. With fundamental research on AI reasoning, planning, and learning, our research group employs autonomous systems as the vehicle to pursue new breakthroughs in AI research. As such systems can be instantiated as hardware, such as robots and drones, and software as virtual assistants, our theoretical research is contributing to technological innovation in various sectors such as education, social media, logistic, health, supply chain, advanced manufacturing, environments, and e-commerce, etc.  In particular, the ASG focuses on the following theoretical research topics enabling autonomous systems such as:

• Multiagent Systems, including decision making under uncertainty and mechanism design
• Large Foundation Models, in particular with reasoning capabilities
• Machine Learning, including causal learning and reinforcement learning
• Verification, Validation and Ethics of Autonomous Systems

While targeting AI grand challenges underneath autonomous systems, we also continuously explore novel solutions to the following domains.

• Robotics 
• Connected and Autonomous Vehicles 
• Computer Games including Serious Games
• Biomedicine and Healthcare
• Digital Manufacturing and Digital Twins
• Intelligent Tutor Systems

ASG enjoys extensive collaboration with many academic and industrial partners. We have received research grants from a wide range of funding bodies including EPSRC, Innovate UK, Digital Catapult, Erasmus+, etc.  Our foundational research unlocks technological barriers through intelligent decision-making and automation, bringing value to various sectors that strive to improve productivity, reduce cost, and enhance sustainability. We are always open to academic and industrial collaboration – please get in touch if you are interested in what we are doing.

Group Leadership and Contacts:

• Group Leader: Prof. Yifeng Zeng
• Deputy Group Leader: Dr. Shanfeng Hu

Academic Team:

• Prof. Yifeng Zeng
• Dr. Shanfeng Hu
• Dr. Yingke Chen
• Dr. Kamlesh Mistry
• Dr. Keerthana Jaganathan
• Dr. Zhao Huang