USC Center for  Autonomy and Artificial intelligence

Laying the Foundations for Intelligent Autonomy

The Center for Autonomy and AI (Double AI) at the University of Southern California is a newly established research center that aims to bring together a faculty team with deep and broad expertise in related areas to solve fundamental research problems that are bottlenecks in development of Intelligent Autonomy technologies. The Center seeks partnerships with industrial affiliates for synergistic efforts at addressing such research problems.  The Center also aims to train students in state-of the-art methodologies in AI and Autonomy that are likely to prove instrumental in autonomous system technology development efforts.

Mission

To develop fundamental foundations of Intelligent Autonomy by leveraging and enriching  latest developments in Artificial Intelligence for application in robotics and autonomous systems.

Vision statement

The USC AAI (Double AI) Center aims to develop fundamental foundations of Intelligent Autonomy by leveraging and enriching the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence for autonomous systems. Applications abound from autonomous robotics and mobility systems to autonomous operation in large scale infrastructure systems. The Center aims to conduct cutting edge research in close collaboration with industrial partners. Deep engagement with industrial partners will provide insight on critical research needs of industry. The Center aims to collectively envision a high impact research agenda to further intelligent autonomy technologies on shared and critical needs with its industrial partners. 

ADVISORY BOARD

The Center's activities are advised by an Industrial Advisory Board consisting of representatives from its Industrial Partners.

History of Autonomy and AI @ USC

USC has a long and highly distinguished history in related fields. Among important faculty who made seminal contributions towards development of intelligent autonomous systems are the following. 

Richard E. Bellman, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine at USC (1965-1984) is the father of dynamic programming, the key principle on which most of modern control theory and autonomous system design are based on. 

Richard S. Bucy, a Professor in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at USC was a co-inventor of the Kalman-Bucy filter used in many commercial and military applications including the Apollo missions, Space Shuttle, GPS, and other guidance applications.   

George A. Bekey,  Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science over a 40 year career at USC significantly advanced the art of robotics and automation, and greatly influenced the direction of such areas as humanoid development, human-robot interaction, and coordination and control of multiple robots.