Autonomous Systems

The new art of herding robots

tdonnel — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:15:27 +0000

The new art of herding robots tdonnel Mon, 07/13/2026 - 12:15

As autonomous systems grow in number and complexity, researchers at 91�� are tackling a critical question: How can a single human operator manage an entire swarm of robots? Professors Alexander Brodsky, Cameron Nowzari, and Daigo Shishika are designing smart-swarm technologies to help military planners coordinate unmanned aerial and ground vehicles within Human-Machine Integrated Formations.

The urgency of this work comes from rapidly evolving real-world conditions. Drone incursions are increasing in both frequency and affordability, explained Nowzari, adding, “It still requires a centralized and expensive response from the Air Force just to take down a $200 drone.”

Astroswarm logo. Image provided.

Swarm robotics offers an alternative. By deploying many low-cost systems, the team aims to shift the economics of defense. “To take out a $200 drone, we want to do it in less than $2,000,” Nowzari explained.

But this introduces a new bottleneck: human attention. “If you have one pilot per robot, you’ve defeated the purpose,” he said. The goal is for “one or two people to manage, coordinate, monitor, and control hundreds of robots.”

The team’s goal is to enable military planners to assemble, adapt, and deploy swarm-control and coordination systems using mo dular,building-block components, reducing complexity while improving mission effectiveness.

They are building a Smart Swarm system with three components: a Swarm Decision Guidance Assistant, Swarm Operations Assistant, and Adversarial Risk Assistant. Together, these tools help operators interpret data, assign tasks, and respond to changing conditions without being overwhelmed.

This human-centered philosophy extends to the interface itself. The team is developing tools such as tablet-based dashboards where operators can issue commands and monitor activity. Deciding what information to display is a major research question.

“If we show them everything, it’s overwhelming,” Nowzari said. “They can’t do anything with it.” The challenge of data overload is top of mind for American military leaders taking lessons from Ukraine, he added.

A frame from Astroswarm. Image provided.

To explore these questions, the project incorporates an unexpected element: a video game. Built by undergraduate researcher Gagan Manjunatha, the simulator translates swarm behavior into an interactive, accessible format. In the game, called Astroswarm, players design simple algorithms to control fleets of spaceships defending a target, mirroring real-world swarm coordination.

Using intuitive, block-based coding, players can program their ships, experimenting with strategies in real time. The system then collects this data and runs large-scale simulations. “We’ll collect simulations and run many trials and see who has the best algorithm for defending a point,” explained Manjunatha.

The game is designed to be accessible to a wide audience while generating valuable insights into how humans design and adapt swarm behaviors. Supported by a $966,836 award from the U.S. Department of the Army, the research will continue through 2028.

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Alex Brodsky

Daigo Shishika

Cameron Nowzari

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George Mason researcher receives NSF CAREER award to study how autonomous systems communicate

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:42:06 +0000

George Mason researcher receives NSF CAREER award to study how autonomous systems communicate Nathan Kahl Tue, 04/28/2026 - 08:42

For Daigo Shishika, robots are not just machines that move…they can also be experts at communication of various types. With a new CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he is advancing a line of research that asks a deceptively simple question: what if robots could “talk” to each other—and to humans—without ever sending a signal?

Daigo Shishika. Photo provided

Shishika, an assistant professor in 91��'s Department of Mechanical Engineering, will lead a five-year, $549,000 award focused on how autonomous systems can signal intent through motion alone. The idea draws from everyday human experience, Shishika said, giving the example of how drivers read each other’s behavior on the road not just through turn signals, but also through speed, positioning, and subtle cues. Pedestrians do the same when navigating crowded sidewalks. The research aims to give robots that same intuitive layer of interaction.

“There's a lot of information that comes from pure observation of movement. So how can robots take that into account? If I move in this way, how would that be perceived?” he said. Citing the ubiquitous Starship food-delivery robots around campus, he added, “When you walk near one, you kind of have to guess what it's trying to do based on what you see it doing.”

The project builds on years of research at the intersection of robotics, control systems, and game theory. Shishika’s path to this point has been shaped by a longstanding fascination with motion. As an undergraduate at the University of Tokyo, he studied aerospace engineering, initially drawn to flight systems and small aerial vehicles. That interest led to research on bumblebee flight dynamics. Over time, his focus expanded from how individual systems move to how multiple systems interact. His graduate work at the University of Maryland involved drone swarms inspired by insect behavior.

As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, he worked on multi-agent systems in defense-related contexts, where coordination played a critical role. That experience laid the foundation for his current work, examining both cooperative and adversarial interactions among autonomous agents.

