REU Site: Home Embodied AI and Robot Technology (HEART) Undergraduate Research Experience

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics technologies have undergone massive advancements in the last few years. These technologies have evolved from simple automation with single-task robotic cleaners to emerging autonomous, intelligent collaborative robots for the home environment. However, they still struggle in providing useful services in households where spaces are cluttered, layout varies between homes, and every resident has unique needs and preferences. This project introduces undergraduates to research at the intersection of AI and robotics with application to the home. The program provides a 10-week summer research internship, hosted by Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University (NEU). Each undergraduate intern in the program is paired with a faculty member and a graduate student mentor. They work collaboratively as part of a research team at NEU on innovative research problems in AI and robotics. The REU students will conduct research across areas of embodied AI and robot technologies, from robot learning to human-AI interaction. Potential projects include using equivariant neural networks to enable robots to learn from human behavior and preferences; coordinating multiple robots in the home; enabling embodied agents to provide real-time health interventions; and teaching agents how to leverage digital screens in the environment. Empirical testing in laboratory settings provides an environment to collect more realistic data, test algorithms, and evaluate prototypes in a safe, controlled, highly instrumented yet realistic settings. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.