RI Seminar : Ashish Kapoor : Safe and Optimal Path Planning in Uncertain Skies

Ashish Kapoor
Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research

Achieving optimality while staying safe is one of the key problems that arise when planning under uncertainty. We specifically focus on path planning for aerial vehicles, where the uncertainties arise due to unobserved winds and other air traffic. A flight plan or a policy that doesn’t take into account such uncertainties can not only result in highly inefficient flight paths but can also jeopardize safety. In this talk, we will first focus on how to reduce uncertainty in wind predictions by using airplanes in flight as a large-scale sensor network. In particular, we explore how information from existing commercial aircraft on their normal business can be harnessed to observe and predict weather phenomena at a continental scale in greater detail that currently available. In the second part of the talk, we consider the problem of path planning under uncertain winds and traffic conditions. Specifically we propose planning algorithms that trade off exploration and exploitation in near-optimal manner and have appealing no-regret properties. Further, we will also discuss how Probabilistic Signal Temporal Logic (PrSTL) can be adapted to the robotic path planning problems in order to guarantee safety. We will present results from longitudinal real-world studies that demonstrate effectiveness of the framework.

Speaker Bio:

[junkmail]

Wow what an eye opener for me. Great thought leader.