Professor Daigo Shishika working with students on blimps in the MARC aviary. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

A central concept in the project is what Shishika described as the spectrum between transparency and deception. In some cases, robots need to clearly signal their intent to build trust and operate safely alongside humans. In others, such as security or defense applications, limiting the information revealed through motion can be just as important.

“If a system moves in a certain way, it may unintentionally reveal what it’s trying to do,” he said. “So the question becomes, how much information are you giving away through your actions, and can you control that?”

The implications span a range of applications. Delivery robots, for example, could plan routes that make their destinations less predictable, improving security for sensitive shipments. In public spaces, robots that better communicate intent through motion could navigate more smoothly around people, reducing confusion and improving safety. On a larger scale, the work could inform how infrastructure and policies are designed.

The project will also integrate theoretical and experimental work through Shishika’s RoboGame Arena, a platform combining mathematical modeling with physical robot experiments. By testing how real systems behave and how humans interpret those behaviors, he aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

The NSF CAREER award is reserved for the nation’s most talented up-and-coming researchers. From the NSF website: “The Faculty Early Career Development Program offers NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

For Shishika, the award represents both recognition and opportunity. It is his first project developed as a full lab effort, bringing together students working across theory, machine learning, and hands-on robotics.

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Resilient robots in rough terrain

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 01:01:54 +0000

Resilient robots in rough terrain Nathan Kahl Mon, 10/13/2025 - 21:01

Xuesu Xiao oozes enthusiasm when he talks about his off-road robotics testbed in 91��’s new Fuse building at Mason Square.

The Robotixx team provided demonstrations to visitors during the Fuse grand celebration in September. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“I'm extremely excited about this because it’s an only-of-its-kind thing on the planet. Nowhere else has such abilities. Off-road mobility and autonomy is a very difficult area to study and investigate because you need to have supporting facilities, you need to have off-road terrain, and you need to have the vehicles. We have all of that,” said the computer science assistant professor.

Xiao is a roboticist who develops algorithms to make robots not only capable, but also intelligent. His goal is that robots will someday work in the real world; humans will stand aside while robots go places that humans don't want to—or simply cannot—go.

“We want them to go to a forest to search for a victim who is lost in the woods,” he said. “We have a proposal in review right now to build robot firefighters. We want them in the field, doing things like scientific exploration in the South Pole.”

Presently, autonomous driving generally involves road networks with traffic lights and lane markings. Xiao’s research focuses on motion planning: using machine learning to determine a series of movements to get a robot from a starting point to a goal while avoiding obstacles.

“That is where AI comes into place,” said Xiao. “We want robots not only to be programmed to do things, but also to learn from themselves, from the humans around them, and from each other.”

Xiao hosted visitors from the RoSys Group of the University of Catania, Italy. Pictured: assistant professor Giuseppe Sutera, Xiao, PhD student Francesco Cancelliere, and assistant professor Dario Calogero Guastella in the test bed. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

The testbed where Xiao and students put their robots through their paces is about 700 square feet of rocks and faux vegetation. Xiao is intimately familiar with the space, having placed most of the rocks himself. “I'm very, very proud of this testbed, which has more than seven tons of rocks. I took five of our students of seven or eight trips to the landscaping store. It was an exhausting week!”

The terrain is rugged, designed to represent a real-life situation. “Off-road environments may get the robot stuck because the terrain may be deformable—changing shape under weight,” Xiao said. “Off-road terrain may make the robot roll over because, if there are a lot of rocks, they may need to crawl over them. You don't want the vehicle to roll over on top of those things. Successfully maneuvering this terrain is a very, very big thrust of our lab.”

The testbed is built to a one-tenth scale. A motion-capture system of eight cameras (soon to be upgraded to 16) surveils the entire terrain. Xiao says that his team knows exactly how the vehicles are moving with six-degrees-of-freedom tracking.

The year has been busy for Xiao, who in 2025 won the university-wide Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence and the College of Engineering and Computing’s Excellence in Research Award. He is also George Mason’s sole nominee for the Rising Star Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

While he appreciates that recognition, Xiao isn’t one to rest on his laurels. He is particularly excited about what’s next in the lab: He just ordered an autonomous Polaris “side-by-side”—a $300,000 autonomous off-road vehicle that can hold two people. He also talked about a capability that allows the testbed to be used far from George Mason.

“I was at a conference in Korea, and we opened our testbed to the entire world by using a web interface. So, the attendees of the Conference on Robot Learning in Korea could drive our robots in Fuse in Arlington, Virginia.”

With robots at George Mason taking commands from the other side of the globe, Xiao is showing that in robotics, there are no borders—only new frontiers to explore.

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